Walking On Water

This weekend I finished reading Walking on Water, by Madeleine L'Engle. She is a writer with depth and talent and insight who instills vision and hope and courage. As a woman who successfully worked as a writer while fulfilling her roles as wife, mom, homemaker and artist, she is one of my hero role models.

 I tried to come up with one good quote to share - a tough challenge - tempting to copy the whole book. Ended up with two quotes to share:

"To trust, to be truly whole, is also to let go whatever we may consider our qualifications. There's a paradox here, and a trap for the lazy. I do not need to be 'qualified' to play a Bach fugue on the piano (and playing a Bach fugue is for me an exercise in wholeness). But I cannot play that Bach fugue at all if I do no play the piano daily, if I do not practise my finger exercises. There are equivalents of finger exercises in the writing of books, the painting of portraits, the composing of a song. We do not need to be qualified; the gift is free; and yet we have to pay for it...for such understanding is a gift which comes when we let go, and listen."

"The paradox is that the creative process is incomplete unless the artist is, in the best and most proper sense of the word, a technician, one who knows the tools of his trade, has studied his techniques, is disciplined. One writer said, 'If I leave my work for a day, it leaves me for three.'...The moment of inspiration does not come to someone who lolls around expecting the gift to be free. It is no give-away. It is the pearl for which we have to pay a great price..."

Her analogy is that an artist must let go, trust, listen, seek, and have faith; then walk on the water as they create.

These blog posts are a way for me to do my finger exercises. Thanks to all of you for listening while I practice my scales and harmonies, learn my technique and run my fingers across the keyboard.