I must confess. I don't go to very many movies, but I'd been anxious to see Julie and Julia since the first time I saw a preview back in July. A film about a wannabe writer who blogs? They had me at the trailer! I finally got to go last weekend, and I'm so glad I did. Like a scrumptious meal, it was well worth the wait.
Though not a foodie, I am a self professed girly girl who loves a good chick flick, and for me this one had many of the irresistible ingredients that make me want to buy the DVD as soon as it's released: Shabby Chic decorating (reminiscent of Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail, also by Nora Ephron), a really sweet guy (as in personality and eye candy), and a plot that takes the writer along on two women's journeys toward personal and professional fulfillment. The bonus? Though there is some strong language and there are a few sensual scenes (rated PG 13), the former is mild by today's standards, and the latter is between married couples (no nudity) who actually adore and are committed to one another, flaws and all. How rare, refreshing and truly romantic is that?
The movie is based on the autobiographical novel by Julie Powell about her real-life as a government secretary by day/aspiring author by night. Julie feels her life, and especially her writing career, is dull and bland so she decides to literally spice it up by cooking through Julia Child's classic cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Julie's Julie/Julia Project involves her doing just that during the course of a year while whipping up a daily blog about her ambitious culinary endeavours. All 527 of them.
Cooking had always been a hobby for Julie, and was something she was relatively good at, but following 9/11, it had begun to serve as a de-stresser from her job dealing with the tragedy's aftermath. When she takes on her 365 day project, her pastime evolves into a passion. Much like her invisible mentor, American icon Julia Child, prior to discovering the joy of cooking, Julie's life lacked direction. The goal of cooking and writing about it provides both women with much needed purpose. And more than a pinch of that missing zest.
These heroines live out their cooking/writing destinies five decades and an ocean apart, and both do so in two of the world's most fascinating metropolises (Julie in 21st century New York City and Julia in Paris during the 1950s), yet they are drawn closely together by their parallel projects. Viewers are treated to insightful glimpses into each woman's trials and triumphs in their relationships with friends, coworkers, colleagues, family members and spouses. We see not only the differences and similarities between two women with similar names, we see the commonality of the female experience - trying to find our place in/leave our mark on this great big world. With a healthy and liberal dash of humor and a sprinkling of McCarthy era political intrigue stirred into the mix, Julie and Julia serves up a delectable winning recipe and makes it a movie de resistance!
One of the things I love most about the movie is how it demonstrates how having a project or goal to focus on can be powerful.
For both women discovering a gift and then fully exploring its potential, changes their lives. Cooking allowed them to channel their creativity. Writing allowed them to share what they learned from it with the world.
Near the end of the movie Julie tearfully says, "Julia saved me." I can relate. For two and a half years following a malicious divorce and custody battle initiated by my abusive ex-husband, I was without creative purpose. The time I could have spent writing was wasted being angry, bitter and depressed. Last year, I picked up my pen/ laptop again. ; - ). In many ways writing saved me. But I know it wasn't the gift of writing that saved me, it was the Giver of writing that did. He saved me from my sins when His Son died on the cross for me. He saved me from myself when He restored my desire to write. Writing allowed me to channel all of my self-destructive hurt and pain from my abusive marriage into something positive. It allowed me to redeem it. It also restored the joy of my salvation and my joie de vive!
What are your God given gifts? Are you using and sharing them to glorify Him? No matter where you are in life - content and fulfilled, bored and restless, or in a personal/professional malaise - if you tap into the creative resources He's placed within all of us (writing, cooking, sewing, singing, playing an instrument, painting, photography, scrap booking, party planning, decorating, gardening, and the list could go on and on), if you savor and cultivate them, then channel them into a project for His purposes (i.e. encouraging and teaching others, pointing to the Creator of all things beautiful, extending hospitality, creating memories for loved ones, meeting the needs of those less fortunate than you), like Julie and Julia, and like me, you may be amazed at the feast of blessings He prepares for you.
~Truly, Tammi
Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts
Monday, August 24, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Divine Connections
I must confess. I love Joel Osteen. I had never been a televangelist fan (except for occasionally watching Billy Graham with my great aunt, Bertie), but I started watching Joel last August when circumstances prevented me from being able to attend church services. One show and I was hooked.
Some may disagree with his 'prosperity gospel' preaching style, but as for me, the proof is in the pudding. I started speaking favor over my life that day, and favor is what I've been receiving ever since.
One area of favor Joel often speaks about is Divine Connections.
I've wanted to be a writer since I was a little girl. I was the weird one in class who bubbled with delight when the teacher would instruct us to "Get out a blank piece of paper", which usually meant either a pop quiz or an essay. As a good student I didn't mind the former, but the latter was the kind of stuff I lived for.
At any rate, I never minded speaking in public either, and I loved to sing. Somewhere along the way, God showed me that I'd have a ministry where all three of these passions would be tied together.
As a teacher and special music singer at church, I got to do all three on a small scale, speaking and singing at weddings and women's gatherings and working on my novel in the summer, but the dream of being published eluded me. I finally thought it was within my grasp six years ago when I quit teaching to be home with two surprise babies. I was doing a pretty good job of balancing my homemaking and writing jobs when my 'wasband' pulled the plug on it all.
I went from writing every day to not writing a word for almost two years. Then in August of last year, the same weekend that I watched Joel for the first time, I attended a writing conference and my writing life has never been the same.
As you may be learning from previous posts, I'm long winded, so I'll list the Divine Connections I've made since then:
1. Editor of a major publication took an interest in me at above conference and offered to hold me accountable to working on my novel by emailing her my progress. She also did some unsolicited editing free of charge.
2. My friend is a friend of Greg Akers and put me in touch with Ginger Akers (Extreme Makeover: Home Edition recipients), which led to my first published article.
2. Searched for a writing coach and found the only one in my state who was located two neighborhoods over. She was impressed with my writing and edited a manuscript for submission free of charge.
3. Searched for a writing group and found one that meets in the area where I work and with which above agent is connected. Leader of the group invited me to an Erin Campbell Ministries event.
4. Attended above event and was interested in singing for them. Without knowing who I was, Erin asked me to sing a line of a song for her, which led to me singing and speaking at her events.
5. Received first article acceptance, wrote one article for Inspired Women Magazine, then days later, publisher gave me my own column!
6. Met a woman at above writing group whose husband is on the board for Citizens Against Domestic Violence. She put me in contact with group, which led to me writing for their newsletter.
7. Sang at my first Erin Campbell Ministries event and was asked to speak/sing at two others. And the son of someone connected with the event is going to make a music demo of me singing - for free!
8. Last but maybe most special of all is that He has blessed me with new friendships and restored others I thought were lost forever. In trying to hone my writing skills and networking to meet other writers (through writing groups, conferences and Facebook) I'm connected with sisters in Christ again.
That didn't really shorten my post, but my point in sharing all that is not to take any credit for myself but to point it all to Him, to whom it is due.
When my marriage ended so abruptly, I couldn't understand why. Now I get it. Someone recently told me that God wasn't going to prosper my writing while I was in it. Like the Egyptian children, I was in bondage yet I was fearful of leaving the familiar.
And all along God wanted to deliver me into a land flowing with milk and honey!
Also, the circumstances surrounding my divorce and the custody battle give me plenty of writing material. My mess has become my message.
No matter how bleak and desolate your situation, there is HOPE in HIM because He has a plan for your life. I'm proof of it. Actually, I guess you could say I'm the pudding.
Joel's critics and naysayers can believe what they like. Joel and I know different. The God we serve has blessed me Divine Connections to enable His message to be heard.
All glory and praise be unto Him!
~Truly, Tammi
Some may disagree with his 'prosperity gospel' preaching style, but as for me, the proof is in the pudding. I started speaking favor over my life that day, and favor is what I've been receiving ever since.
One area of favor Joel often speaks about is Divine Connections.
I've wanted to be a writer since I was a little girl. I was the weird one in class who bubbled with delight when the teacher would instruct us to "Get out a blank piece of paper", which usually meant either a pop quiz or an essay. As a good student I didn't mind the former, but the latter was the kind of stuff I lived for.
At any rate, I never minded speaking in public either, and I loved to sing. Somewhere along the way, God showed me that I'd have a ministry where all three of these passions would be tied together.
As a teacher and special music singer at church, I got to do all three on a small scale, speaking and singing at weddings and women's gatherings and working on my novel in the summer, but the dream of being published eluded me. I finally thought it was within my grasp six years ago when I quit teaching to be home with two surprise babies. I was doing a pretty good job of balancing my homemaking and writing jobs when my 'wasband' pulled the plug on it all.
I went from writing every day to not writing a word for almost two years. Then in August of last year, the same weekend that I watched Joel for the first time, I attended a writing conference and my writing life has never been the same.
As you may be learning from previous posts, I'm long winded, so I'll list the Divine Connections I've made since then:
1. Editor of a major publication took an interest in me at above conference and offered to hold me accountable to working on my novel by emailing her my progress. She also did some unsolicited editing free of charge.
2. My friend is a friend of Greg Akers and put me in touch with Ginger Akers (Extreme Makeover: Home Edition recipients), which led to my first published article.
2. Searched for a writing coach and found the only one in my state who was located two neighborhoods over. She was impressed with my writing and edited a manuscript for submission free of charge.
3. Searched for a writing group and found one that meets in the area where I work and with which above agent is connected. Leader of the group invited me to an Erin Campbell Ministries event.
4. Attended above event and was interested in singing for them. Without knowing who I was, Erin asked me to sing a line of a song for her, which led to me singing and speaking at her events.
5. Received first article acceptance, wrote one article for Inspired Women Magazine, then days later, publisher gave me my own column!
6. Met a woman at above writing group whose husband is on the board for Citizens Against Domestic Violence. She put me in contact with group, which led to me writing for their newsletter.
7. Sang at my first Erin Campbell Ministries event and was asked to speak/sing at two others. And the son of someone connected with the event is going to make a music demo of me singing - for free!
8. Last but maybe most special of all is that He has blessed me with new friendships and restored others I thought were lost forever. In trying to hone my writing skills and networking to meet other writers (through writing groups, conferences and Facebook) I'm connected with sisters in Christ again.
That didn't really shorten my post, but my point in sharing all that is not to take any credit for myself but to point it all to Him, to whom it is due.
When my marriage ended so abruptly, I couldn't understand why. Now I get it. Someone recently told me that God wasn't going to prosper my writing while I was in it. Like the Egyptian children, I was in bondage yet I was fearful of leaving the familiar.
And all along God wanted to deliver me into a land flowing with milk and honey!
Also, the circumstances surrounding my divorce and the custody battle give me plenty of writing material. My mess has become my message.
No matter how bleak and desolate your situation, there is HOPE in HIM because He has a plan for your life. I'm proof of it. Actually, I guess you could say I'm the pudding.
Joel's critics and naysayers can believe what they like. Joel and I know different. The God we serve has blessed me Divine Connections to enable His message to be heard.
All glory and praise be unto Him!
~Truly, Tammi
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Adventures in Blogging
I must confess. This is my first blog post ever. I've finally been rustled, if not bucking and kicking, then at least with heals dragging, into the 21st century. Actually, I did embark on this adventure - blogging - intentionally. You see, I've never been "techy", so the thought of trying to create my own blog terrified me. So much so that it rendered me practically paralyzed when it came to getting started. Though I hold two degrees, am successful in my career, and consider myself reasonably intelligent, I was at a total loss as to how to begin. But I desperately wanted to go on the journey.
In a round about way, that's how the idea to hold a Blogging for Beginners workshop was born (I suspect our teacher kindly named it that after hearing me repeatedly refer to it as Blogging for Dummies). My writing group M.A.C. (Middletown Area Christian) Writers http://www.middletownwriters.blogspot.com/ normally meets once a month at a church. Last week we trekked into new terrain, the Kidd Coffee shop http://www.kiddcoffe.middletown.htm/, to learn blogging basics.
Geared up with laptops and lattes, our posse anxiously waited for our fearless leader, Donna Shepherd http://www.donnajshepherd.com/, who is a self professed blogaholic, to guide us into the Brave New World of Blogging. She gave a brief history on the blog (short for web log), explained its uses and benefits, then had us identify our purpose for blogging and our targeted audience.
I was thinking, Wow things are going so well, when Donna announced, "O.K. Now you're going to start your own blog." Just like that? That's when things went downhill. And that's when all my fears came rolling toward me like so much tumbleweed.
Until that moment my laptop screen had been showing my homepage for the first quarter of the meeting. The minute Donna spoke those ominous words, the "Cannot display the web page" message reared its ugly head, as menacing as a rattler in the desert.
Why God? I cried inwardly. I've been waiting for this class, I asked Donna to hold it, and now my Internet isn't going to cooperate? I struggled to hide my frustration as my peers gleefully went screen by screen, tab by tab, question by question through the process of lassoing that dream of creating a blog. While I was being left behind in a cloud of dust.
A lovely newcomer to our group took pity on me and tried to help me log on, Donna encouraged me to take notes so I could figure things out at home, and one of my MAC partners, who'd been unable to bring her laptop, stayed faithfully by my side after I abandoned my traitorous computer and went around looking longingly over the shoulders of our friends.
But I couldn't learn that way! I needed to do it myself! Close to tears, but nowhere near ready to surrender or wave the white flag, I asked the male barista (who stood behind the counter, wiping it down and watching our proceedings, like in a scene from a bad western) for assistance. And as I prayed and desperately attempted to log on to the shop's connection, the Lord heard my cry, had mercy, and answered my plea.
If a Most Wanted sign could be placed over my life, to indicate what I most want out of it, it would read: TO LEAVE A LEGACY. My writing is my legacy, my way of pointing to Christ, of leaving His mark on things, my offering. That's why starting this blog means so much to me. Yes, I want to build a web presence, an audience, a following - but for His glory, to increase His territory. The Reward? Hearing Him say, "WELL DONE."... Priceless.
Fellow MAC Writers, Stephen Curtis Chapman said it well, "Saddle up your horses, we've got a trail to blaze -Through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace -Let's follow the leader into the glorious unknown - This is life like no other - This is The Great Adventure!"
Come on - This is what we writers were created for- Get ready to ride!
My first foray into the blogging frontier is Dedicated to Donna, who loves alliteration. This week when I was published for the first time, http://www.ispiredwomenmagazine.com/ she told me she felt like a mama bird watching her baby fly and said she knew there would be more flights in my future. I'm ready to go discover all the new horizons that are just waiting to be explored. Thank you Mama Bird for not only teaching me the basics of blogging, but for giving me writing roots and wings.
To view our newly created blogs, please go to the M.A.C. Writers link above.
~Truly, Tammi
In a round about way, that's how the idea to hold a Blogging for Beginners workshop was born (I suspect our teacher kindly named it that after hearing me repeatedly refer to it as Blogging for Dummies). My writing group M.A.C. (Middletown Area Christian) Writers http://www.middletownwriters.blogspot.com/ normally meets once a month at a church. Last week we trekked into new terrain, the Kidd Coffee shop http://www.kiddcoffe.middletown.htm/, to learn blogging basics.
Geared up with laptops and lattes, our posse anxiously waited for our fearless leader, Donna Shepherd http://www.donnajshepherd.com/, who is a self professed blogaholic, to guide us into the Brave New World of Blogging. She gave a brief history on the blog (short for web log), explained its uses and benefits, then had us identify our purpose for blogging and our targeted audience.
I was thinking, Wow things are going so well, when Donna announced, "O.K. Now you're going to start your own blog." Just like that? That's when things went downhill. And that's when all my fears came rolling toward me like so much tumbleweed.
Until that moment my laptop screen had been showing my homepage for the first quarter of the meeting. The minute Donna spoke those ominous words, the "Cannot display the web page" message reared its ugly head, as menacing as a rattler in the desert.
Why God? I cried inwardly. I've been waiting for this class, I asked Donna to hold it, and now my Internet isn't going to cooperate? I struggled to hide my frustration as my peers gleefully went screen by screen, tab by tab, question by question through the process of lassoing that dream of creating a blog. While I was being left behind in a cloud of dust.
A lovely newcomer to our group took pity on me and tried to help me log on, Donna encouraged me to take notes so I could figure things out at home, and one of my MAC partners, who'd been unable to bring her laptop, stayed faithfully by my side after I abandoned my traitorous computer and went around looking longingly over the shoulders of our friends.
But I couldn't learn that way! I needed to do it myself! Close to tears, but nowhere near ready to surrender or wave the white flag, I asked the male barista (who stood behind the counter, wiping it down and watching our proceedings, like in a scene from a bad western) for assistance. And as I prayed and desperately attempted to log on to the shop's connection, the Lord heard my cry, had mercy, and answered my plea.
If a Most Wanted sign could be placed over my life, to indicate what I most want out of it, it would read: TO LEAVE A LEGACY. My writing is my legacy, my way of pointing to Christ, of leaving His mark on things, my offering. That's why starting this blog means so much to me. Yes, I want to build a web presence, an audience, a following - but for His glory, to increase His territory. The Reward? Hearing Him say, "WELL DONE."... Priceless.
Fellow MAC Writers, Stephen Curtis Chapman said it well, "Saddle up your horses, we've got a trail to blaze -Through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace -Let's follow the leader into the glorious unknown - This is life like no other - This is The Great Adventure!"
Come on - This is what we writers were created for- Get ready to ride!
My first foray into the blogging frontier is Dedicated to Donna, who loves alliteration. This week when I was published for the first time, http://www.ispiredwomenmagazine.com/ she told me she felt like a mama bird watching her baby fly and said she knew there would be more flights in my future. I'm ready to go discover all the new horizons that are just waiting to be explored. Thank you Mama Bird for not only teaching me the basics of blogging, but for giving me writing roots and wings.
To view our newly created blogs, please go to the M.A.C. Writers link above.
~Truly, Tammi
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
