Paying Attention

So, I've decided to start a blog. This isn't exactly revolutionary. There are probably hundreds, if not thousands of people who are starting blog on this very day. And to be honest, this isn't the first blog I've started. When I traveled to Ireland a few summers ago I blogged to keep friends and family appraised of my adventures. The following summer, Mulling over the Mullet became Wandering in Wales (and Syria, Lebanon, Berlin, Prague, etc.) as I had an opportunity to travel to seven countries in two months. But since then my summers have been spent at home and my writing on walls has been limited to an occasional comment about a friend's cute kid or the perfunctory passing along of birthday greetings on Facebook.

There was a time when I wrote on walls a lot. When I was three I constantly scribbled "stories" on the rough surface of the cinder block walls in the basement of my childhood home. My parents eventually gave me paper and my first grade teacher (appropriately named Bliss) gave me the encouragement to turn my experiences into stories, thus Terri Lynn, the writer, was born.

It seems fitting then, that all these years later, having just finished a doctorate degree in Spirituality and Story, I am drawn to writing on walls again. It's a coming full circle that I need to pay attention to.

When I was traveling, both in Ireland and in Wales, I took countless pictures of crumbling stone walls in old abbeys and churches. What all these pictures have in common is that in each there is a door or window that serves as the focal point-- a threshold providing a glimpse into a world beyond the wall.

The quote from Annie Lamott that I chose as the tag-line for my blog comes from her book Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Early on she talks about her students who "kind of want to write but really want to publish." She goes on to say that writing helps you pay attention, helps you wake up.

Wake up. Pry open the door. I first typed "pray open the door" and maybe that's part of this endeavor as well. Pry open the door, pray open the door, peek through the key hole, peer around the corner, look out the window. Pay attention. Write over the threshold. That's what this blog is about. My journey in writing over the threshold . . .