Happy New Year, How I Re-Enchanted My Life, and a Golden Hours Give-Away!

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It’s the glad New Year, and folks are rethinking and regrouping and re-everything-ing. I promised a post on how to re-enchant your life. Alas, Iā€™m not going to be able to deliver. But we are offering another book give-away! (See details at the end of this post.)

So I sat down to write this and realized I canā€™t tell you how to re-enchant your lifeā€”I can only tell you how I added enchantment back to mine. So Iā€™ll do what I doā€”Iā€™ll tell you a storyā€¦

Weā€™re sitting at a fancy lower Manhattan bar before dinnerā€”itā€™s our tenth wedding anniversaryā€”and he leans in close.

ā€œLaura-girl, what are we going to do with you?ā€

I ask huh? with my eyes.

ā€œYouā€™re not happy.ā€

Oh, that. I stare into amber-colored liquid. I know Luke doesnā€™t mean we arenā€™t happyā€”weā€™ve already established that we are. Itā€™s the last night of a sā€™wonderful, marvelous tripā€”our first time together in New York, a city we both adore. There have been long walks in the park, breakfasts at a tiny French cafĆ©, a trip to the reading room at the libraryā€”the big one with the lions standing guard outside. And that 1920s marble bathroom at the Waldorf!

On the plane ride home I read a New York Times piece about the hardships and high costs of living in the city and why even die-hard urbanites are calling it quits. I assess our situation, the one with the twins and a special needs baby and a mortgage and a penchant for having our own washing machine.

ā€œThat dream is officially dead,ā€ I announce, plopping down the newspaper. ā€œIā€™ll never be a New Yorker.ā€

Another one bites the dust.

It sounds silly now, but back home in suburbia, I mope for a week. Oh, my heart.

Fast forward two years: We are hiking a mountain trailā€”in the style that we hike (slowly, avoiding uphill routes, me wearing a dress and cardigan and impractical shoesā€”do you see what a good New Yorker Iā€™d be?). Itā€™s early Aprilā€”the rhodos are about to pop and the laurels already have and there are fresh green ferns unfurling. Sometimes itā€™s easier to say things when youā€™re walking single fileā€”Lukeā€™s in front.

ā€œIā€™m happier,ā€ I say. ā€œI mean, since Iā€™ve started writing.ā€

He smiles back at me. ā€œI know.ā€

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Appalachian spring on Glassy Mountain

That was six years ago. I was forty. At three, I begged to be taught the alphabet to unlock the mystery I so wanted in on. In the third grade, I announced to my teacher, Ms. Smith, I would someday win the Newbery Award. The next year, I wrote the school play. I became a newspaper nerd in high school, studied journalism in college, got a gig as a reporter. And then I had kids. I used them as an excuse to not write. The Not Writing lasted eleven years.

Truth is, I was chicken and couldn’t fathom I had a story to tell and who has time for that and well, just too bad. Life happens.

Eventually I got sick enough of my scaredy-pants self–and angry enough–to act. I went to the bookstore and grabbed a random book about writing. I read another. And another. For good measure, I read a few more.

The first book: No Plot, No Problem! by Chris Baty

The best book: Walking On Water: Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeleine L’Engle (Lanier and I both treasure the late Madeleine L’Engle, author of (the Newbery Award-winning!) A Wrinkle in TimeCamillaA Ring of Endless Light, and much more. My mother took me to hear Ms. L’Engle speak at the local library when I was a kid. I was hooked–on writing, on ideas, on her.)

If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland

Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande

Page After Page by Heather Sellers

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

The Writing Life by Annie Dillard

Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury

On Writing Well by William Zinsser

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

Then Lanier and Iā€”after years of being friends but not telling each other we wanted to writeā€”made a dare, and I wrote a novel. In six weeks.

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My fingers havenā€™t stopped flying since. So far, I havenā€™t met with much professional success. Still, the worst that can happen? No one notices, but I get better.

And: I did itā€”Iā€™m doing it.

I am a writer.

Other stuff happened, too.

I will live and likely die a perfectionist, but I wonā€™t let my crazy standards drive me to an early grave. (Or prevent me from having a heaping dose of fun.) When I started writing, I read another writer who said she had to force herself to ignore the dishes in the sink and just write. I worriedā€”I canā€™t do that. Over approximately 232 lunches and 789 cups of tea and maybe a gin and tonic or two, Lanier and I talked about how to ignore the dishes in the sink. I never learned how. (I donā€™t think she did, either.) But I figured out a few tricks to outsmart myself, like leaving my house to write at the local coffee shop. I started squeezing chores into the cracks, knocking them out during times when it’s too chaotic (whenever Sadie is at home and awake) or when I am too weary to write but not too tired to wipe crumbs from the counter.

Mondays used to be Laundry Day. Eight loads. It was soul-crushing. Now I tackle a load when the pile gets too big or we run out of socks–whichever comes first. Iā€™m infinitely more pleasant–nay, sometimes downright charming–on Mondays. (Ask Luke.) And Mondays, when school glorious school is back on, are darn good writing days.

I also stopped: running endless errands (let me count the ways I love thee, Amazon Prime!), doing everything myself (Luke likes the grocery store), or inventing a different meal seven evenings a week (leftovers, getting the twins to cook, and the occasional take-out never hurt anyone–except for that one time–I’m looking at you, Golden Buddha).

I learned to compartmentalize. The upstairs is often a mess of dog hair and wet towels thrown on the floor and hole-puncher confetti. So I close the doors to the childrenā€™s rooms, or, better yet, ask them to. (They happily oblige, much preferring to shut their doors than vacuum.) I keep my bedroom (master’s on the main), the kitchen, and the living room neat and orderly. Three rooms. Three and a half if you count the bathroom. An apartment, really. (Like New York!)

I opted out. This comes naturally for an introvert–I never was one to volunteer to head a committee. I want to lend a hand, but I donā€™t want to be piffling or inefficient or ineffective or any of those in- words. When the kids were younger, I was room mom again and againā€”and a heckuva good oneā€”with the caveat that I would skip the three-hour school-wide room mom meetings and ignore most room mom mandates. (I also failed to read–or open–the two-inch thick binder they issued.) Our classroom would march to the beat of a different drum. Teachers loved it, the kids got more, and I stayed sane. At the end of the year, I got a plant. Or a scented candle. And I logged dozens of hours spying on my children in their educational environs.

I kissed shame goodbye. (Though not entirely.) This is a process. But there has been progress, for sure, because I scratch my head at the Laura of her twenties and thirties who struggled mightily to fit into moldsā€”going to big, loud womenā€™s church retreats (I hid in the restroom a lot) and weekly womenā€™s Bible studies (ditto) and saying no to next to nothing. (You want me to bake four dozen peanut-free, wheat-free cupcakes? Wait, no dairy, either? Coming right up!) Those were the Try Hard years. But when your husband screws up the courage to challenge you on your unhappiness, you realize somethingā€™s gotta give. I started listening to the small voice that was saying: break the rules. Don’t sweat the stupid. Find your own way, as long as nobody gets hurt.

The books that helped:

The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown

A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L’Engle

The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness: The Path to True Christian Joy by Timothy Keller

The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine Aron

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain

I ask myself what will make my heart soar. Every. Single. Day. Such a thing may smack of selfishness. (I prefer the phrase self-care.) I wondered, would the world stop spinning if I pulled on my rubber boots to putter around the garden or stole twenty minutes on the hammock to savor how the silver maples’ leaves look like lace against sky? Other weird stuff I do for kicks: packing a picnic lunch for one, writing letters by hand, wandering old cemeteries in search of good names for fiction (Claude! Annamae! Walter!). For six months, I took piano lessons, playing badly. (One day my teacher told me she was quitting to spend more time with her young family. The next week, I found out she’d taken on three new students.) I mucked stalls to help pay for horseback riding lessons, riding badly. I do the earth’s most awkward yoga, and I bought a granny-style bicycle with a basket. My bicycle makes me granny-tired, but it looks nice on the porch. These days I pretty much refuse to clench my jaw and endure an entire day, to huff about, to be slave to my to-list, and to resent my lot–and my people. I daresay my Maker doesn’t want me succumbing to a grind, either. I wasn’t doing gratitude very well during the Try Hard years. I played at it, treating thank you like any other should. I didn’t get serious about being present until–that magical number again–around forty. The books that helped:

One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

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Still, it ain’t all happy dances and open highways. Dreams hurt. Do I want to be Emily Dickinson, scribbling away in secret, forever? Not especially. Would I like my books to get published? You betcha. Does waiting and hoping and rejection ache like nothing else? Uh-huh. (I was awarded 99 rejection letters before I found a literary agent. I keep the snail-mail rejections in my desk drawer–they are like certificates of honor, each one having stung, but, hey–look at me–I survived!) Once in a while, I crumple on the couch and complain. On my better days I tell myself it’s good for me to want. I’m alive, and for a long time–not so much.

p.s. Ah, the give-away! We’d love to gift one of you with a pristine, hardcover copy of Madeleine L’Engle’s Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art. This warm, wise book is balm–and inspiration–for anyone who creates, which is anyone who breathes. Golden Hours is a brand new blog, having launched on Thanksgiving eve. Lanier and I have been touched and honored by the kindness of this growing community, and we have counted chronicling Christmas in this space as a blessing supreme. Help spread the word about Golden Hours by picking a post you like and sharing it on Facebook or re-posting one of our Instagram pictures. Send us a comment to tell us you’ve done so, and presto! you’re entered in the drawing (January 13). We’ll wrap the book up pretty and mail it to you.

I’m also keen to hear how you add enchantment to your life and learn about any books that have inspired you!

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p.p.s. Have you seen La La Land? If you like Golden Hours, you’ll love La La Land. (If you are human, you’ll love La La Land.) The film is perfectly enchanting–it’s about shimmering dreams and wanting with a capital W. Friends, get to the theater toots sweet. You’ll leave vowing to twirl more.

“Here’s to the ones who dream
foolish as they may seem
Here’s the hearts that ache
Here’s to the mess we make.
” ~ La La Land’s Mia

35 Comments

  1. This post was just the encouragement I needed to return to writing . I have been in a writing slump for the past year .There was too much death in my family and the families of people I love .Both people as well as beloved cats and dogs . I was too down to write if that is possible . Thank you for the encouragement I found here . I would love to win this book and I have shared this post on Facebook ! Blessings~Sharon Goemaere

    1. Bless you, Sharon! Go easy on yourself about your writing hiatus–grief is A LOT. There are seasons. But writing (journaling, especially) can be therapy for some. (As can doing absolutely nothing but taking care of yourself.) We’re all so unique and ever-changing, aren’t we? Best to you as you return to your craft.

  2. Recently shared one of your lovely posts! We’re getting ready to “put roots down” this year, so the books I’ve been turning to (that are providing that enchantment you describe, Laura) are Gladys Taber’s “Country Chronicle” and “The Stillmeadow Road”, along with Phyllis Tickle’s “What the Land Already Knows.” Thanks for the opportunity to win!

  3. I could not possibly choose one post that was special to me during this Advent/Christmastide season……..each one seemed just right at the moment that it came. It has been a pleasure to walk through this Holy Season with you both…….thank you for sharing your hearts with all of us! Even though I am not personally on Facebook (I share my husband’s account) or Instagram, I am hoping that will not disqualify me from entering your drawing because I have shared your site with friends via e-mail. Blessings to you, Lanier and Laura.

  4. Have so enjoyed all your words this season! Thank you for sharing!

    šŸ™‚ I shared via Facebook your post on Advent Tea…with the delightful podcast link! šŸ™‚

    To the new year!

  5. Have so enjoyed all your words this season! Thank you for sharing!

    šŸ™‚ I shared via Facebook your post on Advent Tea…with the delightful podcast link! šŸ™‚

    To the new year!

  6. Interesting post. I will have to think about all of this.

    I shared the post to be entered in the drawing.

  7. I was very blessed a few years ago to stumble into an internet writing course from a University of Berlin professor who was ‘testing’ a pilot internet class. One year later, I stumbled again, and discovered the teacher had posted some of our classwork online. I hadn’t received one unkind comment or curled up and died of embarrassment. My world is small. I’ve had my turn at small publications and small checks. I take my joy now in writing my blog and using it as both ministry and teaching forum for others. I have learned to embrace the joy of the everyday and accept the role that my ‘kitchen sink ministry’ as I refer to it has in the world. Like you I begged to learn to read and immediately began to write but I let it go dormant until that long ago day 15 years ago when I fell into that free writing class.

  8. Thank you, Laura. You have no idea what a wind of courage this post was. You have just saved me from “dying with all my songs still inside me.”

  9. Each post has been a gift, some for laughter, some for tears… and I loved the podcast conversation but for today, I am counting your instagram comment about “Umbrellas de Cherbourg” as something to pass along (by word of mouth, so no need to include me in the draw). I had a quiet evening to fill, and have just watched it. Perfect, so perfect. Exquisitely sad, and yet beautifully good. I can think of no better way to have ended a season in which I have had to fight for the bright in bright sorrow. Thank you so much for the recommendation.

  10. PS Please tell me that you have allowed for a little poetic license – hyperbole perhaps in “99 rejection letters” – you are a brave soul, believing in your stories, to have endured that. I do hope 2017 brings with it some happy dreams fulfilled.

    1. There really were 99! I applied to 99 agencies and got some no-answers, some email no’s and some snail-mail no’s. I also got a dozen “send us your manuscript we are interested” notes, but in the end, no go. Until finally I opened the mailbox to find a YES letter–and a contract from an agent in NY. I slipped it in my purse to show my husband when we went out to eat that night. I don’t know what the future holds, but I know I’ll be the last woman standing…

  11. This was the perfect post for me today as I sit here with a New Year before me and wonder how to divide myself into perfect pieces to get everything done! Balance is such a hard thing to come by it seems. Writing always seems to take a back seat and this was an encouragement to do what makes my heart sing!

  12. Once again, a post that encourages my heart toward a more genuine life. So grateful you ladies chose to draw back the curtain and invite us in! I shared this post, just in case any of my friends has yet to find this enchanting spot. <3

  13. At mass this evening, we celebrated the Epiphany. I took one last look at the beautifully decorated sanctuary, the wreaths and trees all aglow, the masses of poinsettias, and the sweet creche and I felt so thankful for this Christmas season. And I thought of this lovely site, which has given me much to ponder these past weeks. Thank you, Lanier and Laura. I do hope that this will continue as an annual endeavor!
    (I shared on Instagram– I was surprised how many likes the picture got on my modest little Instagram account!)

  14. I do not know how I came to your post but I love reading it. It is inspiring. I always have these creative ideas in my head but never get around to making them real. God Bless you.

    1. Bless you, Pat! Go for it! I am praying for each and every soul who has left a comment such as yours — may you find your way, conquer our fears, and do your thing. May we all find our way!

  15. This site is just such a lovely corner of the web. I’ve enjoyed it so much, I’ve shared many posts! What a gift. ā¤ I’m glad you took the plunge! Shared this post on Facebook. Many blessings to you in the new year!

  16. I shared this post to Facebook! Thank you so much for opening up about writing, books on writing (love Bird By Bird), and a reminder that there is a story to tell.

  17. I’ve shared this post to Facebook! Thank you so much for opening up your thoughts on writing, books on writing, and for the reminder that there is a story to tell.

  18. I’ve shared this post to Facebook! Thank you so much for opening up your thoughts on writing, books on writing, and for the reminder that there is a story to tell.

  19. A little late to the party here – but I so appreciated this dear blog in the month of advent. Thank you for sharing your hearts and hopes with us.
    I shared this post with some dear friends via email – at one time we all lived in the same town but we are now dispersed into different callings and cities. It made me think of these bosom friends (your writing sounds so familiar to my soul, Laura!) and wonder what we may consider our Try Hard years one day. Thank you for the encouragement!

  20. I don’t know if it’s too late to enter the draw, but I’ve reposted one of your images on instagram. Thanks so much for some lovely reading throughout the holidays. I look forward to your future posts!

  21. I have not read every post on this blog yet (been following IG and loving it). I loved this post. Have not read a lot of those books. I have writing dreams too, since I was 19 and really since I was younger but that was the first time I articulated the dream when I was nearing adulthood (myself at 19, I was still nearing it!) šŸ™‚ I am just newly 40 now and have been writing some essays that are getting published on a Christian site called Conciliar Post and that’s been nice. Boy is it a LOT of work to write; blogging I’ve done for YEARS but writing essays, whew the editing work! I LOVE L’Engle too. You have read Elizabeth Goudge? if not you MUST. Seriously. Anyway. I admire how you have become disciplined about writing. I am still working on figuring out how to use my time for all the things I wish to do. Right now I am working on my belated birthday party (which is also a Christmas party as we were sick on our Jan 7 Christmas) and that is my work of art right now. The table clothes, napkins, dishes, silverplate silverware… šŸ™‚ I don’t need to be entered to win this book, btw, as I have it (actually in the edition you mention and also in paperback). I WILL say though that it is a WONDERFUL book and that when I was 19 in 1996 I read it repeatedly, it transformed my world in very concrete spiritual church-going ways and lead me to places I never even dreamed of, not knowing those places were there!

    1. So good to hear from you, Elizabeth–I am actually sitting in my favorite chair struggling my way through the last third of a novel I’ve been writing for three years! It is painful. I almost wish the dishwasher would overflow or one of the kids would come in and interrupt me so I could wriggle out of this! Your comment encourages me to keep on truckin’. Bless you.

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