Rainy Day Women #12 & 35

Receiving an invitation to a local screenwriting class seemed fortuitous as the teacher had actual Hollywood experience.

R

When the teacher returned the script I submitted for evaluation, there was so much red it looked like it was bleeding. I was crushed! – until I realized that when I listened to the criticism and made changes, my work became drastically better!

Is the bluesy Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 a drug song? Or is it, by the musician who faced public outcry when he switched from folksy acoustic to electric, about artistic criticism? Tony Attwood and I (and possibly the adulterous Bible woman) vote for criticism!

Quinn the Eskimo

Bob Dylan’s Quinn the Eskimo speaks of one whose appearance draws a crowd, even pigeons, and brings joy as well as the ability to rest peacefully.

Q

In my youth, the trustworthy one with Quinn-like charisma was my father.

When Daddy, an officer in the Army Counterintelligence Corps, returned from a year in Korea, I wouldn’t leave his side. When he had health problems after retiring and was away for weeks or months at a time, I lived in anticipation of his return. When cancer proved an illness Daddy wouldn’t return from, it was a devastating loss for me. Now, I look forward to the joy of a heavenly, eternal reunion with Daddy.

Presence of the Lord

I’ve never met one of the greatest guitarists of my lifetime, a man who hasn’t hidden his drug history. Yet for me Eric Clapton’s Presence of the Lord works as spiritual confession.

PI’m not expecting to see Clapton, or me, at any church. After almost a lifetime of never missing a Sunday at a local church, by 2010 I was in a mega-church where I was failing to connect with one single soul among 6,000+. Church had disintegrated into sitting politely in an audience, singing a few worship songs, and watching a sermon on gigantic screen.

Through travels in 2010, I discovered Internet church. I have finally found a way to live in the presence of the Lord.

Where do you feel God’s presence?

Oceans Where Feet May Fail

Peacenik? Not me! Then why do my “O” songs include Neil Young’s Ohio and Matisyahu’s One Day?

OMaybe because for me earthly wars give glimpse into the battle in the heavenlies with those not flesh and blood. According to the Bible, we are equipped for living on the edge of a conflict stirred into tumultuous swirls. Me? I’m not fond of conflict except as a “call.”

Does heightened conflict signal God’s call to step out of the boat as pictured in Hillsong’s Oceans Where Feet May Fail? I left solid ground to step out into the deep waters with StoryDame. The water seems deep in places. There are large waves. But my trust is borderless. I rest in the One who is mine.

Are you in or out of the boat?