Outside my kitchen door, a fledgling robin sits on the deck railing. Downy, helpless, utterly quiet, the baby bird waits so quietly, so still, I would not have even seen it had not its red-breasted father—a flash of ochre on a gray day in a gray backyard—suddenly appeared. With a worm. No doubt aware of the potentially dangerous human just inches away, the father-child feeding is efficient and soundless. Off Dad flies. The fledging waits.
I, too, wait. “Final Draft 4” (?!) of Welling Up* sent off to my wise and thoughtful writing coach, told to take as much time as she needed, like that patient fledgling, I await her comments and suggestions with complete trust.
Inwardly, however, I am a mess. The focus of so much of my consciousness both awake and asleep, my creative and ever-plotting, ever-sifting brain now set on “Pause,” I am anxious and obsessive.
So I could learn a lot from that tiny, quiet creature.
Simply I am here. Simply snow falls. [Issa]
* For two thousand years, as the role of women shifts in Western culture, so does the story told of Mary Magdalene. Set in Somerville and Cambridge, Massachusetts, Welling Up offers another version of this evolving tale. My novel begins on Easter of 1997, ends at Christmas of that same year, and centers on the emerging love and trust between redhead Jewell McCormick, a formerly-homeless homecare worker, and her favorite client, Rocco Pellegrino, an elderly, wheelchair-bound Red Sox fan.
Dear Patricia,
Hello, there, Patricia! What a beautiful and eloquent blog post article which you have written that calls to my heart as I can feel our Good Creator God’s Heart and Love shine through so brightly in your well-placed and lovely words! I think that we as our Good God’s children are like that darling baby robin, waiting with expectancy and hope and trust as the daddy robin comes to feed it its feast of a delicious worm. So often we as God’s beautiful inside and out people have to wait on God and on God’s timing. We are called to have faith and to trust. It can be hard sometimes, but our Good, Sweet, Powerful, Gracious, and Loving God for sure is true to all of us for always and for always comes through for all of us. It can be a challenge to understand God’s Ways and God’s Timing, though! Yet our Great God loves each and every one of us so, so very much and cherishes all of us in God’s Sacred Heart.
I can see how filled you are with eager anticipation about your upcoming book, “Welling Up,” being reviewed in its early stages. It can be an anxious but still an exciting process. I, too, am filled with such great joy and excitement and very eager anticipation for when this very super book will come out! I will have to save up some money to buy this greatly spiritual book and your other very fine and excellent ones! It sounds like such an interesting and very spiritually uplifting and blessings filled story-line. I can’t wait until it comes out, Patricia!
Your great blog writings and book give me such joy in my day and enhance my life and spirituality as a sister Christian woman! You are also a dear white sister in solidarity I say as a black woman and lesbian who I am-and you are such a great soldier in the struggle and an ally, Patricia! I thank-you so, so much for this-it means so, so very much to me, and I am overflowing with appreciation and blessings from you and your great writings! You are surely gifted and a blessing in your fantastic spiritual communication in the written word, Patricia!
You please have a very nice, special, and a very blessed day, Patricia!
Very Sincerely Always,
Sherry Gordon
I hope you get your draft back soon! 🙂