Anne Faye

Today's task on the Loyola Press Writing Retreat was Writing to Dream The assignment I took on was to imagine an Earth more like heaven. It came with fill in the blank prompts. When Earth becomes like heaven, people will value people more than things . When Earth becomes like heaven, I will stop struggling with envy and insecurity and instead rejoice in other people's accomplishments and be content with my own small successes . When Earth becomes like heaven, my neighborhood streets will be peaceful. Nobody will live in fear. Everyone will have food, clothing, meaningful employment, and a place to live . When Earth becomes like heaven, there will be no conflict . When Earth becomes like heaven, decisions in community will be made . . .  I gave this a lot of thought but I truly have no idea. If I had the answer to this, I'm pretty sure I could win the Nobel Peace Prize! When Earth becomes like heaven, we'll have much more peace and much less pain, hung...

I visited a friend in Holyoke, MA today and as I was leaving, I noticed that this Church/house was for sale! At first, I thought that it was still set up as a Church and would need some serious renovation, but when I looked it up at home, I discovered it has already been renovated. I love this place! I'm hoping to actually go see it. Oh, it is totally out of my price range and impractical for my family and the location isn't the best, but . . . to live here! It has beauty and history and I don't think you could be here and not be inspired. My other thought was to buy it and have it be an artists / writers retreat. I've always thought it would be nice to have a drop-in type of place where creative people could just come and work and be around other creative people. I looked up the history of the Church. It turns out it was The Highlands Methodist Episcopal Church. You can read more here: http://www.holyokemass.com/transcript/church/ch9.html . Unless someone ...

You may have heard this story of Captain James Arruda Henry, but it definitely bears repeating. He learned to read and write in his 90s and just wrote his autobiography. Just goes to show, it is NEVER too late to write that story you've always wanted to put on paper. This man is an inspiration. To find out more, please visit fishermanslanguage.com

When you long for something so much but God does not grant it to you do not sorrow. There's something even greater on its way! Although the sorrow may last through the night, joy comes in the morning. This was a FB status on one of my friend's pages and it spoke to me. At a time in life when it feels like I have to pack up all my dreams (again!) and put them away for an undetermined amount of time and I am grieving for them, it brings me some comfort. I want to trust that God does have something good in store, even if it isn't in this lifetime. Lent is all about dying to oneself and picking up one's cross. It is so easy to say and so hard to do.

Here are some other good quotes from Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance (Artist's Way) Life unfurls one day at a time. It is full of situations that will resolve themselves if we give them enough time and give God a chance to get his hand in. The trick is not to panic. The trick is not to overreact. Life unfolds one day at a time, and we must let it. We do not need to feel that our dreams and God's will for us are at opposite ends of the table. We can consider the possibility that our dreams come from God and that God has a plan for their proper unfolding. When we seek daily spiritual guidance, we are guided toward the next step forward for our art. Sometimes the step is, "Wait. Not now." Sometimes the step is, "Work on something else for a while." When we are open to Divine Guidance, we will receive it. It will come to us as the hunch, the inkling, the itch. It will come to us as timely conversations with others. It will come to us in many ways - bu...

I had the pleasure of browsing in my local Barnes & Noble last night. As I perused the shelves, I couldn't help but dream a little of having my book on their shelves. I suppose every author dreams of that. All those other authors have made it. I know the odds are against me and I am nothing if not firmly rooted in reality, but still, every now and then, it is fun to entertain the dream a bit.