I’m on a writer’s high today–thanks to the Festival of Faith & Writing at Calvin College last week. I’m also tired, but every ouch of muscle revolt is worth it as I start to sort out the 24 notebook pages of notes that I scribbled while attending 15 sessions in three days. If I needed a jump-start to my writing, this biannual conference did it.

Most important to me, I reheard the value of memoir. Paraphrasing  Rhoda Janzen (Mennonite in a Little Black Dress), people read memoir in this era because  the spirit longs to be nourished. We’re all in life’s journey together and it’s helpful to ourselves and our readers when we write candidly about where we’ve been and where we’ve come, from our being “captive” to our being “restored.”

So I can’t be lazy and content that I have a memoir coming out, but need to keep putting words on the page.  To keep examining my life through words, to keep finding meaning in my everyday life. Like looking at the trees starting to bloom out my window down in Millennium Park. Spring is finally here. A time of newness, starting over, whatever–on the treadmill too!