Hope y’all found something to chew on as you saw what I’ve been doing in class—

I learned as a young Girl Scout that an activity in one arena can frequently bear fruit in another… it’s not double-dipping unless you use it twice in the same space.

<smiles>

As I settle in to draft my midterm (what? it’s halfway through the term already?!), I’m musing about the sharply positive notes I received on my history final. “You write with unusual clarity.”

**

As I often find here at seminary, the midterm’s topic is an ocean—wide, shallow, deep, with unexpected currents, and altogether vast. But the assignment’s boundaries are firm—700 to 900 words, in this case. (That is, half-again to twice one of my usual posts.) Not a lot of room in which to work!

For today,

I’m realizing that, as I try to frame my writing, I’m trying to pinch a place on the unfurled topic-bolt (yep, just changed water to fabric there),

so I can pull up and see what the drape and folds are like from here.

A journalist might say: what’s the hook?

My poet-learning says: once I know what we’re holding on to, I can better keep our focus on what we hold.

There’s always more. But we are better served to start with enough.