Lately I’ve been looking at characterization in an entirely new light. I’ve been watching my baby grand daughter discover the world.
She approaches every new experience with a sense of wonderment and awe, from lingering over the texture of carpet fibers to delighting in the sound of clanging one block against another.
And watching how a baby explores the world adds new meaning to the verse “taste and see that the Lord is good.” Everything goes in the mouth!
As a writer, I’ve learned to linger over sensory details at key emotional turning points in my stories to draw the reader deeper into the moment. Because of that, I find myself spending more time modelling my grandbaby, and really noticing the sights and sounds and smells and textures around me.
One of the blessings of being a writer is having an excuse to stop and smell the flowers or pause long enough to feel the warmth of the sun on my cheeks or to listen to the patter of rain on the window pane.
It always amazes me how pausing to delight in the smallest of things awakens the child inside and refills the soul. And I’m reminded of Jesus’ statement that we must become like little children.
Your turn: What have you delighted in this week?
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Oh dear, I’ve been holed up in my room writing all week that I’m not sure I paused for this.
Thanks for reminding to do so, Sandra!
The sun is beautiful, perhaps I’ll get up close and personal with the ground today. Spend a half hour cultivating the earth, letting it run through my garden-gloved hand, and then bed it down for the winter with a good helping of mulch that’s been begging to be removed from our pathway.
Now my eyes will be open to the wonders of this world we’ve been blessed with. Thanks for this post, Sandra. Lifting another prayer for you!
Excellent advice, as always 🙂
Thank you, Eileen! I couldn’t resist the beautiful sunshine. Instead of my usual morning walk along the road, I took the dog to a local conservation area, and listened to the sound of the falls, and inhaled the scents of fall…something about the smell of rotting vegetation 🙂
Thanks, Sherri!
Lovely thoughts, Sandra. My ‘become like a little chid’ moment happened at work this week.
I’m setting up a new school library and I was feeling very overwhelmed and frustrated by how much I had to do and how little I’d accomplished one afternoon (I’m only part-time at that school).
Hours of hard work on the part of myself and a parent volunteer resulted in only half a shelf of processed books. I looked at that piddly row of books and sighed. “After all that work we’ve only filled half a shelf!”
Unbenownst to me, my volunteer’s 7-year-old son had wandered in to see his mum and overheard my discouraging remark. He immediately piped up with joyful enthusiasm, “Look at all those books — they nearly fill the shelf! You did a good job in here today, ladies!” LOL – he’s a tad precocious, but he was just beaming proud of how hard we’d worked and the proof of our labors nestled right there on that one lonely shelf. His mum and I burst out laughing, but it did make me look at our accomplishment with fresh eyes. After reading your post, I realize that I should try to turn other discouragements in my life around in the same way.
Kav, what a wonderful story! We could all use a boy like that around 🙂