A Recipe for Revision {Preserve Your Story ~ Day 21}
I rake fingers through flour, light and dry, then pull beads of cold butter into it, oil and weight joining. Then the cold water splashes in, an awakening. Dough rounds itself away from the sides of the bowl. This is my second try. My practice pie turned out a runny...
Create a Habitat and a Habit {Preserve Your Story ~ Day 20}
I’ve got the measuring tape, a few cans of spray paint, an old cabinet door frame and some plans to head to the hardware store this morning. When I snapped a photo of my desk the other day, I did a study of the still life and took note of what it was that was crowding...
Sidestep the Poet’s Pitfall {Preserve Your Story ~ Day 19}
In previous lines of work, when I sat at the teacher’s desk adapting curriculum for little English language learners, or when I wrote and edited and created design full-time for church ministries, I’d hear the bell ring or watch the clock tick to 5:30 to close out my...
A Creative Compost {Preserve Your Story ~ Day 18}
More than half of the trees have lost their leaves. My green pepper plants have shriveled up and fallen over. The newest tomatoes have suffered frost bite. The veggies have grown through drought and flood in this hearty stew of compost and peat and vermiculite, but...
A Well-Punctuated Writing Life {Preserve Your Story ~ Day 17}
This past summer, Austin Chapman clicked up the volume on a song he’d never heard. When the sound of angelic descants whirled into his ears from a recording of Mozart’s Lacrimosa, the young man wept. It wasn’t just the first time he’d heard this piece of music, it was...
The Mess behind Picasso’s Genius {Preserve Your Story ~ Day 16}
She takes her paint-less brush to Picasso’s canvas and flakes off bits of glue meant to salvage the painting after a thief slashed it in Paris in the 1950s. Here and now in the care of the Guggenheim, a conservator works on it more than a year, centimeter by...
Don’t Lose the Sweets {Preserve Your Story ~ Day 15}
It’s a neighborhood masquerade. Little characters toddle from their homes and gather all at once along sidewalks. We marvel at ninja moves, watch Robin Hood pull back his bow, and learn the trick of dodging the light saber. We tote around little Leia, keeping her warm...
The Truth about Voice {Preserve Your Story ~ Day 14}
When I turn off the garbage disposal, I hear the sound of leaves shaking outside the window screens. Branches bounce, not in the wind, but with the force of something living. I lift my eyes and catch sight of a tiny trapeze artist swinging and jumping and somehow...
A Tale of Teaming Up {Preserve Your Story ~ Day 13}
We’ve talked about writing what makes you cry, writing your everyday mercies found in the accidental collage in your junk drawer, writing timeless truths in the fresh language of kid’s quotables, writing your brokenness and writing the story-lines of answered prayer....
I’m Darcy Wiley, co-writer of The Yes Effect: Accepting God’s Invitation to Transform the World Around You. I’m an explorer at heart… Read more