July 2, 2014

To Be a Child

On July 1, I celebrated my one year anniversary of retiring from the church after 30 years of ministry. I retired in order to deal with chronic health issues but mostly so that I could focus on my vocation as a writer, a calling that evolved over the years.

I haven’t written as much this year as I had hoped, but I am not going to berate myself over that. It’s a big change to switch careers after such a long time, and to let go of a vocation that I loved. I am trying to find my “groove,” my routine, and that is finally starting to gel. I still fritter away more time than I intend to do, but I never had that option before, so it has been freeing!

I love being a writer. It is often solitary work, but since I am an extreme introvert, that’s one of the aspects I enjoy. I especially love writing for children, for so many reasons! Children have such a joy for life. Their curiosity is unrelenting. They can’t wait to wake up in the morning and fight going to bed at night because they don’t want to miss a single minute of life. They have a deep and innate sense of wonder and belief in the divine. They haven’t yet learned the cynicism about faith that so many develop as the years go by. Writing for children nurtures all those parts of my soul as well. “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs” (Mark 10:14, NRSV).

My faith becomes childlike in all the best senses of that word.

One of my favorite quotes is from Francis Thompson, an English poet who lived in the late 1800’s. In part it reads, “Know ye what it is to be a child? It is to have a spirit yet streaming from the waters of baptism; It is to believe in love, to believe in loveliness, to believe in belief…” When I write for children, my spirit streams from the waters of my baptism, and God’s joy fills my soul. I am refreshed and energized, eager to wake up in the morning and not wanting the day to end. I reconnect with the little child within me. And I am ever grateful that God has called me to this ministry of writing.