The Friday Five: Stories, Old and New.

And with that... April is on its way out the door! Here are some of my favorite moments from the past week.

1. I got to have dinner with my parents and brother last Saturday night, and it's always special for the four of us to spend time on our own. Plus, since my brother's getting married in less than two months (!), there are a lot of exciting plans to talk through.

2. I've never been big into podcasts (I know, I know, I'm missing out), but this week on the bus I started listening to the Nerdette podcast recapping Game of Thrones with Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me's Peter Sagal and Josh Malina's West Wing Weekly podcast and am really enjoying both. Any other podcasts I should be listening to, of any sort? I know I started with TV show recaps, but am open to lots more variety for my bus rides!

3. On Tuesday night, I got to spend a lovely evening with my grandmother. In fact, I decided to interview her about meeting my grandfather. We sat on her condo balcony and I hit "record" on my iPhone, and listened to stories that I don't know if I'd ever heard before for more than an hour. It meant so much to spend that time with her and listen to her reflections on things that happened when she was my age or younger. And I'm really glad that I have her words and her voice and these stories saved.

4. At work this week, we said goodbye to one coworker and had a baby shower for another. Both were chances to honor wonderful women and get to spend time with the fun and caring people that I work with. (And there were delicious cakes at both. You're the best, Publix.)

5. It's magazine season at my office, and I'm working on one feature story that has taken awhile to get right. It started with a shitty first draft (as they all do), but as the week progressed, I can start to see the makings of a good story that actually makes sense. A good reminder that if you keep putting words down on the page (or in the document), you're going to get somewhere better than you are now.

Start weaving your fabric.

On Sunday night, I finished teaching a six-week personal writing class, and decided to close with this quote from Dani Shapiro's Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life (pp. 192):

"Every writer has a fabric. The most intense moments of our lives seem to sharpen and raise themselves as if written in Braille -- this is where our themes begin to take hold. Explore deeply enough and you will find strange and startling questions to grapple with on the page.

We do not choose this fabric as if browsing the aisle at Bloomingdale's. ...Whether or not we are fond of our tiny corner of the universe, it's all we've got. ...It is the truest lesson I know about writing -- and about life -- that we must always move in the direction of our own true calling, not anyone else's."

I had scribbled lots of underlines and stars around this passage, which appears towards the end of Shapiro's reflective memoir on the writing journey. (And I felt lucky enough to get to hear her speak at Goddard College last summer.) Frantic underlining/starring tends to be my response when I read something that I feel deeply in my gut -- mainly because it's something I've wanted to put words to for a long time. Every writer has a fabric. Yes, Dani!

Of course, you can go even further than that: Every person has a fabric.

So does that make us all writers? I think that it does, but of course it's up to each individual to put that into practice. And hey, maybe you express and explore your fabric through a different creative medium. Maybe words stop you in your tracks the way numbers stop me. Maybe painting or sewing or dancing is your way of processing the knots and frays of your own personal fabric. That's fantastic!

But if you're thinking, "Hey, I don't know if I have an artistic, creative way that I automatically turn to in order to process my life..."

Or, "I've only ever written for school or work -- I'm not sure that I would even know how to begin to use writing to explore my life's fabric..."

Or, "I'm so busy as it is," or, "Are you kidding me? I'm not a writer!..."

Take a beat. A moment. Five minutes.

Think on your fabric. Scribble bits of it down on a spare scrap of paper.

Atlanta, born and raised

Big extended family

Church community

Goodie two shoes; scared to get in trouble

Sick a lot/asthma as a kid

Shy, except with family/at church

Perfectionist older child

Voracious reader

... And that's just the beginning. The first layer of my fabric. Actually, I suppose it goes deeper than that -- I could have started with the base that was laid before me. Great-grandparents: Irish immigrant minister + missionary born in China, judge in Savannah, mill manager in Alabama...

Memories, character traits, experiences, sorrows, joys, interactions -- some small, some significant, all part of weaving our personal fabric, piecing it together, and claiming it as our own.

I think that often, it's the claiming that can be the hardest part. Putting your life down on paper is an act of ownership, which can be scary, even if we're the only one who will ever see the scrawl on the page. 

And yet, if you have courage to stake your claim, to put pen to paper, I believe that you will only grow stronger.

It's been a pleasure to watch and listen to the adults in my class grow more certain of their authentic voices, exploring where they've been and where they are in life. "I'm not a writer," one of them told me once. "This is interesting to me, but you all will probably think it's boring," another said in prefacing a piece. And as soon as they've finished reading out loud (another courageous action!), I cannot jump in quickly enough. "Are you kidding me? That was amazing! The opposite of boring! Your emotion, your voice... so strong! You are a writer!"

It never fails. This work is a gift.

You have a fabric. Precious and priceless. Your very own. Have you started weaving?

P.S. Have questions? Want to start weaving/writing? Email clasbury10 [at] gmail [dot] com.

The Friday Five: A Chance to Listen.

Happy weekend, everyone! Spring is out in full force down south, and this week I've gotten a chance to sit down and listen to others -- a great gift that I forget sometimes in the midst of all the busy.

1. We had friends and their five-month-old twins over for dinner last Saturday. Sean grilled, the weather was beautiful, the babies were precious, and it was lovely to spend time with good folks. (It also made us clean the house more thoroughly than we had in an embarrassingly long time. Guests rock!)

2. A childhood friend has recently moved back to the area, and we had a long catch up coffee date. I have slowly declined in my ability to follow through on phone dates, so I loved seeing her in person to swap more than a year of stories. (Anna's also a really gifted artist -- can't wait to feature her in Fine Folks//Creative Callings!)

3. I interviewed students at the seminary where I work for a magazine article, and it once again reminded me why I love where I am. These people are going to do so much good in the world, within the church and outside of it. In many cases, they already are! And getting to sit down with them and hear their stories in their own words so that I can share it with others is a real privilege. I definitely felt that this week.

4. On that same note, I was also reminded that I get to work alongside so many talented and compassionate people. We celebrated a colleague who's retiring at the end of the academic year (so, soon) after nearly two decades. She's our worship + music guru, so of course the celebration was chocked full of both, with plenty of laughing and tears mixed in. Follow that with lunch on the plaza + live music, and you'd have hardly thought it was a Tuesday.

5. Another catch up! My college friend Allison (which means we've known each other nearly a decade... ack) is currently backpacking around the world, and I was lucky enough that she made a stop in Atlanta this week, after South Korea and before South Africa. I've been following adventures on her blog (and you should, too), but it didn't compare to hearing her travel reflections in person, over French fries. And don't worry, I've already asked if I can send her some questions for Fine Folks//Creative Callings -- can't wait to share her story.  

Honorable mentions: Sean's delicious and cozy weekend breakfasts, evening walks, women's small group, the smell of rain as I walked out of the office, dinner with my parents to kickoff the weekend, my weekday morning combo of English Breakfast Tea + Honey Nut Cheerios.