Dear readers, I’d like to hear what you think of the format for this month’s update. My four headers were repurposed from that well-known wedding jingle: “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.” Let me know if this is a format you like and would enjoy seeing me continue. Since about half of my writing consists of scratching my head searching for a cohesive train of thought among the jumble, I hope having a predictable format will make my writing easier and more efficient while giving you interesting and helpful things to think about. But this is a trial only, and I am open to feedback. :)
I will, of course, continue to repost my Anabaptist World articles as they are, and the door is always open for random posts on other topics that don’t fit the mold.
Something Told
5 favorite photos from the past month.
Little Betz, as we like to call Annalise, had a birthday. The little person with a plug-a-lug nose I once wrote about in “Lines Spoken Over a Changing Table” is now 5 years old.
Teddy and Annalise were pleased as strawberry pineapple punch with this high perch one day. And as a bonus, you get a view of the higgledy-piggledy front of my refrigerator.
We went out to Saffiticker’s with friends of ours, and this picture was too cute not to share. Pictured in bright blue and glasses is Serena, who lives just across the yard from us, renting the trailer where Grandma Dorothy and Grandpa Jonas once lived. Pictured in red hair and protruding tongue is Serenity Grace, her adorable niece.
What child doesn’t love playing with a very large box? The children took stuffies and blankets and the battery-operated candles Ivan and I keep in our bedroom for romantic moments ;) and voila…a house! And I have to say about the miniature man of the house…I am smitten.
Blueberry season is upon us and the children are begging to take their little buckets out every day to pick blueberries. Even Teddy is old enough now to know to pick the blue and purple ones, and not the green. I am sure the enthusiasm about picking berries will wane as soon as we have enough to make a job of it, but for now, the children and I think it’s the funnest thing ever. (Please go stick your nose in a mud puddle, all you English purists out there; “funnest” just sounds more fun than “most fun,” in my humble opinion. And if you’re not confused by that last sentence, you probably should be.) Oh, and there’s the box again, smashed beyond recognition, in service as a couch.
The header photo at the top of this post was taken on Father’s Day, and I love how it shows Ivan doing one of the things he does best–quietly lending a helping hand.
Something New
What I am learning or doing right now.
I am submitting pieces and pitches to larger magazines and new audiences, places I’ve never published before. An article pitch to Plough and another to Christianity Today, a short story to The Paris Review. Nothing accepted yet, but in this way, I learn and grow.
I know a lot of Anabaptist women writers, and I feel like they have voices worth sharing beyond Anabaptist circles. (Men too, but I am a woman, so I’ll talk about women.) It is wonderful to share our stories among us. Anabaptist publishers are actively seeking skilled writers, and the need here feels wide open and hungry when compared to other glutted markets. But I think our voices, stories, and opinions could benefit the larger world as well. I began to think this when I made the acquaintance of Kelsey Osgood, who has written numerous articles and even part of a book about conservative Anabaptist lifestyles and thinking patterns, such as this one featuring Anabaptist women writers: The Conservative Women Radicalizing Amish Literature – The Atlantic.
If there are people out there interested in hearing about something as obscure as Anabaptist women writers, I thought, why aren’t we the ones writing these stories? It is our lifestyle, our culture, after all.
We are too cautious, I think. We think too squarely within the context of our own world. We haven’t learned to notice how our stories and insights relate to those from other backgrounds. And we also haven’t been trained to pitch and to sell and to put ourselves out there. Education–like actually learning formally how to write an article pitch or a book proposal–helps tremendously, and mostly, we don’t have it. But we are more than capable of learning.
Blogs and social media have given some of us a voice–a wider audience and a place away from the gatekeepers to say things we feel need to be said. This is a good thing, I think. A freeing thing. And there are more, and more varied, Anabaptist publishers than ever before. This is also a good thing.
And no, I don’t intend that everything I publish ever will be specifically about the peculiarly Anabaptist parts of my perspective. But it’s also true that who I am affects what I say and how I say it. As I pitch articles and try to grow my voice and audience, I do it for me, but I also do it for us. Because I want us to be heard speaking for ourselves, not always being spoken about. And because–like me watching Kelsey Osgood and thinking why not?–I want you to know that you can too.
Something Borrowed
I liked this; maybe you will too.
And right on target with this discussion on Anabaptist women, I appreciated this post by Dorcas Smucker on the financial status of single women in conservative Anabaptist cultures, along with a look at one enterprising young woman with an unusual trade.
Interview with Christy Tice a.k.a HandyMandy
Speaking of Anabaptist women reaching high and accomplishing unusual-for-women things, I just have to share this photo of my one-time student, Kaitlyn Martin, on the event of her first solo flight. I never dreamed you would be a pilot one day, Kaity, but it fits you. I’m so proud of your accomplishment.
Something Blue
A splash of color from the family journal.
June 24: I told Teddy he was really growing, and he said, “I’m not a flower!”
July 1: This morning Teddy said, “I burped.” Say excuse me,” I said. With a large grin on his face, he said, “It was a pretend burp!”