FFs #35: I'll Bet You've Never Tried This!

Singing in a global congregation + Auntie Anne + New Substack tricks

In This Issue

• Singing in Frenglish?

• Excerpt: Let Your Light Shine (Even from the Closet)

• Check Out These Substack Tricks

Singing in Frenglish?

For the next ten days, I’ll be in Independence, MO (near Kansas City) at my faith community’s World Conference. There will be hundreds of people there from all over the world. It’s quite the event.

The special Conference hymnal (which I’ll have on my tablet) shows the words in English, French, and Spanish. Last time I was there (2019), I sat next to a contingent from French Polynesia for one worship service.

I discovered it takes a minute to adjust to singing in a different language than the person sitting just inches away. I had to really focus on my own hymnal and force my brain to stop listening to the people around me. But it’s a very neat experience!

This year, in between the business meeting parts and the worship service parts, I’ll be camped out at a table in the “Mission Expo” area. That’s where members of the faith community with something special to share have space to do just that. I’ll be there with a stack of Workbooks (you know the one 😉), signing copies for buyers.

My friend

William Cozzens-Bryant

will be sharing the table with me. He hosts a couple of weekly Zoom groups. One group discusses how Star Trek (and sometimes Star Wars) reflect our faith’s Enduring Principles and Mission Initiatives.

The other group, called Armed with Truth, prepares members to respond to anti-LGBTQ interpretations of scripture. (They sponsored that evening with

Colby Martin

I mentioned in Fractal Fridays #25.)

I was still at home when I wrote and scheduled today’s edition of Fractal Fridays. I may or may not get a chance to schedule anything for next week. So if you don’t hear from me, you’ll know why.

Excerpt: Let Your Light Shine (Even from the Closet)

[This is the second article in my new series—The Wisdom in Our Breadcrumbs: a Trail Lit Mostly with Love.]

Auntie Anne telling a story in August 1984.

The year was 2005. I had been systematically skimming through my modest collection of poetry books. Second Son had a school project.

Down came the slightly yellowed copy of A Treasury of the World’s Best Loved Poems from its place on the shelf. My thoughts turned to the day my cousin Linda had offered me great-aunt Auntie Anne’s books after she died. None of the other cousins wanted them.

I opened the book to see if it contained a poem suitable for the school project. But before I could get to the poems, there was that inscription just inside the cover… Bits to Anne with continuing love.

Huh. Funny I never noticed it before.

I stood there, transfixed, wondering what it could mean. Bitsy had been Auntie Anne’s close friend back in the late 60’s. They had vacationed together every summer for a number of years. The vacation was always taken on a boat—Bitsy’s boat, I assume—off the coast of Maine. Just the two of them, and Bitsy’s young son.

With continuing love. Not something one woman usually said to another. Unless…

[Click here to read the rest.]

Check Out These Substack Tricks

I’ve been busy this week on my Spiritual Life Writers collaborative Substack. Actually, I’ve been learning two new Substack tricks.

After watching an interesting Substack Live featuring

Harrison Moore

,

Daniel Hunter

, and

Johnathan Dodson

, I made my first Substack video clip of Harrison talking about why writers write.

If you haven’t tried doing that yet, Substack has an article to show you how.

Harrison Moore on Why We Write

The second new trick I learned was how to create a private publication. (Again, Substack has a helpful how-to article.)

It turns out this is the perfect solution for when you need a members-only community where participants can feel free to share things they don’t want to say/write in public. It’s sort of like a private Facebook group—but with the normal newsletter/ emailing/ list-managing features you came to Substack for in the first place.

The group I created—Spiritual Life Writer Community—is exclusively for readers (i.e., buyers) of The Spiritual Life Writing Workbook. As you might suspect, I hurried up and got this new publication going as a draw for people who might want to buy the Workbook at that conference I’m at. Where I just might start singing in French.

Have fun while I’m gone!

If you know someone who needs to hear what I have to say, please share or restack.

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