By Amanda Cleary Eastep

I read. A lot.

About writing, art, marketing, business, religion, and homesteading. That’s in between the novels.

I do this primarily to learn. But I also do it to encourage myself, which is something I’ve needed more lately.

Writing as an intentional practice has been arduous. As an emotional and spiritual outlet, it has become the eye of a needle.

But I’ve been writing long enough to realize that the “ebb” of the ebb and flow of inspired writing can reveal wondrous things and a broader shoreline on which to make room for other activities, like conversation and reading.

So I’ve been doing a lot of that.

This week Erika Shirk at Overflow invited bloggers to share links to the words that have most encouraged them lately. Here’s my contribution…

Encouragement, inspiration and deep thoughts for June

The Conversational Nature of Reality

There’s so much that resonated with me in this podcast from On Being with poet and philosopher David Whyte. I found the very first sentence to be especially true.

“This is another delusion we have that we can [get] — take a sincere path in life without having our heart broken. And you think about the path of parenting, there’s never been a mother or father since the beginning of time who hasn’t had their heart broken by their children. And nothing traumatic has to happen. All they have to do is grow up.”

On the Challenges of Getting Ideas Out of Your Head and onto the Page

This will strike a chord (key?) with writers, especially. The struggle is real! In fact, this blogger actually did a wonderful job of “getting out” what has been stuck in my head lately about being stuck.

When Blogging Was My Saving Grace

And while we’re on the subject of blogging, this sentence in Jamie Wright Bagley’s recent post speaks not only to writing, but to the identity we find in any vocation.

“Maybe we will realize that our blogging identities don’t have to amount to anything more than who we already are, and that is more than enough. It is all grace.”

Spies, Medics, Soldiers, & Peacemakers: 15 women wartime heroes you should know

I almost typed, “This one’s for the ladies.” But why? Great stories are great stories.

The Seven Ages of an Artist

It doesn’t matter if you write, paint or play music, the cross-disciplinary lessons that happen in every artistic endeavor can teach all of us something. How long does it take to become an artist? The question might as well ask, How long does it take to become a: writer…leader…wonderful human being?

I’m linking up this week (for the first time since September 2015!) with the  #Wholemama Roundup.