A New Page Is Turned…

The time has come for me to move on to a new blog, a new website, a new adventure.

Check it out at LynnReneeMaxcy.com. Looking forward to your thoughts and everything new that is coming along the way!

Much love,

Lynn

Because I Love This So Much…

I’m not much for reality tv. But Melanie Moore’s audition on So You Think You Can Dance is absolutely stunning. So inspiring to see someone who is so good at what they do. Beautiful art really does come in so many forms. Enjoy!

“It’s Okay… I’m Home Now”

Have you ever had one of those days where nothing seems to go right? The words aren’t flowing, the stories are fighting to stay closed up and confused, the times where everything is a mess and broken no matter how hard you try?

Today was one of those days.

And my love came home, without knowing any of that. I hugged him when he came in the door, and he whispered, “It’s okay… I’m home now.” And the world seems a little more peaceful tonight.

I think I’ll finally be able to sleep now…

Once in a Lifetime Moments

I know the whole world falls into one of two camps when it comes to the upcoming royal wedding. People are either really excited about it or really don’t care and wish the whole lot of them would just disappear into a crater on the moon somewhere.

I happen to be in the really excited camp.

I love the romantic moments of it all. I love the thought of a little girl who really gets to grow up and become a princess. I love that there are still traditions in this world that are respected and continued on. I love that my grandparents saw the wedding of Queen Elizabeth, that my mom woke up early to watch Princess Diana’s wedding, and now I will be wide awake to watch Prince William and Kate Middleton get married. There’s something really beautiful in the truth that, despite all the crazy war and horror that pervades our world every single day, there can still be joy. There can still be beauty and love and fun and excitement. The world’s not dead yet, it’s not completely gone to hell in a handbasket. Sometimes, there are lovely moments completely worth celebrating and enjoying. This is one of them. And so… Friday morning at 3 am, I will up on my couch with several cups of coffee watching BBC America and the wedding.

More thoughts coming soon…

And Real Books for the Win!

Let me just get this out there first thing – I have owned a Nook (Dear Random Stranger, I really hope you enjoyed my collection of classic novels and Rob Bell books that I hadn’t had time to read yet since I’d only owned the Nook for a few weeks. Thanks so much.) I own an iPad and am an avid iBooks reader. (Recently started? Mark Twain’s autobiography – highly recommended!)

I am pro-technology, pro-save-the-trees, pro-future-of-books. YAY! You can’t see it right now, but I’m throwing a little party in honor of the unwritten books of the future, which most likely will be read on easy-on-the-eyes computer screens rather than actual physical paper books. **confetti toss**

But tonight, as I was leaving gorgeously sunny Los Angeles for the recently snowy burg that is Denver, the flight attendant got on the intercom to kindly request that all electronic devices be turned off. And in the surrounding rows, I was the only person who was able to keep right on reading. (Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games – oh the simple joys of reading for myself!)

I promise I did not laugh at my fellow travelers, but I won’t lie – there was just a tiny bit of satisfaction that reared its head in my heart as I continued reading on. I can’t help but think that real books aren’t dead just yet. There’s something sweet and honorable about the feel of a real book between your hands, the sound of a book spine cracking when you first open it, the smell of freshly printed pages. The smell of musty old pages, for that matter. Before we fling ourselves headlong into the undisputed future of publishing and novels and even stories – let us all take a moment to be grateful for the traditional real paper books that have come before. There’s something to cherish there, even as we move right along at a frantically clipped pace.

Tonight, it was most definitely real books for the win.

Week 1 of the Greatest Adventure

A week ago, I left my absolutely amazing job to pursue a lifelong dream of mine – to finally, truly be a writer. There are still moments that I have absolutely no idea what I was thinking. Seriously, who leaves a job like mine? I was working as part of a wonderfully creative team, and now my office is my kitchen table. There were a lot of moments of staring at my freshly-brewed tea, my eyes growing progressively wider. What the hell have I done?

But it turns out, when you don’t have to go to work every day, strange things happen. I’ve spent the last five months working on a novella, God Eats Pad Thai. I was a little more than halfway finished a week ago. I’d been so busy, but I was really excited by where I’d gotten to. But, in three days of sitting at my kitchen table, I finished. Completely. It’s now out to friends and family… and I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to write next.

This question is growing in my heart, becoming more and more sweet and wonderful. More inviting. A little more scary. If this was week one, what is this week going to bring?

I can’t wait to find out.

Quote of the Day – April 7, 2011

“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking
you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.”
~ Julia Child

I’d say in cooking and in life in general!
So here’s to adventure and risk and trusting that for some crazy reason, God was serious when he promised to never abandon us.

God Bless the Good Guys…

I saw this bumper sticker driving into work this morning:

God Bless the Good Guys

I won’t explain it all here, but the surrounding bumper stickers made it completely clear who this person thought the “good guys” were. And as I was driving down Pass, I realized – I had no idea what ‘God Bless the Good Guys’ even actually meant.

Does it mean ‘I think I am one of the good guys, so God bless us’?
Or ‘If we work really hard and really are good, then God will bless us’?
Or perhaps something entirely different?

And as I’ve thought about it all day, I’ve realized I drastically disagree with that statement. I hope that God does bless ‘the good guys,’ of course. But I hope he decides to bless everyone rather than just one specific group of do-gooders. I hope he opens up his massive storerooms of blessing and pours them out on everyone! Because I am not perfect. I make wrong choices. I get tired and broken. And I hope that God would never look at me and say, “Oh, I guess you weren’t good enough.”

I hope that God blesses the people I disagree with – because hopefully as everyone encounters God in one way or another, we’ll all learn to look at each other differently. As he shows up, we’ll all kind of come to the middle, to the place where God’s throwing a huge party. Everyone is welcome to join. I can’t imagine looking at someone and flat out saying, ‘I hope God blesses me and not you. I hope you fail. I hope you fall. I hope God throws lightning bolts at you, because, wow! When you look at the differences between our lives, let’s just say I’m grateful that I’m the ‘good guy’.” Ugh. Those are the words that lead to hate and wars and misunderstandings. Those are the words that break lives and break hearts. And God forbid that I’m actually wrong about something. I crave grace every day because I know I very well might be wrong about something. And I hope if I’m wrong or off-base or imperfect that I can still seek God’s blessing. I hope he won’t kick me out of ‘the good guys’ category. I’d much rather be in the ‘grace people’ category. I don’t deserve the love and joy and grace, but I’m so grateful to be here! And I certainly think you all should come party with me right here!

So tonight, God – bless the good guys and the bad guys, the people I adore and the people I disagree with. Help me live in the ‘grace people’ category and encourage other people to do the same.

And please, let that bumper sticker fall off that guy’s car.

Living Where I’m Supposed To

Dreams...

Over the last few months, I’ve noticed (as I’m sure you have) that my writing has definitely been less than regular. There’s just so much going on in life, a never-ending to-do list that keeps eating away at my time. The truth is, I’ve loved every second of what I’ve been doing. But there has always been something at the edges of my heart, something I’ve been dreaming of for years. Something that was somehow even more powerful than what I’d been doing. Something that was pulling me away from the very best job I’ve ever had….

A life of writing. Of dreaming and creating. Full time.

I suppose I’ve always had that life, but this seems a little more official, a little more exciting, and a little more terrifying. It’s something that I’m just going to have to go for, and let the chips fall where they may. The greatest adventures in life begin with one step in front of the other, one at a time. But they also begin when you decide to say, “This is that moment.”

And so, there will be plenty more blog updates now. Part of what my plans are over the next few months is to really get my blog up and going – adding lots of discussions and books and music and more. To finish a novella. To begin new projects. To join with others in their own projects. To create a new community where art and openness and creativity and hope and dreams all blend together, as we move ahead creating the future, writing the stories that will inform the next year, the next decade, the next century.

And so, this is me, running and jumping off this cliff, with the wind whooshing past my face…

I do wonder what’s coming next. And I can’t wait to rise and meet it.

I Need Words

Up for an early morning of writing while listening to my Brooke Fraser Pandora station. David Crowder’s “I Need Words” is playing. A more perfect song for this moment I cannot imagine…

I Need Words
I need words
As wide as sky
I need language large as
This longing inside
And I need a voice
Bigger than mine
And I need a song to sing You
That I’ve yet to find
I need You,
Oh, I need You
I need You,
Oh, I need You
To be here now

Wishing for more creativity. Wishing for the words to put a voice with the thoughts in my head… I need Him today.