When I can’t fit my thoughts in my regular newsletter, I come here to ramble, sometimes even eloquently. As a jack-of-all-trades type, the topics vary greatly. You’ll find stories behind my paintings, short stories and essays on anything from agriculture to intentional living to cultural issues. If you don’t like one post, maybe don’t give up until you’ve tasted a few.
Often, I’m mentally chewing on some big things and just want to send my thoughts out to the void, secretly hoping for some solidarity.
Always, I strive to filter these thoughts through a sieve built with love.
Thoughts, updates, stories…
With Love, Elli
Escape to Nowhere / Iridescent Poison
I prayed for refuge from the poisonous fumes I had fancied. I begged to get away from the ever-dry storm that brought smoke in front of flames.
Do you know what happened?
He refused.
Fellowship; A Short Story
Tony growled a little and then acquiesced, "Okay." He laid the extra oars down along the hull of his boat and picked up one of his normal ones. He nodded at me to pick up one of mine. We each rowed with one oar, still breasted up. As the day wore on, so did I. I refused to admit it though, and rowed with all my might. We spoke little, which should have been a glaring alarm for me that something was wrong. But I poured all of my mental and physical strength into rowing, two hands on one oar, and I still grew more sluggish by the hour.
Darkness fell. Even though I couldn't see straight, I kept telling myself I'd be back to normal in the morning. When I finally lay down in my berth, the relief my body felt morphed quickly into gratefulness for Tony. Who knows where I would have ended up without his knowing friendship. That realization was the last thing I remembered before drifting off.
I can foggily recall two things from the days that followed…
Are there Hobbits in Christianity?
Despite having so many projects, deadlines to make and our main school lessons to finish for the year, I can’t help but continue to work on my novel. Even if I’m not putting more words on the page, the characters and their stories are growing in my silly brain. Right now, I’m staring the action scenes in the face so I’ve been reading other novels to give that time to develop. Right now I’m over halfway through Tolkien’s Return of the King.
It’s been a while since I’ve read the Lord of the Rings. And as it should be I’ve learned so much since then, but particularly about spiritual warfare. Tolkien loathed direct allegory, but did love to use symbolism creatively in his works. I can’t even tell you how much beauty and truth I’m finding in it and some of it strikes me so hard and so deep. Why am I telling you this? Because I have a couple of thoughts ignited by my recent reading that I wanted to chat with you guys about, even ask you about. But I wanted to assure you that I’m not going to talk about LOTR forever! I’ll do a couple of posts this week and try (my very best) to be done for the time being. But don’t be afraid to shoot me an e-mail (or reach out on social media) and continue the conversation!