Shakespeare

On Saturday, we went to see A Midsummer Night's Dream with some friends. What a delight! It's been years since I studied Shakespeare, but it doesn't matter. The actors make the lines understandable by tone of voice and body language so even if you don't catch specifics, you understand the gist of what they're saying. The costumes and props at Georgia Shakespeare Company are always clever and the clown characters are hilarious. We laughed and laughed through the final scenes and have been repeating favorite lines to each other ever since.

At dinner afterward, my friend talked about the beauty of language, the gorgeous flow of Shakespeare's poetry over the audience. It made me think about what I've been reading in Luci Shaw's book about language and poetry and about the meditation on scripture that I've been doing. I want to fill the well, a term used by creativity book author Vinita Hampton Wright, with images from scripture so that when I write, the beauty of language, which God Himself created, flows over my audience as well.

Do you have favorite passages from a book, a poem, or scripture that flow over you? Please share it in a comment.

The Word

The beauty of the written Word. Familiar, well-loved scripture filled with metaphors that become richer every year. Here are two of my favorite poetry passages:

"You turned my wailing into dancing; 

you removed my sackcloth and 

clothed me with joy, 

that my heart may sing to you and 

not be silent. 

O Lord my God, I will give you 

thanks forever" (Psalm 30:11-12).

"He tends his flock like a shepherd;

He gathers the lambs in his arms

and carries them close to his heart;

he gently leads those that have young" (Isaiah 40:11).

This week, reread your favorite passage--for the beauty of it.