words: a thank you

Yesterday, a good friend blessed me with the written word. The letter (cleverly disguised as email) was beyond encouraging, well thought out, not shot wildly from the hip. In short, it was authentic. My own words could not articulate this weighty gratitude.

My only response was to offer marinating musings that I'd never shared with anyone before. There was great power in the exchange, built on trust and brotherhood and confidence, the shared belief that we're here to build each other up, not to tear each other down.

And I was built up. For me, my friend became the hands and feet.

I've been reading Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeline L'Engle, and I can't recommend this book enough. It cost 50 cents at a neighborhood book estate sale, but the value of art is not based on the "world's currency," as L'Engle says.

L'Engle is an amazing woman--intelligent, joyful, graceful, creative and talented--and perhaps more than any other writer, has managed to find words that speak to the friction of imagination, the frustration in the fingers, the lyrics to the once lost melody.