People write all the time―memos, cards, or emails, presentations for speaking, teaching, or preaching. Whether you write for personal reflection or for others, this book will deepen the creative process by finding meaning and mystery in ordinary notes or analytical essays, prose or poetry, sermons or lectures, music or lyrics, committee minutes or family stories. “Writing is a form of contemplation,” wrote Thomas Merton. Exquisitely written, Writing Tides embodies Kent Groff’s passion to help anyone discover contemplative insights through personal reflections, practical notes, or work-related writing. Drawing upon the author’s experience leading courses in writing, spiritual formation, and vocation, Groff guides readers to discover writing practices that aid meditation, prayer, and spiritual growth.An excerpt from the Circuit Rider review: "Some will find Writing Tides to be of immense help as they seek to become more creative and disciplined writers; this work will be of particular interest to those for whom creativity and discipline are spiritual matters." (Click here to read the entire review.) Kent Ira Groff teaches writing workshops at Chautauqua, New York, and at conference centers and seminaries. Groff is author of Active Spirituality: A Guide for Seekers and Ministers (The Alban Institute); Journeymen: A Spiritual Guide for Men (and for Women Who Want to Understand Them) (Upper Room Books); The Soul of Tomorrow s Church (Upper Room Books); and What Would I Believe If I Didn t Believe Anything? A Handbook for Spiritual Orphans (Jossey-Bass). He is founder of Oasis Ministries for Spiritual Development and adjunct professor at Lancaster Theological Seminary (Pennsylvania). Writing Tides Finding Grace and Growth Through Writing By Kent Ira Groff Abingdon Press Copyright © 2007 The United Methodist Publishing House All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-687-64265-6 Chapter One Observing—Focus on Awareness Paying attention in all directions Monday Morning Since turning five, when her dad died and her mom remarried, Marin has spent her summers on Grandpa and Gram Panofsky's farm where she'd go skinny dipping and doggy paddling in the pond. Even a required swim course at North Kansas School for Youth could not prepare Marin for a long-promised trip to Gram's friend's apartment near Florida's Miami Beach. Here she is at the ocean her very first day—observing breezes, laughter, sand, clouds, saltwater, seagulls, boats, and people with picnic lunches. One minute she wants to run into the sea, the next she wants to run away. It's too scary for her child-size psyche to think of wading into the waves—let alone jumping into them—yet. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe twenty years from now when she comes back as a marine biologist to contemplate the same stuff from different angles. Today, this child just walks around mesmerized and a bit iffy about everything. Worthy writing begins by showing up at the shoreline with round-faced innocence. Actually to a child nothing is un worthy if you can see, hear, touch, taste, or smell it. Research in any field is about clear-minded observation: being present to all the data, mind-boggling facts and feelings so incredible you can't find words for them yet. Blaise Pascal, forerunner of modern computer scientists, was a thinker's thinker. He got so giddy observing some of his higher math calculations that he wrote, "The loneliness of these infinite spaces frightens me." But observing his fears as well as the figures propelled him into contemplation beyond calculation. In scribbled fragments published after his death as Pensées — "thoughts"—Pascal is still giving the world spiritual insights that surely rival his mathematical discoveries. Thinking and thanking come from the same Middle English root, thenken . Scientific and technical writers, take note. Slowly Goodly I think: Goodly things are happening slowly. I thank. "In-Between" Spaces: Liminal Awareness The shoreline is the place to begin. Did you ever notice how primal revelations in spiritual traditions often occur beside water? Moses and the Hebrew slaves cross the sea of reeds to enter the land of promise. Jesus calls disciples by the seashore, "Follow me!" In risen form Jesus builds a charcoal fire by the sea, saying, "Come and have breakfast." The Buddha spoke of using a raft (spiritual practices) to cross the river into Enlightenment. Depth psychology compares the human unconscious to the ocean. The outward shoreline corresponds in space to the liminal state within each of us. Limen in Latin means threshold, the doorway in which the conscious life of thinking and acting meets the storehouse of unconscious knowing and dreaming. Likewise, sunrise and sunset correspond to this inward liminal state in time . Mountain summits serve the same purpose in primal societies. Even in our postmodern culture, shorelines and mountaintops still lure us into respite and restoration. Once while a