A Change of Season

April 1st marked the first anniversary of the publication of Songs of Assent.  This year has been an amazing season of watching a creative work breathe on her own and find her own way in the world.  Every time I have held my breath as I leafed through the pages wondering if I really said what I wanted to say, my pulse has  slowed down gradually and I have thought, "It's alright.  It is good just as it is." And I can say this even when I have been pointed to rich truth in the last year that I wish had been included.  

The new publishing technology of print-on-demand (POD) books has offered Pam (my sister and illustrator) and me a medium for creation that has come with the delightful adventure of marketing the book as it was written: receptively, one opportunity at a time.  There came a day a few months ago when we sold a book that appeared to be a "fourth generation" word-of-mouth sale.  I didn't know the person who told the person who told...well, you see what I mean. I value such delightfully nuanced connections incongruously made possible by our high-tech world.

To cap off this first year Pam and I went to London this March, in part to conduct a two-day conference on Songs of Assent.  As I prepared for this delightful trip  I revisited all five of the biblical texts on which the book rests, and discovered new treasures.  You won't find these thoughts in my book--they are hinted at in my last five blogs, and fleshed out in mp3s to be available for purchase sometime later this spring on a new website,
www.carlawaterman.com. (If you want the mp3s of the 2nd day of the conference where I speak in depth on receptivity and wisdom, they, too, will be available for purchase in the near future.) 

But with the first anniversary of publishing and the London conference, I find my heart and mind moving to other topics and other sites.  You can find me blogging regularly at www.worshipedia.org  on themes connected to worship, and, soon, on a more open-ended blog to be housed on my new site.

However, if you are new to Songs of Assent, I invite you to explore the blogs I have written here this past year.  You can organize them by "song," and because the original themes from the book were uppermost in my mind during this past year, I hope you will encounter insights that will enrich the reading of the book. 

And, whether you are an old friend or new, I invite you to check back here for an announcement on the inauguration of my new website.  I would enjoy your continued company as we learn new songs of "yes" to God to accompany the ones we already know.