The Need To Create

Posted on February 13, 2021 by joseph elon lillie under Pastor Wrinkles

I find that particularly during the season of cold and ice, I need to find something to keep me busy that is productive but does not involve the structured planning side of my brain.

I need time everyday to just let my mind run wild, free from the constraints of schedule, housework, meetings, ministry and the needs of people.

I find such time in prayer.

Prayer for me is becoming an exercise in waiting on the Lord for inspiration. I do pray for people and things in my prayer time, but a vast amount of my time is spent sitting in the presence of the Lord listening to His Scripture and waiting on Him to tell me what He will. This I am coming to believe is the genesis of my creativity.

I also find the space of recreative freedom in reading.

I am learning to break my reading into two categories….Story and Improvement.

Improvement reading is the reading I do for work: It includes leadership books, ministry manuals, reports etc. I love this type of reading but it is decidedly not something that sets my mind free. This kind of reading creates the structures I need to be successful at work. I am just starting a new book called, LEADING CHANGE.

Leading Change, With a New Preface by the Author by [John P. Kotter]

The type of reading that I need to do to set my mind to run wild and free is story. I have worked my way through several stories this year….

And the one I am currently reading….

But reading is not enough to truly set my mind free from the shackles the world creates for it.

Prayer leads me to creating something of my own from the depths of my own soul to offer the world.

Sometimes this comes out as sketches.

Sometimes it comes out as photography….

Most often it comes out as the written word, here in a blog or in a story or a poem of my own.

I heard from my editor this week and she said the edits for my upcoming book, PORK CHOPS WITH THE SENTINELS OF AZATAN are on target to be completed by early spring.

That book has been my creative outlet for several years and now it is about to enter the organization phase. I am sensing that as I subject this work to the publication process, I also have to prepare myself a new outlet for the creative side of my being.

I am already praying about it.

DO YOU EVER FEEL THE NEED TO LEAVE THE CONSTRAINTS OF YOUR ORGANIZED WORK WORLD? WHAT DOES THAT LOOK LIKE FOR YOU?

Sharing My World HP Style 9-21-20

Posted on September 21, 2020 by joseph elon lillie under For Family & Fun

I am getting a bit of a jump on things this week and I am SHARING MY WORLD WITH MELANIE

AND I AM SHARING MY WORLD WITH ROGER.

This is the challenge where Melanie and Roger have joined forces to ask us question that help us to share our worlds with all of our readers. Here we go!

Have you ever driven the wrong way on a one-way street? How did this come about? I got lost on the one way streets in Worcester (pronounced Wistah) MA when I was young driver. I think I had jury duty or something. I thought I was going to die and my panic just kept growing. Finally I got turned round right and headed for home, so I am thinking I had finished my day and was on my way home. It was a long time before I went back
As a kid, did you ever decide to run away? Did you have a plan? Take a pet? Sandwiches? No. Running away was my sister’s job.
You suddenly found you have a hidden talent for playing a musical instrument. What musical instrument do you hope that accompanies your talent? Any particular song? I have always wanted to play the accordion or the guitar. If I were to play the accordion I would want to be good enough to play some of the really fast polkas. Guitar would have to be some classical latin guitar.
Do you accessorize with jewelry? There was an opal necklace (cursed) and Slytherin’s locket (also cursed) in the Potter story. Have you had any heirloom jewelry passed down through the generations? Is it more ‘keepsake’ or do you wear it on occasion? (Hopefully, yours was not cursed?) I do not generally wear jewelry.

Melanie’s Ordinary Muggle Questions:

What ingredients go into YOUR favorite salad? I like to make tossed salads with lettuce, nasturtium, tomato, cucumber, celery, mushrooms and grapes. I also like cheese and croutons but I don’t often put them in.

If you care to, share something that really irritates you.

poison ivy.

What are your favorite ‘lounging around the house’ items of clothing? Now that a lot of people ‘lounge around the house’ waiting for the all clear in respect to Covid being shown the door, have those lounging items changed?

I like to wear my plaid pajama pants and a tee shirt. As the nights get colder I will add a sweater or my big maroon bathrobe.

GRATITUDE (as always this is optional)

Please feel free to share something about Autumn (or Spring if you’re gearing up for that) that you especially enjoy!

My sister has been working at an apple orchard for the last few weeks helping some folks from church bring in the harvest. She brings home a bag of apples everyday. I have gotten to bake a lot!

One-Liner Wednesday’s 9-2-20

Posted on September 2, 2020 by joseph elon lillie under For Family & Fun

This post is created in response to LINDA HILL’S ONE-LINER WEDNESDAY CHALLENGE FOR 9-2-20.

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please – Mark Twain.

Share Your World With Harry Potter 9-2-20

Posted on September 2, 2020 by joseph elon lillie under Pastor Wrinkles, Uncategorized

It is time to SHARE MY WORLD WITH HARRY POTTER, SPARKS FROM A COMBUSTIBLE MIND, AND ROGER SHIPP.

OR WITH ROGER SHIPP, SPARKS FROM A COMBUSTIBLE MIND AND HARRY POTTER.

Now either of those links will get you to the sites that brainstormed this marvelous challenge. But before you go to see how they thought of this great idea and how others have used it for their writing, check out the questions below and my answers.

Roger’s Magical, Mystical Questions:

Many local regions, especially rural areas where I live, have haunted houses. Have you ever spent the night in a house that was supposedly haunted? Anything ‘strange” happen? My own house was haunted by a demon creature I let in as a youngster before I became a Christian. I have been “connected” with the spirit realm since I was a little child and I began to try being a channel at about the age of ten. I was twelve or thirteen. I had been channeling in my sister’s room one day (because that was where I felt the greatest connection). There was a loud bang on the wall which scared me so I stopped. Later that night my sister had just finished her bath and went into her room to change. She came running downstairs screaming bloody murder. “There’s a man in my room! He’s in my closet holding my teddy bear!” She was hysterical. Both my parents were out at meetings, We called and my father was home in less than 5 minutes. A check of the house yielded nothing, but my sister was able to describe the man in vivid detail right down to his tattered old coat, his wire rimmed glasses and fishnet stockings. My father who remembered the owner of our house from back in the 1940’s and 50’s knew at once who my sister had seen.
The Quidditch Cup (riding broomsticks while chasing a small ball) was a huge sporting event in the land of Hogwarts. What is the largest sporting event (or concert, etc.) that you have ever attended? I attended A Country Music Festival at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro MA back in the early 1990’s. That has to be the biggest event…..Although I also attended The Creation Festival around the same time and that was a week long event attended by about 30,000 people.
When you go for a swim, do you prefer an ocean, the seaside lakes, or a pool? I do not swim in the ocean. I will wade but that is it. I will swim in lakes but I prefer pools to swim in.
Ron Weasley received a horrid robe to wear as formal wear to the Christmas dance at Hogwarts. Tell about the most ‘ghastly’ fashion statement that you have ever made. I am a walking fashion faux pas and I am proud of it. I most generally wear white socks with suit pants. I am also a big socks with sandals wearer. That said some of my outfits growing up were absolutely horrendous. My mother, who was a nurse once brought me some operating scrubs from her hospital to wear as pajamas. I loved hem so much I regularly wore them to school

Muggle Questions (from Melanie):

What is the last song you sang along to?

What was your scariest nightmare about?

I don’t generally get nightmares. Many of my dreams though are very disturbing. My most recent disturbing dream was a bout a white stag with red and blue flnaks being hunted in a misty forest by a red orange and yellow lion.

What food do you crave most often?

Italian food. I could eat it almost every night.

What’s your grossest bug story?

The grossest bug experience I ever went through was the gypsy moth infestation back in the 1980’s. There were so many of the bugs they were falling out of the trees. It sounded like it was raining. But you couldn’t walk under the trees without getting them in your hair or on your clothes.

Share Your World With Harry Potter Week Three

Posted on August 25, 2020 by joseph elon lillie under For Family & Fun

Well it is that time again. For the last several weeks and continuing on through this week and on for a few more, Melanie From “Sparks From A Combustible Mind” will be teaming up with Roger Shipp of “It’s All In Finding the Right Words”, to produce SHARE YOUR WORLD MEETS HARRY POTTER OR HARRY POTTER MEETS SHARE YOUR WORLD depending on which blog you are reading. My suggestion is to read them both when you have finished reading my responses to them.

HERE ARE THIS WEEK’S QUESTIONS AND MY ANSWERS:

Share Your World Meets Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

One of my favorite gifts that Harry Potter received came from the Weasley Twins; and was “Mrs. Mooney’s Marauder’s Map”. This magical document showed every classroom, hallway and secret corner in all of Hogwarts. It also showed you the location- by name- of every person in Hogwarts. If you had such a magical map of your town, what would you use it for? If you would not use it, is there another person to whom you would gift it? I love knowing things so I would definitely use this map, but most likely I would just keep the knowledge to myself until the time came when knowing something would help someone else out of a jam.

When was the last time you made a snowball? Were in a snowball fight? Oh my! In my world snow is for shoveling and than avoiding. I am not much for snowballs anymore. Now snowmen…. I think it will be fun to build one with the grandkids.
Many cultures set great value in each child of the family having godparents. Did you have godparents? Are you a godparent yourself? I did have god parents, though they were not really active in my life. I think I met them each a few times, but we were not close. I am not a god parent to anyone.
You have found a secret tunnel under your house. Where does it go? To the Sage’s Cave.

Muggle Questions (of a more philosophical bent this week):

Is intelligence or wisdom more useful? Intelligence without wisdom is pretty darn useless.

How important is play in living a healthy and fulfilling life? For most people play is absolutely essential to leading a healthy life. It is part of the great balance. That said, play means different things to different people. What is play to me is not much fun for other people and I find what most other people call play a lot of work.

Is happiness just chemicals flowing through your brain or something more? Happiness is chemicals. Joy is a spiritual quality that goes far beyond happy.

GRATITUDE SECTION (Always optional)

Feel free to share some photos, an image, a meme, a story or incident or a poem that helps you feel grateful.

I heard my second grand daughter’s heart beat for the first time yesterday!

Share Your World Potter Style Week 2 8-17-20

Posted on August 18, 2020 by joseph elon lillie under For Family & Fun, Uncategorized

This is week two of the SHARE YOUR WORLD and ROGER SHIPP mash up which we are calling SHARE YOUR WORLD MEETS HARRY POTTER…OR …HARRY POTTER SHARES HIS WORLD…OR HARRY POTTER’S SHARED WORLD…OR…well I guess you can call it whatever you want.

Here are this week’s questions from Roger and Melanie respectively. Use the underlined portkeys above to get to their sites after you have read my answers.

Share Your World Meets Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter can speak to snakes. If you were able to have conversations with any one animal, what animal would you like to speak to? What would be the topic of your first conversation? I would really like to be able to speak to the bigger animals like bears and lions and wolves and what not. I would talk with them about life in the forest
The portraits in Hogwart’s dormitories can talk. If your graduation portrait could speak to people passing it by, what would it tell them? I really wish he had done something different with his hair. The eighties were not good to anyone’s hair. We all looked like Hermes, Elvira or like someone had fried us in an electric light socket.
Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger use the Pollyjuice Potion for finding new clues for the happenings at Hogwarts. (The Pollyjuice Potion is a magic potion that allows your body to form into that of another and live their life for a few hours.) If you could transform into another being, who would you chose to be? What would you hope to learn? I would like to transform into some lowly worker in the President’s surround but whose job took them into Congressional offices as well. I would want to be someone beneath everyone’s notice, someone invited in and then treated like I was invisible so that I could hear the truth….something I am sure none of us is hearing from the powers on high.
There was a flooding in the girl’s bathroom where Moaning Myrtle resides. What has been the most dangerous (or comical) ‘flooding’ where you reside? Our cellar routinely floods in the Sprinter (that season between winter and spring). It’s neither dangerous nor comical just a pain. I am going to have to do something about it this winter.

Mundane or “Muggle” Questions:

(Serious one which is rather creepy): How do you think you’ll die? IF you do think about it? I really have no idea. Maybe I won’t. Maybe Jesus will come and “rapture” me home before I drop.

What’s the best on-line screen name you’ve seen? “Best might mean the oddest. I really like SPARKS FROM A COMBUSTIBLE MIND.

What’s invisible that you wish people could see?

GOD. I do believe this will happen eventually.

If over time you replace parts on a car, at what point does it stop being the same car you bought? How many parts do you need to replace to make it a new car?

This is like that tootsie roll question right? The answer of course is the same…Three.

….errr I mean 9,000.

A Short Post

Posted on May 23, 2020 by joseph elon lillie under Photography, Uncategorized

This post is created in response to CEE’S BLACK & WHITE CHALLENGE FOR THIS WEEK ABOUT SHORT THINGS

Share Your World 5-18-20

Posted on May 19, 2020 by joseph elon lillie under For Family & Fun

I have come to the time of SHARING MY WORLD WITH MELANIE again.

This is the challenge where Melanie asks five questions and in answering them we all share our worlds. It’s fun! Come on, and give it a try. The questions and my answers are below. Once you have finished with my answers click on the underlined link above and go over to Melanie’s site and see how her other contributors answered. Then write a post of your own and link back to Melanie so we can all share your world too!

What’s something you really resent paying for?

I try really hard not to be resentful, but I have to admit I do hate paying for other people’s mistakes especially in relationships. I make enough mistakes of my own. I don’t need to be paying for the garbage other people left behind.

What was the most unsettling film you’ve seen?

Pet Cemetery. Years ago I rented it (back when you rented videos from the store). I got about ten minutes in and then I had to shut it off and take it out of the house because it was so evil.

Do you judge people?

I guess that depends on what you mean by judge.

If by judge you mean consign a person to the seventh circle of Hell in my heart, mind and soul, the answer is “No.” It is not my job or role to determine a person’s future like that.

If by judge you mean, to cut someone out of your life and circle of relationships because of their toxic nature. The answer to that is “Yes. I have done this a few times with people.”

There are a few people I have had relationship with who through life’s events have become very unhealthy and even unsafe to be around. A few times I have had to draw a boundary with them to protect myself and my family. This is a very extreme action and not one I take lightly.

BUT if by judging you mean do I disagree with people and their behavior enough to tell them I disagree with their behavior, then yes I judge people like that all the time on the basis of relationship. I seldom call out the behavior of strangers (you have to be behaving pretty bad in public for me to have me call you out if you are a stranger). If a person is in close relationship with me or if I have spiritual oversight of them, though, those people are going to hear my opinion about their behavior both good and bad. I do not believe this is judging at all. It is disagreeing and being open to a discussion about why we disagree. What the world needs is not more acceptance of all view points. What it needs is a reestablishment of respect. Acceptance demands that we agree on everything and that no one have an opinion about anything. Respect demands that we all get a chance to voice our opinions in the hope of swaying others to them, but through the lens of love which allows people to maintain disagreement and relationship at the same time and leave the changing to God.

Finish this sentence: “Back in my day, we…”?

Back in my day we only had four television stations two of which only came in for half the day and my favorite toy was a stick from my grandparents wood pile.

AND FINALLY

Gratitude

Please feel free to share an uplifting photo, thought or meme to show your own gratitude. We can all use some good vibes!

I LOVE OWLS

Share Your World From 5-4-20

Posted on May 8, 2020 by joseph elon lillie under For Family & Fun

Well this week I have not been as on the ball in the writing department as I would have liked, but I have done a lot of ministry work and a lot of gardening, so I guess it all balances out. Now however it is time to SHARE MY WORLD USING THE QUESTIONS MELANIE POSTED ON MONDAY MAY 4TH.

I have been trying a new blogging regimen these last several weeks. I am posting at least four blogs everyday and then doing what I call a blog blitz on the weekends. It started out I was posting a blog every hour. Now I am at the point where I am trying to find the most productive hours to post …morning, noon and night… to see where most people are on and reading.

Anywho…. Here are this week’s questions and my answers. When you have finished please take a jaunt over to Melanie’s site AKA SPARKS FROM A COMBUSTIBLE MIND and see how her other contributors have answered.

What can you break even if you don’t touch it? (yes there is a real answer to this. I’ll reveal it in the next week sometime. Still, answer how you would like – no right or wrong answer)

Oh there are lots of things you don’t have to touch to break. Here are a few: a trance, a sweat, a leg (in theater), a fast, a wind, a heart, and a spirit.

I am sure there are more things but these are what come readily to mind.

What’s the most useful thing you own?

I think the thing that gets the most use is my car.

What’s The Silliest Reason You’ve Ever Gotten Into A Fight With Someone Over?

Algebra. My sister ended up running away from home over it.

If You Were A Snake, How Long Would You Want To Be? No, size does not matter. 😛

I would want to be a hundred foot anaconda.

AND FINALLY…

Gratitude and/or uplifting? Please share. We can all use some of those.

Pluto has been making me laugh this week.

Lillie-Put

The place where you can find out what Lillie thinks

Tag Archives: fun

The Need To Create

DO YOU EVER FEEL THE NEED TO LEAVE THE CONSTRAINTS OF YOUR ORGANIZED WORK WORLD? WHAT DOES THAT LOOK LIKE FOR YOU?

One-Liner Wednesday’s 9-2-20

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please – Mark Twain.

A Short Post

DO YOU EVER FEEL THE NEED TO LEAVE THE CONSTRAINTS OF YOUR ORGANIZED WORK WORLD? WHAT DOES THAT LOOK LIKE FOR YOU?

(this meme is borrowed from Di. She used it recently on one of her own posts and I found it to be very apt).

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please – Mark Twain.

Gratitude