Sue Monk Kidd is a great speaker

Last night I had tickets for me and my friend nic to go hear Sue Monk Kidd. I tried to take a picture, but you can't see her AT ALL because the lights on her were so bright. It was one of those wonderful times when I get quiet inside and just listen. When I get to enjoy hearing someone whose writing I adore speak about topics I adore. Topics like: The soul, women, the writing life, dreams, vocation and much more. She was, I felt, very down-to-earth.

These quotes are on the wall midway up the stairway that goes up to her writing room. Which is a cool idea. She used these quotes to hang the rest of her talk on. Read about these quotes from her own pen here. My favorite is the last one!

A woman must have a room of her own. - Virginia Woolf

"I can't give you any advice but this: to go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows" -Ranier Maria Rilke

“If we had to say what writing is, we would describe it essentially as an act of courage.” Cynthia Ozick.

The imagination needs time to browse. -Thomas Merton

If you ask me what I came to do in the world I will tell you. I came to live out loud. - Emile Zola

Question? What does my out-loudness serve? I don't have an awnser for this yet. But I have some strong ideas. Mostly though after craving "voice" and a "life out loud" for so many years not I feel my "out loudness" is finally pointed in a productive direction.

Besides the reflections birthed in me because of her talking about these quotes I also liked how she came to write the passage in the book "The Mermaid Chair" about the main character walking into the water and saying to herself lines that are typically in marriage ceremonies. "I take you __________ (enter your own name) in sickness and health, for richer for poorer...." Don't we all need to do that! We all need a moment where we marry ourselves. Commit to love and charish and take care of ourselves for the sake of others in the world, for the sake of vocation and calling, for the sake of what our "out-loudness" is meant to serve! And I believe if we do not do that we will never be able to marry another person.

It was a wonderful evening. Now because nic gushed so much about it I'm off to buy her book When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life's Sacred Questions (Plus)