If you're on Tumblr, I'm sure you might have scrolled past a picture of a looming glass house full of windows. I had for a long while, until I finally clicked the photo, which led me to an article on Yahoo as well as a documentary about the two artists, Nick Olsen and Lilah Horwitz, who decided to quit their day jobs and build a house on their family land. Not only did they succeed in making one of the dreamiest living spaces imaginable, they did it with only $500 and determination, hoarding old-fashioned window frames from antediluvian barns or yard sales they happened to come across.
Can you imagine driving up a long stretching lane, and parking your car in front of your own glass house, nestled in green, with only the sound of the wind and crickets to score your night? The artists' say that the house sets fire as the sun slides beneath the earth. To be sheathed in amber every evening and every morning; How lovely does that sound? They wanted to build a house that wouldn't isolate the sunset to one room.
As much of a city dweller as I am, whenever I think of my future family, midnight's with the man who'll be my husband, or reading, or writing, my mind comes back to something natural. Something so pure is a little frightening, because it's free of distractions. Free of the constant *dinging* of our smart phones, or the temptation to keep yourself busy with Twitter or Tumblr or Apps galore. But purity is also a calling home. the exact place that God wants you so you can finally connect with Him, instead of all these things.
On an artistic side, these two insane people decided to build a huge house with their own hands. The thought of building a conventional house seems daunting, but to design and create your own house, it's own foundation that you used your own hands to lay? How brilliant! Lilah explained that that she never thought she could build something so massive, and in the act of building it, she realizes that she can do anything.
I think that's what I'm learning about my novel, and my many fears that it won't amount to what I imagined it would. This life is about the process of things. The end result is wonderful, and there's a calming breeze that comes with succeeding. But you can't succeed without the doing. If Lilah and Nick thought about this house for years, but fought with themselves over how unconventional it is, they wouldn't have this beautiful dwelling, and we wouldn't be able to celebrate with them.
So as you move forward in all of your various projects, or even if this is the week you decide to get those newborn goals onto a sheet of paper, I encourage you to move childlike, push everything aside, and live in the process.
P.S.- The books are coming, I promise. I've had the most distracted reading year ever. It's been very hard to get into one novel and stick to it, but I'm working on it. I'm in the middle of reading The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin, Bodega Dreams by Ernesto Quinones, and 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. Soon coming :-).
