Read, Write, and Pray with The Book of Delights by Ross Gay: Part Two
Our Faith in Writing’s Read, Write, & Pray with The Book of Delights series uses themes and excerpts from Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights. I have not worked with Ross Gay on this series, and I don’t pretend to know anything about his faith. I just like his book and want to invite others to explore it in meaningful ways.
It’s not necessary to have a copy of The Book of Delights to complete these exercises and prompts, but you should definitely buy a copy here!
I hope this Read, Write, & Pray series helps you make space to notice God’s presence in your life and creative work. I hope it gives you opportunities to discover how making and engaging with art help you belong to yourself, others, God, and the world.
Learn more about Read, Write, & Pray here.
Read
Sharing Love at The Paris Review
I adore it when I see two people—today it was, from the looks of it, a mother and child here on Canal Street in Chinatown—sharing the burden of a shopping bag or sack of laundry by each gripping one of the handles. It at first seems to encourage a kind of staggering, as the uninitiated, or the impatient, will try to walk at his own pace, the bag twisting this way and that, whacking shins or skidding along the ground. But as we mostly do, feeling the sack, which has become a kind of tether between us, we modulate our pace, even our sway and saunter—the good and sole rhythms we might swear we live by—to the one on the other side of the sack.
Write
Ross Gay wrote the short essays for The Book of Delights by hand.
Here’s a quote from John Steinbeck from Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath about what can happen when we write by hand:
“Here is a strange thing — almost like a secret. You start out putting words down and there are three things — you, the pen, and the page. Then gradually the three things merge until they are all one and you feel about the page as you do about your arm. Only you love it more than you love your arm.”
So, I want you to write something by hand and see what happens. Write about yesterday. Include as many details as you can from the moment you woke until the moment you went to sleep. Let your hand, the pen, and the paper work together to produce what’s waiting to be made. And don’t worry if nothing special happens. Sometimes things can happen when we aren’t consciously aware of things happening. Sometimes things can happen in a day or a week or a year because we did what we’re doing today. Enjoy the process and try to receive whatever this writing exercise has for you.
Pray
Receive and Release Prayer:
Stand up and hold your hands out in front of you with your palms up.
Bend your arms a bit or do whatever you can do to make sure you aren't uncomfortable.
Close your eyes and say aloud something you want to receive from God. Then say something you want to let go of while turning your palms over like you're dropping something to the ground.
Repeat this however many times you like, asking God to give you different things that you want and telling God different things you want to release. Here are some examples of things you can ask to receive and try to release: Receive grace and release fear. Receive peace and release anger. Receive wholeness and release fragmentation. Receive rest and release busyness.
I hope you enjoy this free resource for Read, Write, and Pray with The Book of Delights.
Additional free resources can be found here:
Read, Write, & Pray with The Book of Delights
Read, Write, & Pray with The Book of Delights Part One
Read, Write, & Pray with The Book of Delights Part Two
Read, Write, & Pray with The Book of Delights Part Three
Read, Write & Pray with The Book of Delights Part Four
Read, Write & Pray with The Great Belonging
Read, Write, & Pray with The Great Belonging Part One
Read, Write, & Pray with The Great Belonging Part Two
Charlotte Donlon helps her readers and clients notice how they belong to themselves, others, God, and the world. Charlotte is a writer, a spiritual director for writers, and the founder of Spiritual Direction for Writers™ and Parenting with Art™. She is also the founder and host of the Our Faith in Writing podcast and website. Her essays have appeared in The Washington Post, The Curator, The Christian Century, Christianity Today, Catapult, The Millions, Mockingbird, and elsewhere. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Seattle Pacific University where she studied creative nonfiction with Paula Huston and Lauren F. Winner. She holds a certificate in spiritual direction from Selah Center for Spiritual Formation. Her first book is The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other. To receive Charlotte’s latest updates, news, announcements, and other good things, subscribe to her email newsletter.