4 and 40 Blackbirds

I have been meaning to write for a while now how thankful I am for my blog friends. If you don't explore the links to the blogs my friends write, you should. Actually not all of them are technically my friends. I only really know three or four of the authors, but I found the other blogs through their sites, and I think of all of them as my friends because their writing inspires and encourages me.

I have a plan to write a bit about each of my blog friends in the coming weeks. Today I want to write about Caroline at Beyond Friendship Gate. Caroline and I met because our husbands went to law school together. The first time they came over to our house she saw a book by Julia Cameron on my table, and she told me about The Artist's Way. Commitment to art + lovely southern accent = someone I immediately like a whole lot.

Caroline has a beautiful new website. And I am terribly inspired by her Forty Forts project. I am not going to try to paraphrase her project. To understand the rest of this post, you will really need to follow the link and read Caroline's explanation of her project. So go do that now.

Okay--you're back. So, I am pretty private about my spiritual life as well. This is partly because I too think that spirituality is extremely personal and partly because my spiritual life involves way more questions than answers. But like Caroline, I grew up around Baptist influences. One of my best friends from middle and high school was Catholic, though, and I was somewhat enchanted with her religion. I liked the rituals I witnessed and what I perceived as the formality of it all. I guess a better word is ceremony. For the past 3 or 4 Christmases, I really wanted to have an Advent calendar. Last year I finally found one. And I have always liked the idea behind Lent.

Last night I was reading Caroline's blog, and everything she said hit home. I feel that I have already given up plenty up this year. And for way longer than Lent. But I love the idea of adding something to my life for the Lenten season.

So I am blatantly copying Caroline. I have the idea of 40 poems in 40 days. Less than 40 days, since Lent started last Wednesday I think. It's 40 days from Easter, not counting Sundays. (Easter, I learned, is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the first day of spring.)

There are rules. Each of my poems will have 40 words. Probably 10 lines, 4 words each. And each will be "inspired" by another poem--I'll find a poem to read and take 4 words from it. Those 4 words will be the title.

I've been struggling with a series of poems called "40 Weeks." And A is 4 months old. So all of this 4 and 40 business is quite fitting. Thank you Caroline--your project came along just when I was throwing in the towel on writing forever.