The tree in today’s post was just a scrub-oak bush when we were building our house. It had no center branch. It was growing out of a stump My hubby was sure it wouldn’t survive.
One day an acquaintance came by to see “how the house was coming.” After he thoroughly inspected the place, he backed over my tree as he was leaving. When he realized what he’d done, he said, “Aw, that aint no tree. You ought’a just chop it down.”
For some reason, that irritated me. So I told my husband that I wanted to keep it. And my sweet hubby listened to me.
You can see how pretty the tree is thirteen years later. It’s strong and tall. It supplies lots of acorns to the deer that roam our woods. Finches, wrens, hummingbirds and doves nest in its branches. Just because there’s no center branch and the bark is scarred, doesn’t make it any less lovely.
There are lots of writers I know who have been scarred. Some suffer daily from physical pain. Others are tormented by the grief inflicted on them by others. Still others are afflicted with an internal anguish that they can scarcely bear … but somehow they do. Each one of them survives, creating beauty in the minds and souls of others, in spite of their own damage.
These are the writers who inspire me … who motivate me … who remind me that I was created for something more. Their encouragement provides the spark of creativity that I need to remember:
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10 ESV
Who inspires you? Who is the person in your life that you look at and say, “If they can do it, I can, too.” Leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you.
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Angie Arndt was a corporate trainer before health issues sidelined her. These days she’s active in her local church, ACFW and MBT. She’s a team member of Seriously Write and her personal blog, Joy on the Back Roads.
Angie is represented by Joyce Hart of Hartline Literary Agency and is currently working on a series of mystery novels set in small Southern towns. She and her husband live in the middle of a big wood outside a small town in South Carolina.