Dewitt Jones and the light in literature

I am so lucky to be able to find countless outlets for my work with children and literature in my family life...not just my career.

This last weekend was one of those such times.  I work every week with a three-year-old program in my contemporary church.  It's a great group of kids as they are full of such natural humor and innocent enthusiasm.  The work keeps me actively writing and storytelling for the youngest audience and they recharge me as much as the reverse...if not more.

One of the great advantages of working with an organization is that you receive invitations, often free, to educational and leadership seminars and I find, that as an artist and a youth leader, these conferences and lectures are filled with an abundance of value which I can easily apply to my own field.

Dewitt Jones was one of the speakers for this past weekend's "Green Room" conference - a meeting of Christian artists.  Mr. Jones spent a lifetime as a photographer for National Geographic and he taught about creativity coming from light.  (A later speaker discussed art from darkness, as well...I'll speak about that another day.)

While some of what he shared is best in the context of his overall presentation, I wanted to give to you guys some of the great quotes from his program, "Hallelujah: What's Right with the World".  I have more to share on his overall content when I bring in the contrary speaker on a later blog.  The overall combination of speakers really helped to shape - in words - what my view of storytelling is all about and I can't wait to tell you all about it!

Enjoy the quotes of Dewitt Jones for now:

"Love is about passion and passion is about energy.  So, you must begin each day with energy; or, a full cup."

"You can't fall in love with your work unless you come to your work with love."

"How do you fall in love with what you do?  Hang out with folks who love what they do."

"Do not go into the world trying to make a difference.  Go into each day trying to make a contribution and the rest will happen as it's meant to...you never know what will happen when you give, just give."

"Do the things that bring you joy, but - more importantly - find joy in the things you do."

"Quit flapping and start soaring."


"Celebrate what's right with the world instead of wallowing in what's wrong with it."
 
"The light that matters most is not the spotlight that shines on us, but the light that shines from within us on the world."  (By the way, a personal note...I have always shared a similar view and talk about it in my book, "The Pinecone Legend".)
 
"Creativity is just falling in love with the world again and again and connecting to the energy of that moment."
 
Dewitt Jones quoting a meditation teacher: "We all could use the one breath meditation. Take it all in and give it all back."


And last - outside of a segment on understanding kids and understanding vision which I will share at a later time - he shared this:
 
"God never said, 'There is one great photograph in this forest for one great photographer and the rest lose out.'  No.  He asked, 'How many roles of film have you got?  I'll fill 'em up!'"  (This one I liked as I occasionally have students of my workshop feel bad that, during group work, their ideas are different from those of their classmates.  I find that this might be a great way to explain to them that there IS NO ONE ANSWER when it comes to creativity.  While I've expressed this in the past, I like the new approach.)
 
It was wonderful to hear Mr. Dewitt Jones speak and I look forward, also, to sharing notes in the future from the lectures of Dan Allender and Nancy Ortberg.
 
May you all have a passionate, light-filled day!
 
In writing,
Reji
 

A New Excerpt Shared

Enjoy this January 17-January 23 Excerpt as shared on the Facebook Fan Club!

Happy Monday!
This week is a busy one with an exciting all day event at a local elementary school partaking in 2 Reji Laberje Author Program assemblies (Backwards Book and What's Your Story) and 6 Reji Laberje Author Program Writers' Workshops (combination of Trait Application and The Six Senses and the Four 'S'es). So, I don't have a whole lot of time to drop the excerpt of the week to you.

As I put together the final preps for this fun, educational presentation day, please enjoy this tiny bit of the intro of an added story to the Kids I Know series...
"A Soldier is Always There".

Patches of Beige and Pixels of Brown, a hat on her head, and boots on the ground, her camouflaged mom forced through a smile saying, "I'll only be gone for a little while. And even if I don't come home, remember that I'm never gone."


The story goes on through the one year worries of two daughters while their mom is in a warzone. While they share, through letters and phone calls, the events for which their mother wishes she could be there, PFC Chase constantly assures them that she's been there all the while. The girls learn that she is there for the many freedoms that they are enjoying them as she defends those freedoms abroad.


This added story means that Kids I Know is delayed further. But, a quality reminder of positive quality living as exemplified through these (now six) picture books is assured to all of my fans and readers.

Have a great week - I look forward to catching up after a successful day of programming this Thursday!
In writing,
Reji

January 10 - January 16




Hello Blog Followers! I am so excited for the upcoming release of the next FOUR installments in the Tale Travelers series. I've shared bits and pieces of the upcoming stories...but here's a juicy tidbit that I know you all will really be on the edge of your seats for. It's from "Sam's Science" and will show you just a little bit about the "history" of the secret Valders Library room...



This is from my own files and the printed version from my publisher may contain some edits to the text, but the scene's sentiments will remain the same.



Enjoy!



It had been a typical Saturday afternoon for Sam in the quiet farming town he’d lived in all his life. His parents were home with his baby sister who was almost three months old.

“Hey, Saint,” said Sam’s mom, Jo. “You’re all done with your homework and we’ve still got the whole weekend. Why don’t you head down to the library and pick out a couple of books for today and tomorrow. Get something you can read to your sister, too, Baby.”

So, the library was where he went. The small building was just a few blocks from his house. It was tiny on the outside, but filled to the brim with books on the inside. Sam was sure that Valders Town Library was stocked with as much reading material as a big, city library, although, Sam had never been to one of those.

“Afternoon, Sam,” Ms. Fable, the story teller, had greeted him. “Done with your homework again?”

“Yep. Anything new in science this week?

“Not this week, hon’. Well, except in magazines. No new books, though. Sorry. How’s Keisha doing?”

“She’s good. Eats a lot. Cries a lot. Mom and Dad are tired.”

“That’s to be expected, Sam. And you?”

“I’m good. Okay if I look through the top shelf books?”

“Sam, you know where the ladder is by now. I always let you help yourself. But, I’m pretty sure you’ve read it all by now,” said the kind, green-eyed woman with a friendly wink.

“I have. But, I’m going back through the alphabet again. Last week I did Amelia Earhart. She was the last one on the bottom of the first shelf, so I’m up to the top again.”

“Oh, the E’s,” smiled the story teller. “A lot of historical greats in that letter!”

“Yep. I’ll be in reference, then.”

“Okay. I close up early today, though. First weekend of the month, remember? So, I’m gonna shut things down up here. You can keep at your search until I have all of my work done, then I’ll have to check you out.”

Sam walked to the back of the jam-packed little building, past the children’s section, past reading and studying areas, past the table in the middle where there was a computerized card catalog system and into the tall shelving units holding all of his favorite books about the true things in life. Sam always thought real life was far more exciting than anything fiction could offer.

Sam went to the corner of the back of the room and rolled the large bookshelf ladder around the curve from the side wall to the back. He continued to wheel the creaky, wooden platform as he had many times before to the nonfiction and biography books he treasured. He rolled past politics and religion toward the sciences that held his interest. When he reached the first shelf, the shelf that held Adams, Charles Christopher to Earhart, Amelia, he stopped. He didn’t mean to stop, but the ladder simply would not move forward. Sam pulled against it only to hear a metallic clunk as the ladder bumped against an invisible barrier of some sort in the top rail. Again, he pulled and again he heard the ladder jerk against something he could not see.

“Ms. Fable,” Sam called across the library knowing he was the only one left and the quiet library rule would not apply.

“What is it?” she called back.

“I’m sorry to bother you, but the ladder isn’t moving.”

In a moment, the story teller had reached him and, together, the two pulled the ladder to no positive response.

“Well, perhaps it caught on something. This library’s been around for longer than I have,” laughed the woman whose older age never seemed to show through her childlike eyes. “I’m sure these ladders are just as old. Let’s push it backward, shall we?”

Sam began to push back on the ladder but it felt suddenly heavy.

“I can’t do it, Ms. Fable. It’s heavy.”

“Don’t be silly. You may not be as old as your fellow students, Sam. But, certainly you’re strong enough to push a ladder you’ve pushed at least a dozen times before!” she joked to the young man. “Let me give it a shove.”

The frail story teller leaned her body against the moving wooden steps and found the same difficulty, as though there were a heavy resistance like that of a captain’s wheel on an old ship.

“Well, I’ll be, Sam. You’re right. Let’s do this together. On three.”

Ms. Fable reached up over Sam and he pushed against the lower steps on the ladder. With the weight of their entire bodies, they slowly walked it back along its rail. Rather than rolling, it brushed forward like a great, heavy garden gate, with an antique creaking like the entrance of a haunted house. It was no small task as the young man and old woman sweat and struggled against the new and unexpected weight of the ladder, squinting their eyes closed tightly through the strain. Then, as the ladder pushed past Adams through Earhart, another heavy clunk caught the steps, pushing Ms. Fable into Sam and Sam into the ladder for a brief second before both fell to the ground like birds that fly into a sliding glass door.

Laughing slightly at the absurdity of it all, Sam opened his eyes and stopped his guffaw mid-breath.

“Ms…uh…Ms., Ms. Fable?” he trembled in awe.

Her back was to the wall with the ladder as she saw her favorite library lover raise a shaky arm and point a finger to the place behind her from which they’d fallen. Slowly, she turned. Where there had been the first shelf of science biographies was now a barren wall. It was as though the ladder had served as an eraser to remove it completely from the library.

“Um,” she managed. “Don’t be afraid, Sam,” she added.

While he heard these words, though, Sam sensed that even his trusty storyteller had fear beginning to pulse through her own veins. He began to scan through explanation after possible explanation in his brain, but even Sam’s near-genius intelligence could come up with nothing to help this make sense.

He took a breath to speak, despite not knowing just what to say, but was stopped when, at the shelf beginning with Edison, Thomas Alva there popped the erased first shelf of science biographies. Then, the Edison shelf jumped forward an entire shelf space, scooting the third shelf forward a full space until, like a track of enormous wooden dominoes with books for dots, the entire library began to shake and vibrate with popping, moving and expanding shelves and books around the story teller and the eleven-year-old.

In place of the the words he had hoped to speak, gasps and screams escaped Sam’s mouth. Ms. Fable put her arms around Sam’s shoulders to calm him through the chaos. Her eyes were moist with terror while the library she had always known transformed wildly, loudly and nearly endlessly around them.

“It’s okay, Sam. It’s okay,” she comforted.

It seemed to go on for hours, like waiting out a storm when you’re standing within it. Sam squeezed his eyes shut and pulled an inhaler out of a pocket. He almost never used it, but now was surely a time that called for his trusted asthma relief. He breathed in heavily and told himself that this wasn’t really happening. He breathed again. It couldn’t happen. He breathed again. It wasn’t realistic. He breathed again. It wasn’t possible. At last, with a final, deafening CRACK the library walls themselves seemed to exhale a gigantic sigh and settle, as though the building had simply had a fit of coughing and finally stopped.

Sam breathed in again.

He opened his eyes and looked at Ms. Fable whose eyes had never closed. She loosened her arm’s grip around Sam’s shoulders and he relaxed away from her. The room around them had changed completely. There used to be windows and pictures and now, the expanded book shelves pushed into the windows and covered up the picturess. Books of every size now stood in stacks down the aisles of the library, at the end of shelves and on tables. The library, which was always full to capacity, now looked positively bursting with titles in covers of every shape and color. The floor beneath he and Ms. Fable was still in place and, as far as he could tell, the two of them were still in one piece. The bit of blank wall was still in front of them, though. It was the only unfilled bit of space he could see in the entire building.

“What…what just…just happened?” he asked quietly.

“I – “

Before Ms. Fable answered, a scratching noise sounded from the wall before them. Both instinctively scooted backward but were unable to tear their eyes away from the wall. An action joined the sound. A golden line began to appear on the wall, as if being drawn there. A large rectangle was created. A small circle appeared at waist height. For a moment, the golden line appeared to shimmer. Then, the wall seemed to breathe in, sinking upon itself. With another crack like that they’d heard at the end of the room’s changes, the wall breathed back out popping a door into the outline drawn. On the door, growing like a vine upon a brick wall, a sign swelled up and letters became visible like the fruit of this vine. They read:

Warning!

Books in this room require:

A love of reading,

An active imagination,

And a strong sense of adventure.

Once you begin a story, you must complete it.

No editing allowed.

Enter at your own Risk!

Back to School!

I am so excited to get back into my programs this year.  I have two full day programs coming up in Mukwonago, Wisconsin and Valders, Wisconsin and I am just thrilled to be back at it. 

It's been a quiet year for programs as a lot of schools have sadly had to cut out author-in-residence and assembly programs.  As a mother of three school-aged children and a member of the PTO, I understand budgetary restraints.  So, getting the opportunity to work with a student body on reading and writing, and - more important - to develop the DESIRE for young ladies and gentlemen to divulge in the written word, is truly an honor. 

I never take for granted the chances I get to share my love of literature with the youngest readers.  Rather, I take joy in the entire learning and applying process.

Well...as these wonderful events close in, I don't have much time to drop a line in the blog and I need to get back to practice and prep for the success of these upcoming presentations.  Be joyful!

In writing,
Reji

Brand New Year - Brand New Blog

For those of you who have just found me, WELCOME! I'm glad to have you and hope you'll become a follower!

This blogging thing is new to me, although, I have an active website at http://www.rejilaberje.com/ and a Fan Club in groups on Facebook (Reji Laberje Fan Club). But, it's a new year and there is just so much going on with Reji Laberje Author Programs that I realized it was time to hook up the blog to get the latest to you on the goings on behind the scenes of this company made for sharing the love of the written word in books and programs.

For those of you who know me and my work, this is just one more way to keep up on all of the exciting programs, products, and events offered by Reji Laberje Author Programs - WELCOME to you as well!

You can expect some personalization and customization of this blog and its material in the coming weeks and months. For now, I'm going to share my New Year message from the fan club:

January 3 - January 10

Happy New Year!

I hope all of you have had a wonderful and fulfilling of a holiday as I have. In addition, as noted by my less frequent Fan Club Updates here lately, the last few months have been very busy for Reji Laberje Author Programs! Happily, I was busy presenting to scouting groups. I kept busy with several vendor events. I held fundraisers. (Just recently, we sent off year-end checks to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Special Olympics, The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and the ASPCA...these add to other charities supported by Reji Laberje Author Programs in 2009 including The National Kidney Foundation, and local schools and scouting organizations.) I excitedly met again with illustrator John Konecny, this time to finish the plans for the soon-to-be-released "The Tale Travelers Books 2-5, Meet the Travelers". It should come out shortly after the other anthology I have coming out in "The Kids I Know". PLUS - I'm thrilled to announce new hire Lisa Roberts has joined the ranks of Reji Laberje Author Programs as my marketing manager.

In general, I am just thoroughly excited about all of the wonderful products and programs we'll be bringing you in 2010.

AND, the Cross My Heart Line of products by Reji Laberje has significantly grown. The Cross My Heart Line includes greeting cards, bookmarks, magnets, mini-books, and bookends. These products will soon join the listening library and bookstore recently added to the Reji Laberje Online Store at http://www.rejilaberje.com/.

It is this last note of productivity for which I am finally back at sharing with you all the excerpt of the week. My new magnet line is inspired by the concept of goal setting. In order to live more positively, the greatest of leaders in this world in all fields seem to all stand firm in the belief that GOAL SETTING is a necessity and that goals should be placed in a prominent location as routine reminders. My magnets are meant to share positive messages in order to keep us on track. I thought of few better places for routine reminders of positive living than on a refrigerator door that most of us pass at least daily. The messages on my seven magnets are as follows:

"If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, you're watering the wrong lawn."

"Just take my hand and walk with me, in this place where things won't always be. Life might seem barren where we're at, but I know it won't when looking back. This is Deciduous Way."

"It's not in our nature to idolize the ordinary. But, you're extraordinary."

"More than a talent, for it is an enjoyment. More than an indulgence for self, it is an enrichment for others. A gift is not to you, it is through you."

"Dirty the water! (It's the Christian thing to do.)"

"When you can't bounce back, learn to crawl."

"Don't take a walk on the edge of joy...jump right in!"

All of the magnets are hand-crafted, and colorful. They are heavy duty and able to hold up to five pages of paper. The sayings, all copywritten by Reji Laberje, are all available on a beaded bookmark as well!

Happy New Year and here is to a year of productivity and positive living!

In Writing,
Reji