Concluding

Titles like "concluding" or "good-bye" or "signing off" on a blog always strike fear into my heart that the blogger is ceasing. No one has really done that to me yet, though. I think that to start blogging, you have to be a writer at heart, and no matter how busy you get, you cannot altogether abandon the art.

No, I'm talking about concluding and finishing, in general. You may have noticed if you read my last post that I'm not very good at wrapping up my writing. In a grammar book today I read that you should avoid phrases like "in conclusion," or ending letters with "I can't think of anything else to say, so I'll close." How horrible! Of course they don't suggest creative ways to close. They just forbid the obvious.

Ending things makes me sad. Maybe that's why I have so little practice. Yes, this morning our youth pastor's wife was sharing about her grandmother. The old woman was a starter. She started dozens of quilts and projects before she died which she never finished. The youth pastor's wife's mother took it upon herself, as a finisher, to complete every project. I am more like the grandmother. You may have gathered that from my post about reading books.

For example, I have four serious stories half-written right now. One is novel-length, waiting to be typed and edited before I attempt to have it published. Yet there is this concept and story in my head that is just dying to try itself out on paper. So the debate is whether to buckle down and finish at least one of the others, or to begin yet another narrative in hopes that someday my descendants will publish "the collected unfinished works of Lisa." One can dream.

To God be all glory.