16 Comments
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Kaytlynn Knyfd's avatar

I LOVE these link loves. Thank you thank you thank you for sharing these gems.

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Lore Wilbert's avatar

Of course! I love gathering them for you =)

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Jennifer Howland's avatar

The Lord tells us we will be crushed, shaken but not destroyed. And how can any war anywhere leave us feeling anything but? Or a two-tour Iraq Marine police officer, husband and father gunned down in his own country on the job?

And then there’s Lore. Right down there with us in the muck and mire. We used to have mud hikes when I was growing up that would leave is covered from head to toe. You couldn’t tell who was who—not even male from female. We would laugh, hose off, and voila! Like baptism, clean, distinguished in our person and our features as God made us.

Moving through all that in writing is probably, Lore, the challenge of your life. You do it with and for your readers. You help us move through the process of the bath we must take after the world is done with us and point us to Jesus. That is fellowship at its core. Thank you.

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Lore Wilbert's avatar

Oh my, these words. Thank you. They made me tear up reading them. Thank you. Truly.

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Nicole Eckerson's avatar

We also do the four gift rule. But I bend the rules and don't put a limit on how many things in each category I get. 😏 But I also bought my children socks for "something you need" lest you think I'm completely incorrigible.

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Janero Stokes's avatar

Nicole and Lore, let me tell you what my daughter Mary suggested & her sisters agreed with her. Nana and papa didn’t but we did as requested (requested is saying it politely). Three gifts, no exceptions, 3 gifts are what the wise men brought to baby Jesus and so it is more than enough for us to give. I reluctantly agreed to their request (rule) and it has been fantastic, even better than imaginable.

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Drew Brown's avatar

Oh my goodness. I'm sitting at my desk at work right now and am not sure what to do with myself. Truly, thank you for your kindness and generosity in sharing my Substack. I've been thinking a lot about what it means to be a generative writer and person, and you model that so well. I am grateful to follow along and learn from you!

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Lore Wilbert's avatar

Drew, keep writing. The cream rises to the top, whether or not other writers help churn it there. Good writing is generative and begets generatively. So keep writing, you're doing good work.

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Gigi's avatar

"It crushes us and then it gets crushed and then becomes a part of us and then becomes a part of others and eventually we don’t know its absence so much anymore but we reap the fruit of its presence for eternity, a cycle of life, strangely, made up entirely of death." Lore, this line gave me chills. It's so so true, and so so painful.

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Lore Wilbert's avatar

It is true and painful. I wish it wasn't, but I'm not sure we would learn it so deep down within us if it wasn't.

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Aimee Guest's avatar

I also loved the Nick Cave conversation. "Loss is a universal state" is one quote I wrote down from that conversation. And it seem true to me the longer I live. His "into my arms" song is in the movie About Time, which is top favorite movie of mine. Highly recommend if you haven't watched.

Wonderful links and this-this is my experience as well:

"This is how grief works, I think. It crushes us and then it gets crushed and then becomes a part of us and then becomes a part of others and eventually we don’t know its absence so much anymore but we reap the fruit of its presence for eternity, a cycle of life, strangely, made up entirely of death."

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Lore Wilbert's avatar

I love About Time too! I forgot that song was in it!

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Jon Ward's avatar

hi Sara :) and yes, Lore, the new year feels much more like an aging milestone, and my birthday is in May. I love the season of taking stock. Thanks for all the incredible links. Thank you sincerely and thank you sarcastically, since it's not helping my productivity

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Lore Wilbert's avatar

Haha! Here to help =)

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Sara Billups's avatar

Yes! Drew Brown is one of my favorite writers and a wonderful human,

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Lore Wilbert's avatar

Thank you for introducing him to me!

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