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with Kathleen Gibson Nov. 26, 2008 How to Keep Your Balloons Together My new job as magazine editor feels a size too large most days, and several on the rest. For twenty-odd years, I sat (in a mostly minor sort of way) at the other end of the media industry. I sent my articles thither and yon, usually one at a time. At first I tucked my writing hours between parenting and pets, family potlucks and church disasters�oops, other way round. Then, following a Divine nudge, and with the Preacher�s blessing, word-juggling became my full-time priority. Playing Scrabble for money, I call it. My words went out. My words came back. Often a rejection letter accompanied their return; sometimes a paycheque. I read them in magazines and newspapers, heard them on the radio, and watched as others acted them out. Once I discovered them on the pages of a government-produced high school English exam, followed by the kinds of question I hated back in high school. �What do you think could have motivated the writer of this article to choose orange? What does the metaphor tell us about her unfulfilled desires?� Sheesh. And all I meant was that the house was a really weird color! Magazine editing, I�m discovering, demands an entirely different sort of word-juggling�and a far different pace than my customary one-article-at-a-time linear approach. A few weeks into the job, I contacted my former editor-in-chief at Reader�s Digest. He�s editing a different publication now. We find each other, every so often. �Murray,� I said. �I feel as though I�m standing in the middle of a windy field, hanging into a huge bouquet of helium balloons. They�re either going to take off in a thousand directions, or fly away in one bunch�taking me with them. Is this normal?� �Hate to tell you this,� Murray replied. �I�ve been an editor for twenty-four years, and I feel like that every day.� Nice friends, editors, if you can get �em. But Murray Lewis didn�t stop there. In response to my panicked plea for help, he made himself available to me. He�s emailed, called, sent charts�gone out of his way to help this rookie editor negotiate the wilds on the opposite end of the freelance articles. I�m immensely grateful. Murray has a secret, and one I needed reminding of. Years ago, while at the helm of one of the most prestigious magazines in the world, managing a job consisting primarily of the third highest occupational stressor�deadlines�Murray told me what keeps his own balloons together. � �Be still and know that I am God� is still the reassurance that does most to see me though life. Sometimes the words �Be Still� will pop into my head and create a sudden moment of grace in the midst of the usual distraction of daily life. Such an oasis�the sudden opportunity to reflect and to be reminded�is a wonderful treasure.� If Murray can do that, I can too. Whatever your primary stressor�remember to be still. Remember to breathe. Remember God. �2008, Kathleen Gibson P.S. You can find the company that dared to hire me at: www.prairiesnorth.com Reply Home |
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