While most of you know by now that I’m an English Literature major at Belmont University, you probably don’t know that I’m actually double majoring; English Literature, of course, and Religion & the Arts with a concentration in photography. From the beginning of high school on, I’ve always had an interest in religion and I chose Belmont because of its unique School of Religion. After taking a British Literature class my sophomore year (of course it was British literature), I knew I had to be a literature major so I officially added it right before junior year and I haven’t looked back.

Although literature is and always will be dear to my heart, the study of religion has always been “my thing.” As a person who comes from the Christian tradition, I have always been interested in the ways Christianity defined God and his nature. Most recently I have been taking a class titled “Spirituality in World Religions,” and during the class we visit the sacred spaces of the five main world religions. It is amazing to discover the depth and richness of other religious traditions, and the beauty found in other religions’ worship of God is astonishing. Religion and spirituality are two aspects of life that bring all people together, although they are certainly not always seen this way.

Religion was important to Jane Austen as well. Although she only directly references religion in Mansfield Park, choosing instead to leave her own religious opinions out of her work, she was a member of the Church of England and her own religious tradition was quite important to her. While she was steadfast in her faith, Austen was wary of Evangelicals and believed religion to be a more private affair.

While many could successfully argue that Austen never writes religiously, I tend to disagree. She is known for her realism and social commentary, both of which are important to the understanding of humanity then and now. To write about the society around her was to explore the very nature of life as she knew it, which can speak to many on a spiritual level.

My favorite theologian, Frederick Buechner, wrote, “Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.”

I believe that Jane Austen truly listened to her life and the lives of the people around her. She questioned the social practices of her time and wrote about the things in life that interested, confused, excited, and bothered her. This attitude towards literature might not be explicitly religious, but I am convinced that it is just as important to know and understand the nature of life as it is to “preach” the truth.

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I didn’t mean to get that tremendously high score on Bejeweled Blitz. In the weekly scores, I consistently run second to my friend Lori B., so usually I’m just trying to beat her score. But this time, by some freak of nature or coincidence, I scored just a tad over 500,000. Wow.

Which made me very happy for about a day. And then I realized two things. One, I would likely never match that score again, and, two, for the rest of the week, the person who I would be trying to beat every time I played the game was…me.

That’s the problem with accomplishing something extraordinary. What do you do to top it?

I can think of authors (not me!) who have faced this dilemma. Charles Frasier and Cold Mountain. Any number of Oprah authors. Or Harper Lee and To Kill A Mockingbird. It’s hard to be phenomenal twice in a row.

But, then, maybe that’s the problem, thinking that we have to be phenomenal all the time. That a tremendous success takes away the significance of smaller ones. This week, I scored over 300K several times in Bejewleed Blitz. Until now, those would have been amazing scores. Now I look at them and yawn politely. That, though, is my mistake.

The real secret to Bejeweled Blitz (and to writing) is to keep on playing (or writing) no matter what. Whether our successes are small or large, whether we’re on the upswing or tanking, the point is to keep on doing what we’re doing. Because the point of it is the doing, not the score or the published book.

So I’m back to playing Bejeweled Blitz. On Tuesday, they’ll wipe out the weekly scores and it will be like my 500K never happened. On the book front, my books (and almost everyone else’s) will eventually be remaindered and disappear from the shelves. While it’s a comfort to know that ebook versions will remain, for the most part, those books will disappear from the market.

The results of our work can be amazing or less than what we hoped for. But whatever they are, eventually the results will disappear. The only thing we’ll have left is what we’ve learned and enjoyed along the way. So I’ll keep playing Bejeweled Blitz because it helps to ease my stress. I’ll also keep writing, whether my books hit the NY Times bestseller list or (tank).

It’s the process, silly. I forget that sometimes.

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It’s been my pleasure and privilege to have a fabulous intern from Belmont University this spring semester. Stephanie has done wondrous things for my online presence (hence her official title of The Wondrous Intern). She’s going to be guest blogging from time to time, so here’s an intro post. Everyone make her feel welcome!

From the Wondrous Intern….

Every college student needs an internship, right? As my professors were pressuring me to find an internship and threatening my life, my career, and my future happiness if I did not, I desperately began meeting with my internship advisor and contacting potential internships. A whole lot of nothing was happening when an internship with Beth Pattillo practically fell into my lap. While I was relieved to have finally found something, I was also ecstatic at the prospect of working with a successful author, especially an author who loves Jane Austen as much as I do.

I’ve been working with Beth for a few months now and it has been such a rewarding experience. Not only am I learning the ins and outs of the writing and publishing worlds, but I’ve also been perfecting my blogging skills through the management of her Twitter, Facebook fan page, and upcoming newsletters (and who doesn’t love to blog?).

The experiences I’m having and lessons I’m learning while working with Beth are so beneficial to my studies and my future as a writer. More than that, however, I also find myself falling in love with literature all over again, an event I certainly did not foresee. I spend an hour or two every day looking through the latest news concerning Jane Austen, the Regency period, and various quotes from her novels and letters. Every day I become more and more interested in the woman who wrote Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, two of my all-time favorite novels. Through learning about her life and interacting with Beth, who uses her stories and life to create new literature that so many people adore, I’m learning to appreciate the power of fiction even more. I think Austen says it best in one of my favorite passages of hers in Northanger Abbey:

“‘Oh! It is only a novel!” replies the young lady, while she lays down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame. ‘It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda”; or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language.”

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