Amy Baik Lee
I met Amy Baik Lee a couple years ago in Nashville, at Hutchmoot, a lovely conference hosted by the Rabbit Room. She was one of the people that I wished to spend more time with, other than a sweet hallway conversation, but had no idea how that would happen (she lives in Colorado and I in Pennsylvania). To my delight, when Lancia Smith asked me to join Cultivating, I saw that Amy was already part of this community. To add to this goodness, as we dialogued through facebook or email, I learned that we shared a love of poetry, especially poetry that focused on the details of everyday, ordinary home life. This poem A Pot of Red Lentils was a particular favorite for us both. Also, we share a love of some of the same books, as well as a desire to cultivate lovely activities and environments for our loved ones.
I love how Amy puts words together. Her writing is both rooted and yet ethereal, capturing the joy and struggle of life. Her poetic way reminds me of the mystery and magic of life. I don’t know how she does it, yet I’m always grateful after I have read her words and thoughts.
In May 2020, she was one of the speakers for the Anselm Society’s Imagination Redeemed Conference. Because it was on-line, Ned and I listened/watched Amy’s talk together while he worked on a linocut at the kitchen table. Her title —“From Rivendell to Rohan: Creating Art in War Time —interested us both.
I commend her website A Homeward Life to you. She offers blog posts and essays that are good for the heart and mind. Here is a taste of her website and words:
“My movable corner of the world has always carried an unquenched homesickness: an ache stirred by memories of the past, beauty and sorrow and joy in the present, and news from Narnia, Middle-earth, Glome, Avonlea, Haarlem, and beyond. Much of my writing is about signposts like these, and the true country they herald.”
Also, for good encouragement, listen to her talk for Anselm Society. From Rivendell to Rohan: Creating Art in the Time of War.
And lastly, she is one of the writers for my book Wild Things and Castles in the Sky! Her essay is called “Of Healing Gardens and Twilit Valleys: Narrating Nature to Find Life.”
Her opening lines are an example of why I am a fan and grateful to call her a long-distance friend.. . .
“One night while running errands, not very long ago, I turned my car onto the long road heading home and gasped.
The moon was low in the sky, four times its usual size, a three-quarter disc of hammered light. Black shadow sliced across its upper right quadrant so that it hung like an immense and luminous chipped pearl above the darkening skyline.
Perhaps because my mind was fresh from journeying through C.S. Lewis’s Out of the Silent Planet, I paused to marvel at length when I stopped at a red light — and with a start, I realized I was looking upon an object older than the history of men. . . “
A photo from her website and the essay The Crabapple Tree.
