by Sandy Kirby Quandt @SandyKQuandt

Borrowing a phrase from that spinach-eating sailor, Popeye, I thought about how sometimes life shivers our timbers. Especially when our world shifts, as it has recently, leaving us to balance the teeter-totter of life without hitting the ground with a solid thud. 

Purely on a lark, I watched the 1934 Popeye cartoon, “Shiver Me Timbers”. While I watched this film, I couldn’t help make comparisons between Popeye, Olive, and Wimpy’s adventure, and our adventure of writing.

In this cartoon Popeye, Olive, and Wimpy stumble across a ghost ship. After they climb aboard, various things proceed to scare them. Be forewarned. There are ghosts and skeletons galore to frighten them off the ship. Scary things try to force them to abandon their plans and turn back. Are you seeing any similarities yet?

Right off, Popeye disappears. As Olive and Wimpy search for him, they run into trouble. Hamburgers disappear before Wimpy can get them into his mouth. Olive falls into a barrel of flour. When it looks like all is lost, the ship’s mast falls and breaks around Popeye’s feet, literally shivering his timbers. 

But have no fear. Popeye knows where his courage and strength lie. He pulls out a can of spinach, tosses it into his mouth, and voila. Just like that. He is able to conquer all the scary things which surround him, restore peace, and sail on smooth seas once more. 

Does that in any way describe how you feel at times on your writing journey? I know it does me.

The word shiver originally referred to a small piece, fragment, or splinter of something, or to the act of breaking something into many small pieces. Shiver me/my timbers refers to the splintering of wooden ships upon rough seas.

In the writing world our timbers might get shivered. Our dreams might shatter and be broken into many small pieces. We might break away from our moorings and feel displaced by the pressures and strains of our call to write. We might even feel as if the wooden ship we are on will surely go under in the rough seas that threaten to pull us under. 

Maybe our enthusiasm or time to write disappears like Popeye did when he stepped onto the ship. Or possibly, like Wimpy, those things we desire and were positive within our reach, vanish from sight. Perhaps, as was the case with Olive, we fall into a barrel of flour which keeps our true identity hidden. 

Hold on. There is hope. 

When the mast of our writing ship falls around our feet in tiny fragments shivering our timbers, we need to do what Popeye did. We need to go to the source of our strength. 

Popeye had his spinach to strengthen him. We have the Creator God who placed the desire to write inside us to strengthen us. 

Although tides of life might pull us off the course God set for our writing journey, pieces of our writing dreams shiver and lay splintered on the deck, our main mast splits in two from critiques, reviews, and rejections, and our sails of hope tatter and tear, it is possible to steady our ship.  

Steadying our ship when our writing timbers are shivered requires stepping away from the helm, and allowing God to take over. It requires continuously reorienting our purpose to the Guiding Star to set the course.

It requires pulling out that can of spinach, tossing it into our mouths, and declaring with assured confidence, “I’m strong to the finish, ’cause I eats me spinach. I’m (insert your name here) the Child of God.” 

In what ways have your timbers been shivered lately?

Sandy Kirby Quandt is a former elementary school educator and full-time writer with a passion for God, history, and travel; passions that often weave their way into her stories and articles. She has written numerous articles, devotions, and stories for adult and children publications. Her devotions appear in two Worthy Publishing compilation books; So God Made a Dog, and Let the Earth Rejoice. She has won several awards for writing including the 85th and 86th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition in the Young Adult category, First Place in the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference Children’s Literature 2016 Foundation Awards, First Place in the 2017 Foundation Awards in the Young Adult, Middle Grade, and Flash Fiction categories. Looking for words of encouragement or gluten-free recipes? Then check out Sandy’s blog, Woven and Spun.