Quotation Saturday

“The best things and best people rise out of their separateness; I’m
against a homogenized society because I want the cream to rise.”
- Robert Frost

HAPPINESS
"Choose a career you love and you will never have to go to work."
-Denis Waitley

Hoping to live days of greater happiness, I forget that days of less happiness are passing by.
-Elisabeth Bishop

My days of whining and complaining about others have come to an end. Nothing is easier than fault-finding. All it will do is discolor my personality so that none will want to associate with me. That was my old life. No more.
-Og Mandino

VISION

“A visionary is one who can find his way by moonlight, and see the dawn before the rest of the world.” -Oscar Wilde

If you don’t have a vision, then your reality will always be determined by other’s perceptions.” -Melanee Addison


CHARACTER

Just as an oak tree grows from a little acorn so does great character grow from a great many decisions that may at the time seem very minor.
-Ben M. Herbster

The man of character, sensitive to the meaning of what he is doing, will know how to discover the ethical paths in the maze of possible behavior.
-Earl Warren

HUMOR

“Laughter is to life what shock absorbers are to automobiles: It won’t take the potholes out of the road, but it sure makes the ride smoother.”
-Barbara Johnson

“The saving grace of America lies in the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans are possessed of two great qualities: a sense of humor and a sense of proportion.” -Franklin Delano Roosevelt

“Above all things, and at all times, practice yourself in good humor.”
-Thomas Jefferson

Poetry Sunday~ Memories

Home is not where your material things are, it's where memories are made. ~joni

***

Memories

***

On the walls where children
displayed in a montage grew
Memories tucked in boxes;
nostalgia all askew.

They climbed the stairs as babies
footfalls have all faded.
Silent is the house they grew,
no memories for them jaded.

Barren walls; no longer filled
with all the kids that were
an intricate part of the shape
the small ones not a blur.

The new house sits by waiting
for the rooms to cradle laughter
All grown up they come to visit
for memories that they’re after.

Some will say sweet sentiments
were hung from the bough
No longer there for us to see
A new nest awaits us now.

Grandma is what made the home
a blessed place to be.
Now she fills a place her own
with room for the family!

*

For Mom

Quotation Saturday

INNER BEAUTY~

“The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman is seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides. True beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It's the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows & the beauty of a woman only grows with passing years."
-Audrey Hepburn

"Our hearts are drunk with a beauty our eyes could never see."
-George W. Russell

"People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within."
-Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

CONFIDENCE ~

Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happ
-Norman Vincent Peale (1898 - 1993)

Every time you don't follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness.
-ShaktiGawain

Often we don't even realize who we're meant to be because we're so busy trying to live out someone else's ideas. But other people and their opinions hold no power in defining our destiny.
-Oprah Winfrey (1954 - ), O Magazine, November 2009

Poetry Sunday~ Radiance

Job 18: 5 Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.
***
Radiance

A source of light shines on me
rain-droplets on my being.
Something strong and powerful
I share what I am seeing.

The rays fall upon my skin;
caress the intricate line.
Shield my eyes to catch a glimpse
of the radiant love so fine.

Fingertips run across
my arms, my neck, my face,
prickled hairs stand on end
a momentous act of grace.

Standing in a humbled bow
I raise my eyes to see,
my wondrous Lord and Savior
staring right through me.

Melting in His presence
I drink from his beauty.
Never turning away from Him,
His call my earthly duty.

Psalm 13:3  Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;

Quotation Saturday

Romans 5:5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
***

POTENTIAL/POSSIBILITIES

“Refrain from asking what is going to happen tomorrow, and everyday that fortune grants you, count as gain.”
-Horace

“There is more in us than we know. If we can be made to see it perhaps for the rest of our lives we will be unwilling to settle for less.”
-Kurt Hahn

“Life can be lived more fully if people simply quit pretending to be who they were told to be, and be who they really are…”
-Doug Firebaugh

“To accomplish great things, we must not only act but also dream. Not only plan but also believe.”
-Anatole France

When people complain of life, it is almost always because they have asked impossible things from it.
-Ernest Renan


All too often we are living in the past, preoccupied with something that has happened to us; or we are living in the future, waiting for a time when life will treat us magnificently and we will be happy; or worrying about what lies ahead and how we will cope....But every day of our lives brings the opportunity for a new beginning, and there was never a better time to be.
-Eileen Campbell

PLANNING

“I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacations with better care than they plan their lives. Perhaps that is because escape is easier than change.”
-Jim Rohn

“Every evening, write down the six most important things that you must do the next day. Then while you sleep your subconscious will work on the best ways for you to accomplish them. Your next day will go much more smoothly.”
-Tom Hopkins

“Planning is a real waste of time.... for those who waste time.”
-Doug Firebaugh

“Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.”
-Susan Ertz

HOPE

The important thing is not that we can live on hope alone, but that life is not worth living without it.
-Harvey Milk


Take from a man his wealth, and you hinder him; take from him his purpose, and you slow him down. But take from man his hope, and you stop him. He can go on without wealth, and even without purpose, for awhile. But he will not go on without hope.
-C. Neil Strait

Changes II

Job 17:12 They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.
***

There are times in life, where life changes, the story changes, things happen and the conflict in your story arises. I remember the saying, “Life is stranger than fiction.” And now as I come to this leg in my journey I believe it.

I remember being a very hidden and isolated person about 8 years ago and for 20 years before that. My life consisted of waking, eating, sleeping and moving along while writing with a pen in my hand and a well worn out notebook on my lap. My how times have changed.

Some people don’t like change and some people embrace change. The new me has accepted the fact that without embracing change we leave ourselves vulnerable to all sorts of insecurities. We become introverted not allowing the extrovert release.

Is it in you or your character to be molded by change? Had I not accepted change so readily, I would be back in Baltimore doing for others, waiting for a new day, never being allowed the freedom of thinking on my own. I like thinking on my own. My freedom has allowed me that.

But with this freedom comes downfalls. I have to be open to the realization that downfalls are all a part of the story. How can we ever expect to have a happy ending if we don’t allow our characters the chance to grow through change and conflict. My life has been a whirlwind of change and conflict. Sure I was getting stagnate back home and I had a God slap moment where He woke me up and said, “Is this what I created you for?”

I have to be willing to listen to that little voice of God inside my head, whether it is a story’s direction, my life’s path, or knowledge of what and where things are supposed to be placed.

F2k has changed. I like the change and embrace the change, but it is outside the realm of the inner compulsion to leave everything right where it is, don’t move, kind of instinct. My story has changed, life is changing and as Summer swells, the world is moving fast and I need to hold on to something or someone.

Beau’s mom has bought a house. She’s moving in a couple of weeks and even at her age, she needs to embrace change and all that entails. He couldn’t see the house, but we went over to look at it anyway. He felt his way around and I could feel his heart skipping beats with each new thing he couldn’t see but wishes he could. He’s excited for her, don’t get me wrong, but he also aches knowing that this is not in his routine of the way things are, and were always supposed to be.

I’m sorry honey, but life is an ever changing ball of wax. Sometimes it melts away, sometimes it molds itself into solid lucidity, and sometimes you may even touch the fine fabric and appreciate all the changes the wax went through to get to this very moldable point in its existence.

A whole lotta shaking going on...

Ps. 55: 19 God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.
***

Change...

Like sands through the hourglass...so are the days of our lives. I like that. But did you notice sand in an hourglass never changes? Never. The poor grains are caught up in a bottle on the brink of suffocation and all you can do is turn it upside down to get a different perspective of the granules, but they’re the same granules, same sand.

Can you imagine a life without change? I know a lot of people think change is a horrible aspect of their lives that they wish would just stop happening. Can you imagine a child without a changed diaper? A child who never made it past one?

Life is all about change and when it happens, you either embrace it, or get left behind in a stagnate mode, a funk where you become timid and anti-social almost unable to function in the world.

Last week we began f2k. It was the old site, our old rooms, our old fellowship. Then something happened. As with many site’s, it began its descent and people were having problems logging in, unable to post, they were frantically trying to gain access only to find, there was no access to be had.

So Bob Hembree, creator of f2k, created an entire NEW f2k site. It was in the works for a while but he wanted to run it through the testing phases before he used it. Well guess what happened last week? He placed the New F2K Social site up and we all had to migrate to the site or be left behind. (sounds like a book)

We marched into the social scene and started posting, we scrambled along like a herd of cattle being led into a pen. We migrated and changed. Tweaks were made, friends were requested, ‘like’s were going up like fireworks and we settled into our new digs like a butt in wet sand.

The new site is like facebook and it can be quite a frenzied day when you see numerous posts, trying to read and take it all in. I stick to my room. It keeps me out of trouble. You know how you have friends on FB, well on this site of 490 students, they friend request you. Go ahead, friend request me, I try to accept, but it doesn’t work. Glitches are inevitable too. I’m not trying to win a popularity contest which is what it feels like. Do all these people REALLY want to be my friend or just rack up their friends quota?

Imagine if on facebook, you had hundreds of friends all posting, and not one of them ‘hidden’. Kinda crazy, yes?

I’m open to change. Just ask me what happened eight years ago when the most massive change of my life happened. I didn’t hide from it, cower to it, run from it, I instead embraced it. And look at me now! All the better for the change.

F2k has taken on the change and the students are embracing it. It’s what writers do. We embrace change.

Poetry Sunday~ Out of the Dark...

Psalm 146: 8 The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous:
***
Out of the Dark
***
The colors hang in the balance
the fluid splendor of delight,
is floating on a breeze
so softly stills the night.

Lights dimmed as it carries
a fragrance thus abounds.
I’m left with no glory
only clamor of the sounds.

Fireworks hold the flame
the torch of heat is present
the sounds lift to the air,
aftermath not pleasant.

Twinkling lights of Christmas
hold no glow in the midst.
Gritting teeth; I close my hands
now clenched into a fist.

The night whispers to me
the wind, the noise, the cars.
I sit forever looking
at a night that holds no stars.

Find me Lord here waiting
for your plan to unfold.
Forgive me some impatience
if the truth is to be told.

I long to see the beauty
that only you display.
Send my sight back to me
without  further delay.

Quotation Saturday

Mark 4: 40 And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?
***

JUST DO IT!

“A great deal of talent is lost in the world for want of a little courage…The fact is that to do anything in the world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can.”  
- Sydney Smith

“Each of us must do massive right thinking, take massive right action and get massive right results, right here, right now.” -Mark Victor Hansen

“... if we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.”  
- Ivan Turgenev

“The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.”  
- Norman Schwarzkopf


CHANGE

I wonder if ever you change human beings with arguments alone: either by peppering them with little sharp facts or by blowing them up with great guns of truth. You scare them, but do you change them?
-David Grayson


Change has considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening, because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging, because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring, because the challenge exists to make things better.
-King Whitney Jr.

INVOLVEMENT

“The question of success is not will it?... Or even will there be... Or even will it ever?... The question is... Will you? 
-Doug Firebaugh

“We must dare and dare again, and go on daring.” 
-Georges Jacques Danton

“He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.” -Abraham Lincoln

“A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible. Powerlessness and silence go together.”
-Margaret Atwood


LAUGHTER

The person who can bring the spirit of laughter into a room is indeed blessed.
-Bennett Cerf

FEAR

    “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
- Marianne Williamson

Write Right~ Ten things to help

Many people ask, "What will kick start my writing?" Well here are TEN THINGS to get you started and help you on your way.

1. WRITE - this is an essential part of writing. If we don’t write then we bleed, terrible pain ensues and, well, you know what comes next.

2. NOTEBOOK - this is a part that many writers forget to have. I’m not meaning the computer notebook, I mean the old fashioned pen and paper. We all remember what that is right? WRITE! Have one in the rooms you occupy most, jot down story ideas, words that will trigger story ideas, poems, or write a story!  (no doodling please)

3. TIME - Set yourself a place and time for writing. We all say, “I don’t have time.” But really think about that. You don’t have even thirty minutes to spare for a dream, when you have eight hours for dreaming while you sleep?  ;)

4. WORDS - Words can trigger a whole line of thoughts. The thoughts can be strung into sentences and before we know it, we have a story. Know your words.

5. THESAURUS - You’d be surprised what a thesaurus can do for you. Instead of using the same word over and over to describe say, rain, use your thesaurus to conjure more creative ways to write about rain.

6. DICTIONARY - This is also a useful tool to find ideas AND get the right word. Use it so you sound like you know what you’re talking about.

7. WRITING GROUP - This one is the best tool ever. After you’ve written, you can show your group and they can tell you whether it is good, redundant, boring, or done too many times before. Your group is your lifeline into the reality of your writing. Treasure them!

8. Music - Sometimes when I sit down to write, I need silence but often times I need the strumming of a guitar or the sound of the sax. Whatever it is that puts YOU in the zone, use it to your benefit and begin writing!

9. GOALS - Everyday you need to write. Whether it is five hundred words or a thousand. You need to set a goal. “I will write five hundred words today!” Stick to your goal and your goals will get higher and higher each week!

10. CONFIDENCE - This one is a toughie. You need to have confidence in what you’re writing. Don’t keep going back to edit your work. You need to write and not stop. Save the editing for a completed work. Know in your heart you can do this and do it! Gain confidence through the prior suggestions.

After you get into the habit of utilizing these ten things, you will then see your writing get better, more frequent, nice and tight writing, growth, then with some luck, publishable work!!!

Now copy and print this out! Hang it above your computer so you are reminded EVERY DAY what you have to do, and STICK TO IT!!! Just give the author credit where credit is due. ;)

Revamp Tuesday

Ecc. 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
***

Today I’m a busy gal. I’m revamping my tips for my class at f2k. F2K is a seven week, free writing course. Yes FREE! It starts tomorrow and I think there might still be time to sign up.

People have been knocking on the door for weeks. It’s almost funny to see the words “you will not be able to enter until July seventh,” then see so many people TRYING to enter before the seventh. I know they can read, they’re just eager and understandably so.

I’ve also got to go food shopping, go to the library, then come back here and hopefully work on my f2k lesson revamping again. I also want to mention AudioBookHeaven and the fine book reviews over there. This day in my blog history used to be Talk-o Tuesday and I would go on and on about audio books and anything that makes the blind world more easy and accessible. Audio books and Audio movies are essential.

Since I’m slowing up my writing, I had to give that one last push to Audio Book Heaven. Now let me get on with my busy day, and I’ll keep you posted on how the free f2k course is progressing.

I have a purpose. And each and every one of you do too, it’s just a matter of finding it within yourselves. 

Ho Hum Monday...

Well my friends it is Monday again. It seems like it was just Monday the other day. Maybe all days are beginning to feel like Monday. Oh dear. Ho hum...

This weekend was our (I say our, as in America’s) Fourth of July, Independence Day. That means cookouts and fireworks!!! We didn’t have any cookouts to attend, but we did go to Bobbi’s for some fireworks. Her kids just love putting on a show of spectacular fireworks and I have to admit, they did a great job. The rest of the country remembers our FREEDOM and Independence on this day.

We didn’t get home until the wee hours of the AM, about 12 am. I have trouble driving on these dark roads with blinding headlights and swerves and curves, so it took me longer than normal to just ‘drive home’. But it was a fun evening, for me and Adam.

I imagine my beau had a nice time. I can’t imagine being blind and hearing all that commotion, loud noise and popping sounds without being able to see the arcs of the brilliant light showering down. Ho hum...

There is something I look forward to this week and that is the beginning of F2K. It always gives me a sense of purpose, running around the halls, helping people along in their writing endeavors. I love helping people and most of all, I love teaching people something new and answering questions. There’s not much that I look forward to, but this is something I look forward to four times a year.

I’m going to put my writing on hold for a while. Don’t know if that means my blog or not, but I’ll keep on writing my poetry. Why am I putting my writing on hold? Well, sometimes in life, things happen and we just have to do what we have to do, and I have to prepare my son for school.

You see, he’s been home schooled all these years and now he wants to go, and really it is quite a necessity in the money department. I need a job so he can get new clothes, books, shoes, and tools, and everything that a real school entails! Home school has always been frowned upon. I hear, “It’s nice, if you can AFFORD it.” or “Wouldn’t he be better in a school doing ‘normal’ things that kids do?” and so many other demeaning, hurtful comments.

Yes, I’m proud that all you parents did such an exemplary job in sending your kids to school and showed the world how great a parent you are. I hope all your kids grew up and turned out to be all that you expected them to be. Me, I expect nothing from my son. If he succeeds in life, great. If he fails, I’ll be there to catch him. It’s what mother’s do, I think. It’s called support your child? Home schooled or Schooled, we all are the same, we’re mother’s.

Writing for an hour here and there is just not cutting it for me. I need to expand, grow as a woman, and be a ‘real’ mother. Ho hum...

Have a sun-filled Monday and hang in there...life has a way of taking the hum out of the hoe. lol

Poetry Sunday~ Intricate Flower

Intricate Flower
(c) Joni Zipp

***

The blossoms seem to surface
when out of the weary cold
they spring to bountiful life
ever the fragrance so bold.

Gathered round the stalk so true
the petal forms a flower
to stand among the crowd
to watch each passing hour.

The intricate life of the blade
the receptacle is a home.
for growth through each bud,
the soil soft silken loam.

My life is like the bloom
that slowly unfolds to be.
I rise and stretch each morn
release the soul of me.

All rights reserved: copyright © Joni Zipp

Quotation Saturday

Without freedom from the past, there is no freedom at all, because the mind is never new, fresh, innocent.
Krishnamurti
***

BOOKS

"Miss a meal if you have to, but don't miss a book."
-Jim Rohn

"Read an hour every day in your chosen field. This works out to about one book per week, 50 books per year, and will guarantee your success."
-Brian Tracy

"Read something positive every night and listen to something helpful every morning."
-Tom Hopkins


CHANGE

If you can touch people’s hearts, you can make change.
-Kris Kristofferson

Never be too proud to change.
-Bobby Bowden

Change is necessary to move forward; it’s not something you find in your pocket.
- Joni Zipp

FAITH

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.”
-Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.”  
-Benjamin Franklin

“Fear of failure and fear of the unknown are always defeated by faith. Having faith in yourself, in the process of change, and in the new direction that change sets will reveal your own inner core of steel.”
-Georgette Mosbacher

CREATIVITY

“It is wonderful to be in on the creation of something, see it used, and then walk away and smile at it.” 
-Lady Bird Johnson

“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes and having fun.” 
-Mary Lou Cook

“If we fail to nourish our souls, they wither, and without soul, life ceases to have meaning. The creative process shrivels in the absence of continual dialogue with the soul. And creativity is what makes life worth living.” 
-Marion Woodman

Fuzzy Friday

Gen 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
***

I say fuzzy because I sit in amazement at society. They embrace the Twilight series as gospel, and are overlooking the message that God gave. Man can not serve two masters.
Meaning you can’t serve God, and accept the evil that wants to filter in through many different avenues.

Someone posted about the ‘dislike’ of this very topic, and the Christians came out in force defending the ‘entertainment’ that they were allowed because God don’t care what they watch or read.

From Eleanor*: Free Will. At the end of the day, if I am a good person, kind to others, believe in a Higher Power, I know in my heart that Jesus/God doesn't mind what I watch or read for entertainment. And that is how I rest my head at night in peace. Forgiveness and tolerance is the greatest gift HE gave.
 

Luke* responded: Forgiveness and Tolerance.... hmmmm... Was it tolerance he showed to the money changers, desecrating the house of his Father? Forgiveness was his gift at the cross, but every time Jesus encountered someone trapped in sin and offered his forgiveness, it was followed with the command- "Go and sin no more."
We have ALL sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God, and yes, we can approach him after every fall, every stumble- but there is nowhere I read where it says "you are forgiven so that you may go chase after sin" and I'd prefer someone to enlighten me where that is, if it exists.
Furthermore trying to justify a movie by the existence of other movies is like saying that cheating is OK because there's an abundance of cheating and lying in movies and TV. Granted, sinners are everywhere, but there are those who are in it to seek it and those on their way out. Where shall we find ourselves when we get that call?
 

Theodora* wrote: We as Christians are called and commanded to be the examples to others...In Ephesians 4: 17-27 we are instructed...by the apostle Paul"So i tell you this , and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated for the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity with a continual lust for more. vs 20 You however did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him, were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus, You were taught with regards to your former way of life TO PUT OFF YOUR OLD SELF, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; To be made NEW in the ATTITUDES OF YOUR MINDS and to PUT ON THE NEW SELF created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness"

Paul goes on in Ephesians 5:-17 to instruct us further "For you were once dankness, but now you are LIGHT in the world. Live as children of the light (for the fruit of the light consist in all goodness, righteousness, and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness but rather expose them .For it is shameful to even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible. This is why it is said: "wake up O sleeper rise from the dead
and Christ will shine on you."
Be very careful then how you live- not as unwise but as wise making the most of every opportunity because the days are very evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but UNDERSTAND WHAT THE LORD'S WILL IS.

This went of for 57 replies! People are really waking up to God’s call. I’m just wondering if they are hearing or justifying their actions? I need no responses...I’ll walk around in the fuzz.

 

John 10: 21 Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?

*names changed to respect the author's