Color My World

Gal. 5:14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
***

If you’re a writer, you have a box of crayons filled with a million different colors in your arsenal! “I do?” you might say. YES! I do say. Their just there waiting to be wielded!

The writing world is not made up of simple descriptions, forthright sentences with nothing in them; we need to color our world with vivid lucid colorings of words. We need to liven our work up with colors. Does a painter just use black and white? Rarely. He uses the most vivid colors he has to bring forth a beautiful painting that each person who beholds it will paint their own thoughts and descriptions with.

Writers are artist too. And I don’t mean color your sentences with color here, either.

The fuzzy brown dog jumped over the fence.

Yes brown is a color but I bet that sentence can vibrate with sensual color if given a chance.

Lucky, the furry brown rambunctious dog, decided to go for a stroll passing over the short wooden fence on his way to romp.

Doesn’t that sentence just come to life with an extra few words?  It not only added dimension, it gave the dog a name and a purpose. The sentence is now alive with color.

Now some people like too much color in their world. They paint the world around them with false images, in essence a false reality. Pastor Tim said once, “Things aren’t always what they seem.” This is so true. People paint themselves into a corner of believing and loving all the false images that they see before them; never really knowing or appreciating the real things in life.

Writers paint an illusion also. It’s an illusion that you grasp whether it is in fairy tales, fantasy, horror, or sci-fi. All an illusion. We’re magicians of the worded world. The color that writers give to the world can shape a magnitude of untouched areas in the mind. Think about that.

I received eight books yesterday from a dear friend. She probably don’t want me boasting about it, because it was a kind act that I know the Lord will richly reward her for doing. But these books are poets and short stories, and literature. All for me and do you know what those books will do? No, not sit on a shelf, they will color my world!

Upon opening the box, tears started flowing down my cheeks. They were joyful tears mind you, but tears nonetheless. Someone cared enough about me to give me a part of themselves. Not many people do that, you know. That is what it is all about, people! When we let go of selfishness and give love unconditionally, we then begin to color our world, with rainbows! Dancing magical rainbows!

The magic of the world is filled with rainbows, imagine that!

Poetry Sunday:The Yearly Visit...

Is.40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

***

Yearly Visit: The Sandhill Crane
(c) Joni Zipp
***
The fields are alive with murmuring sound
I see the crane ever dancing around
They stand, they sit, all over the place.
like a babbling brook with a stony face.

When one takes flight they all follow suit
to the skys they twine with a bellowing hoot
Flapping, grappling on awkward stilts
painting the sky in patchwork quilts.

A new field awaits their homely roost
giving their journey a relieving boost
A stop in Nebraska just passing through,
Visitors pay homage to this sandhill crew.

Finding the sanctuary a yearly reprieve
until they decide to leap and leave.
Journey’s end to their timely stay
The sandhill crane must now fly away. 
All rights reserved: copyright © Joni  Zipp

Quotation Saturday

Power

"If the average person realized the power he wields over his life and destiny, he would live in a perpetual state of wonder and thanksgiving."
-- Earl Nightingale

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."
-- Mahatma Gandhi

"Power tires only those who do not have it."
-- Giulio Andreotti

"Power is so characteristically calm, that calmness in itself has the aspect of strength." -- Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

PREPARATION

"The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes."
-- Benjamin Disraeli

"The ideal attitude is to be physically loose and mentally tight."
-- Arthur Ashe

"You cannot speak that which you do not know. You cannot share that which you do not feel. You cannot translate that which you do not have. And you cannot give that which you do not possess. To give it and to share it, and for it to be effective, you first need to have it. Good communication starts with good preparation."
-- Jim Rohn

"Practice is the price of mastery. Whatever you practice over and over again becomes a new habit of thought and performance."
-- Brian Tracy

KNOW THYSELF

Listening to your heart is not simple. Finding out who you are is not simple. It takes a lot of hard work and courage to get to know who you are and what you want.
--Sue Bender

The person who you're with most in life is yourself and if you don't like yourself you're always with somebody you don't like.
--Marc S. Lewis

DREAMS

And we never even know we have the key.
--Lyrics from Already Gone, peformed by the Eagles
 

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.
--Lanston Hughes
 

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
--Eleanor Roosevelt
 

Commitment leads to action. Action brings your dream closer.
--Marcia Wieder

Birthday Girl

Ps 103:20-21 Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.
***

Many many years ago a mother was scurrying around in her duster robe, rollers bouncing in her head while ironing the days clothes. Her mother sat in the far corner of the room watching and shaking her head in disbelief, as her daughter, nine months pregnant and about to burst, would not take it easy.

The pangs grew and grew until finally she whimpered, “I think I need to go to the hospital.” It was her birthday, but this was not a time to think of herself. Squirming inside was a little bundle who wanted to come out kicking and screaming to greet the world and be her mother’s biggest birthday surprise ever.

As the mother watched her daughter writhing with pangs of labor, she dialed the phone of the cab company. “Can you stop ironing long enough to have the baby?” she grumbled.

“Wait, I have to get these rollers out of my hair!”

“NOW?”

“Yes now!” she screamed at her mother while unwinding the rollers and quickly running a brush through her hair. “Where’s my purse?”

After applying lipstick, the horn could be heard honking loudly at the front curb, ready to escort the two ladies. Waddling to the cab and shutting the door, the cab takes off in a slow manner, as all cab drivers do to make the meter run. “Uh, sir? I’m having a baby!”

“Wha- WHAT???” he stammered. “I could of just went down the one way street and got you there quicker!”

This is my daughters sixth child so it will probably come pretty quick--” she trailed off seeing the hospital in view.

The emergency room was packed and after the formalities and sign ins, a room was found and the doctor notified. “You just get as comfortable as possible, I’ll be back to check on ya in a bit. You’re not ready yet.” The doctor said as he walked out the door.

Five minutes later, what seemed like two, a little baby girl was in the arms of her mother, looking up in wonder at the new world that greeted her with a kiss. Snow gently falling outside the window, warm arms cradling the bundle, the doctor exclaimed, “You just couldn’t wait could you?”

“What a wonderful birthday present you are!” the mother whispers to her new gift.

Joni Zipp was born on this day...a girl of wonder and dreams all lay before her. The embodiment of love, light and beauty; she embraces everything that is tossed in her path and now finds herself bouncing through life like a curl fresh out of  a hair-roller. This day in history marks the birth of an angel, one that will give hope to the hopeless, love to those unloved, joy to the sad, inspiration to the lost, and Light when all the world seems dark.

Yes, she is human, every fiber of her being is human, but she has soared to heights unseen carrying with her, the wings of an angels spirit. God blessed her and her mother on this day in history, so to her I wish...a BLESSED birthday among many, and many more to come!

Ps 148:2 Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts.

Poetry Sunday ~ Hell fires Dome

Proverbs 8:17  I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.

***

Hell fires Dome
(c) Joni Zipp

***
The enemy lurks behind the veil
inhales your light to no avail;
clawing at the innocent shell
sucking dry your lifelong well.

Goodness seeps from your veins
he drinks it in like springtime rains.
Wearing the cloth you labored for
slowly he shreds everything pure.

Tapping and taunting as if to steal
the very core of all that's real.
His lies are painted, a beautiful array
you know this isn’t the only way.

Succumb to pain that dries the soul;
alleviate all that makes you whole
believe the lies the enemy shows
bonds will break as everyone knows.

Rise up in all the glorious light
love withstands the evil ones plight.
Stand tall and proud for all you are,
with Godly presence you’re going far.

Slice the enemy, send him home
to the spawn of hell fires dome.
Crash no more this earthly treasure
For God remains your one true pleasure!

All rights reserved: copyright © Joni  Zipp

Quotation Saturday

POTENTIAL

"The potential of the average person is like a huge ocean unsailed, a new continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting to be released and channeled toward some great good."
-- Brian Tracy

"A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."
-- William Shedd

"Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."
-- George Bernard Shaw

"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar."
-- Helen Keller
 
PHILOSOPHY

Philosophy is like trying to open a safe with a combination lock: Each little adjustment of the dials seems to achieve nothing, only when everything is in place does the door open.
--Ludwig Wittgenstein

To make the most of dull hours, to make the best of dull people, to like a poor jest better than none. To wear a threadbare coat like a gentleman; to be outvoted with a smile, to hitch your wagon to the old horse if no star is handy--that is wholesome philosophy.
--Bliss Perry

I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn't wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine.
--Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)

All philosophies, if you ride them, are nonsense, but some are greater nonsense than others.
--SamuelButler (1835 - 1902)
 

SILENCE
 

In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.
--Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)
 

Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer.
--Muhammad Ali (1942 - ), "More Than a Hero"
 

There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or even your bathtub.
--Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

The cruelest lies are often told in silence.
--Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894)

Breathings of my Heart

"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart." 

~ William Wadsworth ~

The breathings of my heart. They speak to me in synonymous fluidity and carry me to places I had only imagined being carried. A writer is not one to carry words in their pocket, only to be left as lint in the dark recesses. No, a writer carries thoughts and words with him throughout his mind and splays the page with them as he or she goes throughout the day.

Are you the kind of writer, who hits a block and allows it to consume you and your words? Why not fill the paper with the breathings of your heart? You say you can’t write? Are you breathing? Then you can write. Even if it is a simple ditty, or 100 words of how your day went yesterday, what your plans for today are; all these can be turned into writing from the heart.

You know that as writers, we don’t need to spill out a thousand words a day. By keeping the flow moving at 50 words,100 words, 200 words, anything, will keep your fingers alive with the vibrancy of sticking your wet finger in an electric socket. Writers need to write! And to do that, ANY writing is acceptable.

Have you ever hit a spot in your life, where you felt like NOT breathing, nevermind writing your breathings. I hit this spot once a year leading up to Easter. I become very contemplative where my thoughts turn internal instead of reaching outward, my writings become very cryptic in the sense that my spiritual nature absorbs my thoughts and sometimes no one, not even myself understands me.

I sit behind the screen spouting off words. I write, I think, I live the breathings of my heart.  There is no room for playing, masking, compromising my purity or spiritual nature. I am who I am and only because my love for God is more important than anything in this world, I seem to isolate myself in my own world releasing words here and there.

So as you hit the road block to your flow of words, try looking within yourself and see what is causing this. Sometimes it is something as simple as focusing more on you than the world of writing that you’ve created for yourself. Sometimes all we need to do is put ourselves front and center and prioritize the important things in life, and write as we go along, but don’t let it consume your very being.

Usually when the writing block happens, it is telling you to look in the mirror. Look at your world and all you have, and to take tiny steps in accomplishing what it is that you really desire in life, if it is writing, the flow will come back. If it is something outside of writing, then you need to embrace what it is that will get you to a healing spot.

If you’re a writer, writing will always be there for you, but your breathings of the heart may not.

Poetry Sunday ~ These Wings

Pss. 104:4 Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:
***

These Wings 
(c) Joni Zipp
***
These wings I have are heavy
as I stand out in the rain
trying to carry the burdened world
through troubled times and pain.

These wings I have are broken
from the blades that tried to maim. 

The world is gray and cloudy
as I look out through the flame.

These wings I have are drooping
as if I’ve no more care
nothing left inside of me
to make the plumage flair.

These wings I have are shelter
from all the tears I’ve shed
through turbulent times they flutter,
as if calling out the dead.

These wings I have will carry me
to the next phase of my life
through worrisome tribulations
over mountainous new strife.

These wings I have will guide me
to serenity and peace.
The Lord will breathe his glory
and give my soul release.

All rights reserved: copyright © Joni  Zipp

Quotation Saturday

SUCCESS AND YOU
 

"Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You."
-Dr. Seuss

Start with your own money and value your intuition. It's all about endurance in the beginning. Your dream and passion to succeed must be stronger than your fear of failure.
-Terri Bowersock
 

When you're determined to use failure as a school for success, you'll find that it's easier to hold a strategic course and refine the plan, rather than constantly second-guessing yourself. Panic subsides, along with depression, humiliation, and all the other unhappy byproducts of perceiving failure as an unmitigated disaster.
-Bill Walsh

NURTURE YOUR CREATIVITY

Sometimes you've got to let everything go--purge yourself. If you are unhappy with anything...whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you'll find that when you're free, your true creativity, your true self comes out.
-Tina Turner

Learn the craft of knowing how to open your heart and to turn on your creativity. There's a light inside of you.
-Judith Jamison

HOPE/FEAR

It is not work that kills men, it is worry. Work is healthy; you can hardly put more on a man than he can bear. But worry is rust upon the blade. It is not movement that destroys the machinery, but friction.
-Henry Ward Beecher
 

Be just, and fear not.
Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's,
Thy God's and truth's.
-William Shakespeare
 

Surely there is something in the unruffled calm of nature that overawes our little anxieties and doubts; the sight of the deep-blue sky and the clustering stars above seems to impart a quiet to the mind.
-Jonathan Edwards
 

Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.
-Benjamin Franklin

What a Loss...

John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath ever-lasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
***

Well it behooves me to say, I lost a dear friend in the writing world. Joan McNulty Pulver was a special person as all my virtual friends are to me, but she had a light. A shiny light that stood in the doorway when your entire room was dark; she lit the place.

Like so many others before me, she took me under her wing and nurtured our friendship. We never met in person but it really wasn’t necessary because she just had a way of making you feel like she was right in the room laughing and smiling with you.

When someone passes away, it reminds us of the finality of life. We know that if we are Christians and love the Lord, the person has gone on to a much better place than this and that they are no longer suffering with multiple illnesses, like Joan, that seemed to be hitting her a lot in the past year.

We go on day by day, but still, we feel like something is missing. Like our days won’t be the same because that person is no longer there as an arm of support. In the writing world, our arms of support are essential or you don’t have a leg to stand on. Joan was a dependable arm to hold onto and the place echoes with sounds because she is no longer physically present.

I also remember when I had lost another fellow writer, whose death hit me pretty hard. Miss Connie passed and we were all in there (WVU) saying how much we loved and missed her and I remember Joan coming in and saying, “She must’ve been really special. I can only hope I’m loved and thought of this way when I go.” I told her that boy was she! and she wasn’t going anywhere!!!

With each sickness, we lifted her up in prayer. With each virtual visit, she always had kind words to share. Her family is so lucky to have such a special mom, grandma, aunt, friend. They lost a major core of the very beating heart of the family and my prayers can only bring them comfort.

So on this sad day as I remember a friend, I need to remember also that she would not want me to be down. She would want me to laugh and smile and wish her godspeed, because again, she KNOWS she’s in a better place than any of us are down here on Earth.

Just knowing she isn’t here any more hurts in a somber way, but I know that a smile for her will carry her away to heights unknown. She will soar with angels and sing a new song in the realm of heaven. Let me tell you, God got a real special addition to heaven. He needed her more than we did down here. We have to remember her in light and love. We have to give her wings a breath of wind so she may rest, in peace.

Godspeed my friend *blows soft kisses your way*

Speed Demons

Our lives begin to end
the minute we become silent
about things that matter.
~ Martin Luther King ~
***

Did you ever notice that folks are always in a hurry? A hurry to do this, or a hurry to do that? A hurry to get someplace that isn’t going to go anywhere if they slowed down to get there?

Riding home from church on Sunday, someone was behind me riding my tail. I was doing sixty, the speed limit, but he kept edging me forward to go faster and faster. For five miles, my eyes were more on the rear-view mirror than the road. After the accident I had last year where I went flying into the ditch, I hate to have someone on my tail.

I get nervous and panicky, but I’m doing a lot better and this is why I allowed him to ride behind me. I used to pull over to the side and let them pass, but since I’m still working on getting better, I just coasted at sixty. But we hit the other road and the limit is only 55 and the ditch to the side is pretty deep, I’d say six or seven feet. I dropped to 50.  The ditches unnerve me to no end!

The tailgater sped around me honking his horn like a maniac and in return I sped up and honked my horn almost losing control. But I took a deep breath, slowed down and went forward, trying to get the speed demons out of my head.

What is so important that you would speed and not have a care for the value of your life? Why in this world is everyone in such a hurry?

I think of writers too who want to be published now. Not next year or the years after, NOW! They are still in mid story and already have their book published. I love a positive outlook but people, you need to finish the book first.

Getting published takes time. It is not something you do one day and the next week you see your name in lights. And one thing you can never do is speed up the process and go around a few hurdles to get where you’re going.

Have ya ever heard, “Slow and steady wins the race”? In this business you need to have that thought front and center in your mind. ‘I’ll take it slow, and win the race when I get to the finish line.’

We can’t say, my novel will be published on such and such a date before you’ve ever finished. When it isn’t on the shelves by that date, you will feel a major letdown. Why not say, “My book is going to be published when I’m done!” Period. Don’t set a date and time. Just like when you’re driving home, keep in mind, your home will still be there if you take your time to get there. There is no need to hurry and rush through life. LIFE IS TOO SHORT!

Poetry Sunday ~ Emergence

Lev. 26:4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
***
Emergence
(c) Joni Zipp
***

What’s this I see beneath the snow
ever so green and lush
stately blades of grass I glimpse
with sun-dripped grains of blush

The buds are beginning to burst
right forth from branches bare.
Soon will be an abundance of leaves
with twigs and arms to spare.

The fields are dancing with life right now
the squirrels they run and play.
Scampering about from tree to tree,
enjoying the expanded day.

Approaching are the winds of Spring,
the season will emerge.
The final day of death occurs
when mind and soul converge.
 

All rights reserved: copyright © Joni  Zipp

Quotation Saturday

PERSEVERANCE/PERSISTENCE

“Failure is only postponed success as long as courage ‘coaches’ ambition. The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.”
-- Herbert Kaufman

“Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.”
-- Longfellow

"I do not have superior intelligence or faultless looks. I do not captivate a room or run a mile under six minutes. I only succeeded because I was still working after everyone else went to sleep."
-- Greg Evans

“I am convinced that the world is not a mere bog in which men and women trample themselves and die. Something magnificent is taking place here amidst the cruelties and tragedies, and the supreme challenge to intelligence is that of making the noblest and best in our curious heritage prevail.”
-- C.A. Beard

PASSION

You have to find something that you love enough to be able to take risks, jump over the hurdles and break through the brick walls that are always going to be placed in front of you. If you don't have that kind of feeling for what it is you're doing, you'll stop at the first giant hurdle."
-- George Lucas

"Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, ‘This is the real me,’ and when you have found that attitude, follow it."
-- William James

"The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions."
-- Alfred Lord Tennyson

"Passion, though a bad regulator, is a powerful spring."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

LOVE

"Love of our neighbor consists of three things: to desire the greater good of everyone, to do what good we can when we can, and to bear, excuse and hide others’ faults."
-- St. John Vianney

"To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best."
-- William M. Thackeray

"Who are the twelve most loving people you know? Why? What can you learn and duplicate from them?"
-- Mark Victor Hansen

"The only thing that you can never have too much of is love."
-- Brian Tracy

Licks of Lightning

Pss. 77: 18]The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook.
***

I’m getting creative with my titles, aren’t I? The writer in me screams out for creativity so, this is why I have had some crazy titles over the past week or so.

Licks of lightning is a reference to Flash Fiction. I’ve been researching what constitutes flash fiction and I’m not really getting a straight answer. I don’t believe a thousand words can constitute a flash piece, TO ME, because that is acceptable as basically a short story.

Flash fiction is tight, concise writing. You don’t have room for an elaborate display of words or fancy colorful dialogue. You have to make every single word count. Readers of flash fiction do so because they don’t like to invest too much time into reading, thus they read flash so as to gather the fullness of a story, in as few words as possible.

Readers of flash can be idly downloading something and reading a quickie at the same time. Nothing ventured nothing gained. When reading a Short Story, they have to get to know characters and scenes, the reader ingests all the words and carries with them the story, picking it up, putting it down, the ritual over and over until finally they are finished.

With a flash fiction piece, a person can read it quickly and still feel the fullness of an entire story; granted the writing has to be superb at pulling the reader in right in the first sentence or you’ve lost them.

I’ve read a lot of blogs and you know what is a big turn off that makes me hit the click button? Long winded posts about nothing. Since the beginning of this blog, it was my intention to keep posts at or below the 500 word mark. I’ve succeeded for years only going over the word limit if the post warranted more words; necessity to finish the post.

So you understand, that is what people want from flash fiction. They don’t want unnecessary words, long drawn out bloated sentences. They want a story in a quick sitting. Yup that’s right. If I sit in a doctors office, pick up a magazine and start to read a story, it had better been a flash fiction piece so I can read it entirely. Granted that some doctor visits warrant a lengthy short story, I’d really much rather have me a flash fiction piece.

To me, flash fiction is under 700 words and possibly under 500 words. If someone says, “That’s impossible.” I have to beg to differ, if you’re a writer and a good one at that, you will utilize every portion of the page, every splinter of a sentence and you will create yourself, a lick of lightning!