How Do I Love Thee...

Heb. 2: 4God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?

***

I’m a writer and let me tell you a little something about writers, we are passionate people through and through. Even in our relationships we don’t ‘just love’, we love passionately. And please understand, I don’t mean sexual people who devour one another, I mean we love, heart and soul, passionately.

Passionate defined:
1. having, compelled by, or ruled by intense emotion or strong feeling; fervid:
2. expressing, showing, or marked by intense or strong feeling; emotional:
3. intense or vehement, as emotions or feelings: passionate grief.
4. easily moved to anger; quick-tempered; irascible.
 
There was another definition that said something about arousing sensual something or other, but these definitions fit more with what I’m talking about here.
 
When I sit down at the keyboard and think of something to write, sometimes it just flows like the river Jordan, smooth and blessed; while other times I’m sitting here writing about things that don’t even pertain to writing, so that gets quickly put into my journal.

I’ve been blessed to be able to love passionately. A lot of people go through life and never really know what it is to truly love. Take for example a relationship I was in for 20 years of my life. It was a marriage, but it was a marriage of pity. I pitied the man who was abused, unloved, or loved in an odd sort of way. Lies were the norm as it was his way of expressing the passion that he learned all his life. He didn’t know trust and when there is no trust, there is no love buried within.

I passionately sought out writing as I moved passed the emotion of pity. Eight years away and the man could still draw pity from me, but now I feel something I didn’t know was in me, number four up there. 4 > easily moved to anger; quick-tempered; irascible.

Yup that’s it. I’m passionate through and through, even when moved to anger. Here, my writing is no longer frowned upon. That is what I believed for twenty years, that writing was to be done on paper, computers were evil, and internet ‘friends’ spawned from the pits of hell. All lies that I was led to believe, until the good Lord above whisked me away from that hell and showed me that there was a life out here waiting for me to become passionate about.

You see, God created me to be this passionate woman, and when I wasn’t adhering to what gifts He blessed me with, He placed me in an environment, where my writing, my friends and my passion would be embraced.

I’m a stronger woman for all my struggles, a better writer who is loved and appreciated and I am truly blessed.

If you’re not a passionate person...then maybe writing isn’t for you.

***
Acts 14: 15 And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein:

Tic Toc...

Deut. 4:14 And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.
***

The clock is ticking and time is running away. The sun has risen in the sky only to dance across the terrain in a slow manner bringing with it the bursting forth of new flowers. The pen will ride across the page in a gallant explosion and the keyboard will be tapping like rain on a tin roof.

Writers are very expressive people. I can always tell a writer from say, a laymen. We’re expressive in a way that other people just can not express. We’re unique. A group that feels the burning desire within, and actually does something about it throughout every day that they breathe. We write!

I’m not one to watch the clock tic away, or gaze at the days march in procession to the past, but I become aware of time when someone says, times up, or you have ‘x’ amount of days to get this done. Then the writer in me flees and the realist in me begins biting my nails in wonder as to what I’m going to do as this, ‘time’ ticks away at my life!

Beau has been placed on the cornea transplant list, he’s had his physical, and now we wait for the call, “Come to Omaha!” I’m nervous, anxious, excited, and any other synonym you can throw in there. It’s a day we’ve waited for for two years now and it feels right this time, but time, time, time...it is ticking away and as the day closes in on me, the day when my beau looks me in the eyes and says, “You’re still beautiful!” (hey, a girl can dream can’t she?) The day he looks at me and SEES me, is a day that time will not take away from me!

Notice I didn’t say fear? I will not allow fear to seep into the pages of my life. Anxiety and nervousness are understandable, seeing I’ve lived with a blind man for two years and have been his eyeballs 24/7. I have a positive outlook on things to come. I’m looking forward to showing him around his hometown, or should I say, I’m looking forward to watching him see his hometown again? I await the day he can go to the Platte River, the nights that we attend the light show in Minden at Christmas, decorating the Christmas tree; sharing once again in all that there is to see. He’ll get to see his family again!

I just hope he doesn’t look at me and notice the wrinkling of my skin that has taken place in the past two years, or the pound or two that have been added to my waistline, or the house as it sits, cleaned rigorously by me awaiting the time, the time he can actually see this here closed down Turkey Ranch, and the roof he’s been living under for two years!

No worries, he’ll look at me and say, “You’re still beautiful!”

As time tics away the writer in me is writing, the clock is still ticking, and my heart and soul is ready to face whatever the Good Lord brings my way. After all, he’s the holder of the clock isn’t He?

Poetry Sunday ~ Hope in my hand...

The wings of hope carry us, soaring high above the driving winds of life. ~Ana Jacob
***

Hope in my hand...

I fall through the cracks
that have surfaced
on the sun-scorched land
I’m in His hand.

I stand to walk
head held high
but I’m left to fall
absorbed by it all.

I claw my way
into the light
that warms me within,
it’s there I begin.

My sin is no more
a scar on my soul.
I traveled so far
the door left ajar.

Stars I wander 

hope in my hand
I am all for
my soul to soar.

All rights reserved: copyright © Joni Zipp

Quotation Saturday

WINNING

"Winning isn't everything... or even the only thing... it's the single thing that determines who gets the prize..."
-- Doug Firebaugh

"You can't be a winner if you're a whiner... wiener."
-- Jeffrey Gitomer

"The trouble with being number one in the world – in anything – is that it takes a certain mentality to attain that once you do achieve number one, you don’t relax and enjoy it."
-- Billie Jean King

"I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle -- victorious."
-- Vince Lombardi

VISION

"Vision is the art of seeing the invisible."
-- Jonathan Swift

"Never let your memories be greater than your dreams."
-- Doug Ivester

"I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been."
-- Wayne Gretzky

"Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them and try to follow them."
-- Louisa May Alcott

EDUCATION

Just as education without humanity is the most dangerous thing in the world, so education in love, human understanding and cooperation is the greatest hope in the world.
--Joy Elmer Morgan

Education should be as gradual as the moonrise, perceptible not in progress, but in result.
--Author unknown

The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think - rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men. --Bill Beattie

The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. 

--Sydney J. Harris


PASSION  ie: WRITING

If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.
--Benjamin Franklin


It is with our passions as it is with fire and water; they are good servants, but bad masters. --Roger L'Estrange, Aesop's Fables, 1692


Passion and prejudice govern the world, only under the name of reason.
--John Wesley

Follow your passion, and success will follow you.
--Terri Guillemets

Quirky are we...

Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritation and resentments slip away, and a sunny spirit takes their place. ~Mark Twain
***

Sometimes as I scan writing sites and other writers blogs, there seems to be one thing in common throughout the thread. Seriousness. They take the craft very serious, writing very serious, and basically life, very serious.

We do have humor in us. The writer’s I have met, all seem to have a quirky side of humor to them. They laugh at things that aren’t even funny. They like things that normally wouldn’t be liked. They write like two cats on a hot summers night about to brawl over the fish bone left for them. Yeah, we writers are a quirky bunch of people.

On the high note, we’re also a dedicated, loving, caring society that sticks together through thick and thin. When one of us is down, we all pull together to try and pick that person up. When one has a block, we all muster up prompts of encouragement egging them on to write write write!

 

***

A visitor to a certain college paused to admire the new Hemingway Hall that had been built on campus.
 
"It's a pleasure to see a building named for Ernest Hemingway," he said.
 
"Actually," said his guide, "it's named for Joshua Hemingway. No relation."
 
The visitor was astonished. "Was Joshua Hemingway a writer, also?"
 
"Yes, indeed," said his guide. "He wrote a check."

--------------------------------
A linguistics professor was lecturing to his English class one day. "In English," he said, "a double negative forms a positive. In some languages, though, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative. However, there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative."
A voice from the back of the room piped up, "Yeah, right."
--------------------------------

A writer died and was given the option of going to heaven or hell.
 
She decided to check out each place first. As the writer descended into the fiery pits, she saw row upon row of writers chained to their desks in a steaming sweatshop. As they worked, they were repeatedly whipped with thorny lashes.
 
"Oh my," said the writer. "Let me see heaven now."
 
A few moments later, as she ascended into heaven, she saw rows of writers, chained to their desks in a steaming sweatshop. 
As they worked, they, too, were whipped with thorny lashes.
 
"Wait a minute," said the writer. "This is just as bad as hell!"
 
"Oh no, it's not," replied an unseen voice. "Here, your work gets published."
---------------------------

So you see, we’re a quirky bunch of people. But all in all, you gotta love us, the craft, and all we bring to the world.

LOVE/Hate

Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light? ~Maurice Freehill
***

Hate is such an ugly word. When someone says, “Do you hate mashed potatoes?” I can’t honestly give them the answer of  “Yes, I hate them.” Because I only dislike them, I don’t hate them and have been known to even nibble on them a bit. But hate? No, I don’t hate. Ever had ketchup on them? Now THAT can turn hate into love, real easy.

Love...so hard to find in a world full of hate. If I weigh the pros and cons of love/hate, love wins hands down. In my world, I dig and dig to see love and beauty everywhere, but an ounce of hate tries to strangle my lovely thoughts and some days it wins, and then I get disgusted with people, shut them out and enjoy all the love and beauty I find wrapped around my house and garden.

By shutting them out, I am releasing them from my psyche. I can not let the hate mongers of the world seep into my veins. Like rain rolling down a trees leaf, it falls to the ground and saturates the ground. I want to be the leaf, and let it roll, but with that, the hate seeps into the soil of the earth, permeates the soil, and takes over the world, little by little.

I dislike a lot of things but then, I think that is only natural. Dislike and hate are two different things totally. With disliking something, you leave the door open to the possibilities of change. Whereas when you hate something, I think your closing that door and putting a pretty strong bolt and lock on it.

I dislike people who abuse the scripture for their own self righteous gain of something. I dislike people who think they can manipulate people into believing something that isn’t true. But I LOVE sharing the scripture with no agenda in mind, just putting it out there for someone to grab hold of like a loving blanket from childhood. I LOVE giving people the benefit of the doubt, but I don’t love being taken advantage of, and I find, the good natured ones are always the first to be targets for the wolves traipsing through the fields.

With writing. I have a love/ love relationship. Again, hate is such an ugly word. I love the healing writing brings to my world, I love the nurturing that writing soothes my soul with. I love that I can create, in my mind, a world of love and no one can destroy it except the antagonist that I myself can create and place where I want, and do what I want with him.

Do I leave the door open for him to change? My antagonist is a pretty ugly character. Do I slaughter him finger for finger, toe for toe? Or do I salvage his ill begotten soul?

Again... I see the blood dripping on the page. Now all I have to do is bleach the page so that the Light shines through and there is no room for HATE!

***
There are two ways of spreading light; to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. ~Edith Wharton

Journaling

Don't try to be different. Just be good. To be good is different enough. ~ Arthur Freed
***

Keeping a journal is a good way to keep your fingers active, your brain functioning and also it is a wellspring of ideas for writers. Sometimes as I’m writing in my journal I think, now there’s a good blog post, then I start writing my 500 words for the day for my blog and maybe even get a few more ideas as the journaling continues.

Remember that journaling isn’t for the public to read. It’s your private thoughts on paper. It’s the machinations of a day-to-day mom, writer, or worker but either way, your journaling is the secret you that nobody needs to read.

Maybe some of you write in your journal so that other people CAN read your thoughts on your day to day activities, but me, as a writer my journal holds my deepest thoughts and through my deepest thoughts come ideas for a story, usually a short story.

My safe haven is my journal. It is a place I go to, connect with my inner being, sometimes I’m even caught talking to God, and I don’t come out of the ‘zone’ until I feel it is a safe place to go.

I’m not one who likes to carry bitterness around with me; always the pleasant happy-go- lucky person, (and sometimes talkative!) that when it comes time when I feel that bitterness and resentment, confusion, or torment are surfacing in me, I, like a robot, automatically head to my journal, get it all out and find myself relieved of all the tension that was trying to build in the first place.

I’ve said this numerous times, and on many occasions have I relayed this information to you, my reader, writing is an emotional healer. You may be sitting there chuckling at the idea but I’m telling you, if you have a journal, release all the pent up feelings that you are harboring, you will find yourself with a leg to stand on, you will find a part of healing that guess what, you don’t have to pay some Psych doctor for.

Not that I have anything against psych doctors. They can be a great help to the not so sane of the world in need of their services. But for me, there are things that I’d tell my journal that I would never tell another living soul. I’d rather have someone pay ME for my insane thoughts than to give a doctor my thoughts and pay him for me to give him them? There’s something wrong with that idea to me.

I’m a writer, so all my insanities will fall onto the paper like fine drips of blood from a paper cut. My words will roll down the page and color the white sheet in crimson marked with pain and torment, but in the end the white LIGHT of the page will shine through and everyone will grasp the inner me that they thought was such crazy mundane triviality. And the reader will love the tale as if it has seeped into their veins.

It’s what writer’s do. Now Write Right!!! 

***

Your life may be the only Bible some people read. ~Author Unknown

Talk-o Tuesday

The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it. ~James Bryce
***

Well it is official, my beaus blog audiobook-heaven has become popular enough to plagiarize. He found his reviews while surfing audio book blogs and lo and behold, there sat his reviews, under a trumped up name audio heaven. The blog thief, I will not justify with a name so you don’t click to see for yourself the insensitive treatment of what plagiarism looks like first hand or the atrocity of stolen work, or to give this guy hits!!!

The reviews are being RSS fed, to this persons blog, and this person is using many bloggers in the audio book industry’s work. He is changing a few words here and there to make it not show up on the scale of search engines but his mistake is that his blog on audiobooks, is one of few blogs that report on the audio book industry. It showed up on the search engine, as my beau’s search engine spot disappeared. Two of the same posts put one in front of the other apparently.

I’m not up on search engine placement, or stats and hits. I’m just here writing. If I get one visit a day, I’ve done my job in giving a message. But beau, being blind, has something to sink his teeth into while awaiting the cornea transplant that will give him his sight back. He has his two blogs that occupy his day and in some way fulfills the wait.

My beau works his tail off on writing the reviews. He is contacted by publishers to do reviews, he contacts publishers and asks if they’d like reviews, and all in all, his work is on a Sci- fi site and other audio book bloggers, BUT with his permission. They love his writing skills and his honesty in his reviews. Although he didn’t give one book a great review, and the publisher never sent him any more books to review. Which was fine by him, because that one book may have spoken volumes (pardon the pun) about what the other books were going to be like.

Two years ago he went blind. I told him to maybe try blogging as I knew he had good writing skills and I knew by getting things off his chest through ‘journaling’ might help ease the anxiety of his sight being taken away. That is when The Drums in the Deep was born. A blog about his journey and other stuff.

Then he had been listening to so many audio books, that he began writing reviews, then had the idea, an audio book review site. It filled his day(s)! He became a techno geek on the writing, placement, stats, followings of everything audio book related.

He also helps give audio book sites assistance in easier maneuverability with a screen reader. They ask, he offers. It’s a win win situation. But to see someone steal your work, that hits hard! I’ve created a monster in the blogging world with my beau, but it is a kind furry, loving monster, so don’t be afraid to CLICK his site and visit, audiobook-heaven. You won’t be disappointed and it will support him in all his efforts. :)

Professionalism

"Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go." E.L. Doctorow
***

There is a time for fun and a time to be professional. When submitting work from an email iliv4U@ wahooza.com, I’m sure you don’t appear like a professional to the receiving market/party.

In the writing world especially at f2k, there is a lot of fun being had by members and mentors alike. I’m wondering if they come into the course thinking, “This is a fun place.” And maybe that is why they use quirky names to register, and sometimes don’t take the guidelines and rules as serious?

To me, that is a big turn off. When I’m in the writing community, I don’t want to appear a dimbulb, I want to make the appearance of a professional and I try to relay that to the students because when they get out into the real world of submitting, and being around other professional writers, they should not have the impression that writing is just all fun, games, and chat.

Writing is about writing. Don’t get me wrong, I like to have as much fun as the next person, but there is a place and a time for fun, and there is a place and time for work. Sure you can have fun at work, but don’t make a total fool out of yourself, so that people never take you as a person who is able to be professional.

If someone were to ask me, “What do you do for fun?” I would not be able to give them an answer. I see writing and reading as fun. I see mowing the lawn as fun, watching impending storms roll over the fields as fun, stargazing, (when they’re not hidden behind the clouds of said impending storm) and spending time with my son, now that is fun.

Running around acting like a wallapalooza maniac is not my sense of fun. I take professionalism as a very serious matter. And I take other professional writers as a serious matter. I see the ones as wallapalooza’s as people that are not really getting very far in their writing, because they really don’t take it as a serious matter.

Writing is hard work. We sit for hours tapping on the keys, searching markets, sending out our work and while we’re being accepted/rejected we move forward in our career. Rejection is as much a push forward as an acceptance. Being rejected you know that it is just a matter of working harder, the same as an acceptance. The push is there to make you sit up and take notice of how serious the matter is and how serious you need to be about what it is that you love.

As a professional writer, you are allowed to have fun too, but in the right place, at the right time. Take writing as a serious profession and you will get a lot further in your aspirations.

Write Right...its what writers do. :)

Poetry Sunday ~ Happy Father's Day

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!
***

Fathers day is the day
we thank our fathers for
all that he has done
all the battles won.
Our fathers can do no more.

On this day I’m grateful
for all he’s done for me
the lil girl he raised
given brighter days,
has always set me free.

It is my father I thank
for loving me these years.
not just a part
but all of my heart
He’s dried the lonely tears.

I cherish my father tis true
a pillar of strength I know.
he’s relayed this to me
I accept it gladly.
to him my love I bestow!



A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman he turns her back again. ~Enid Bagnold

Quotation Saturday

HATE
 
A Rattlesnake, if Cornered will become so angry it will bite itself. That is exactly what the harboring of hate and resentment against others is - a biting of oneself. We think we are harming others in holding these spites and hates, but the deeper harm is to ourselves.
~E. Stanley Jones
 
Hate must make a man productive. Otherwise one might as well love.
~Karl Kraus
 
Hate cages all the good things about you.
~Terri Guillemets

The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less.
~Eldridge Cleaver, Soul on Ice, 1968

I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain. 
~James Baldwin

GOSSIP
 
It is one of my sources of happiness never to desire a knowledge of other people's business.
~Dolley Madison

When you are in trouble, people who call to sympathize are really looking for the particulars.
~Edgar Watson Howe, Country Town Sayings, 1911

Nothing travels faster than light, with the possible exception of bad news, which follows its own rules.
 ~Douglas Adams

Gossip needn't be false to be evil - there's a lot of truth that shouldn't be passed around. ~Frank A. Clark

I resolve to speak ill of no man whatever, not even in a matter of truth; but rather by some means excuse the faults I hear charged upon others, and upon proper occasions speak all the good I know of everybody.
~Benjamin Franklin

WRITING
 
You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.
~Ray Bradbury
 
Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.
~E.L. Doctorow

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.
~Sylvia Plath

I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all. 
~Richard Wright, American Hunger, 1977

LOVE
 
The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.
~Mother Teresa

There is no surprise more magical than the surprise of being loved. It is God's finger on man's shoulder.
~Charles Morgan

Love has no desire but to fulfill itself. To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.
~Kahlil Gibran

Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.
~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars, 1939, translated from French by Lewis Galantière

To See or Not to See...

that is the question that I ask of thee. 

***

I’m going to go off topic here to give you all an update on the prospects of my beau seeing again. If you remember the tale, a true tale no less, my beau went blind two years ago, and what seemed like everything going up against us, we were placed in the Lords hands and everything happened in its time.

We had to move from Texas, God made sure we had a place to live, food on our plate, and the means to get by. Hurdles upon hurdles were put in our path and as I never gave up hope, (I’m not one to give up!) I placed all my trust in Him who could carry me, us, to a safe place and comfort zone that the whole family found as a blessed relief.

Last year we went through the Lions Club fiasco and basically tried to force the issue of getting this cornea operation. We scurried like trained mice and did what people told us that SHOULD be done, but truly, in MY heart, that was a way of taking it out of God’s hands and trying to do everything ourselves. Like we can ever do anything WITHOUT God’s aid? This is beaus journey, I'm just along for the flight.

If any of you have ever tried to take something out of God’s hands, then you know the struggles that you’ll face and the outcome will not have been the plan that would have taken place if only left in God’s hands. As you can imagine, the letdown of not getting the operation and being made to wait a longer time, had beau a little on the antsy side. “WAIT” God was telling him, but instead he was listening to everyone else telling him to ‘get it done’ ‘God helps those who help themselves’!

I kept praying for Gods will, not MY will or beaus will or anyone elses will, to be done. So the waiting began again. And here we are waiting this time, for a cornea! He’s on the transplant list and the way it sounds, he’s at the top of the list. After he gets his physical next week, the doc will have all the information he needs to say, “Let’s get this done.”

“God helps those who helps themselves”, DOES NOT give us the right to take our trials out of His hands. And a lot of people are running around ‘helping themselves’ thinking this is what God wants, and I know what I read, God wants us to have FAITH, in Him to handle ALL of our needs. My belief is that, if you help yourself, you’re not having the faith that God can handle all!

I know quite a few who pray for things; they pray for what THEY WANT. But as a living testament to His Word that was promised to me, and you too, when you give it ALL up to God, He will then give you the means to ‘help yourself’. Yeah, help yourself to HIS WILL!!!

As our next step is the need of $3000 dollars, a three day stay in Omaha, beau draws concern. Me? I know everything will work out because guess what, it’s in God’s hands! Not ours!!! His will, WILL be done! And that's that!

Isaiah 41:10 ~ Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

Poetry Sunday ~ Disillusion

Ps. 35:4 Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.

Disillusion
All rights reserved: copyright © Joni Zipp
***

You say you love
but do not know
the meaning of the word.
you say you care but can not bear
all things that you’ve heard.

You say you need
but do you know
the necessity of your own
you say you want
all things they haunt
and never make a home.

You say you see
all of me
but do you really know.
the depth and breadth
of my soul, to no one
will I show!

You try to beguile
this is true,
you are not what you seem.
You give you take
the heart of me
but will not dim my beam.

A ray of light
shines forth from me
no longer a part of the fusion.
I walked away to
a brighter day as
you wallow in disillusion.

Quotation Saturday

THOUGHTS/THINKING

"Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once and a while, or the light won't come in." 

-- Alan Alda

“The person who sends out positive thoughts activates the world around him positively and draws back to himself positive results.” 

-- Norman Vincent Peale

“Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes.” 

-- Benjamin Disraeli

"The most expensive piece of real estate is the six inches between your right and left ear. It’s what you create in that area that determines your wealth. We are only really limited by our mind." 

-- Dr. Dolf de Roos


RESPONSIBILITIES

Learn to do what ought to be done, when it should be done, whether you like it or not.
--Roy W. Haley

What a fearful object a long neglected duty gets to be!
--Chauncey Kent Wright

DREAMS

The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.
--Paul Valery
 

A skillful man reads his dreams for self-knowledge, yet not the details but the quality.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
 

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.
--Henry David Thoreau
 

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

ON WRITING
 

"I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork."
--Peter de Vries
 

"A writer is working when he's staring out of the window."
--Burton Rascoe
 

"The secret of popular writing is never to put more on a given page than the common reader can lap off it with no strain whatsoever on his habitually slack attention."
--Ezra Pound
 

"I try to leave out the parts that people skip." 

--Elmore Leonard
 

“The life of any human is to move forward, don’t sweat the small stuff, and lap up beauty in the micro of life!”
--Joni Zipp

Discovered

If you do not hope, you will not find what is beyond your hopes.
St. Clement of Alexandra
***

Did you ever wonder what all those followers who are following you are for? For me it is a part of being discovered. They come, they like what they see, they follow. I, in turn, see them, and follow them. It is like a writers tag team of followers.

Being discovered is all a fun part of this writing biz. We network on facebook, we tweet on twitter, we find like minded people on Linked In, and it all boils down to being a discovered person amid other people doing the search and recovery.

Some people search out inspiration, some people search for skills of a craft, some even search out any knowledge base they can find, and they find it in a fellow blogger. We’re all a part of a writing community. We bloggers are a Social Network all our own as we stand, sometimes lead, oftentimes follow, more times than not, we find what it is we’re looking for within the pages of a friendly blogger.

I like to seek out writers and writing blogs that are going to move me forward in my craft. They give me ideas on how I can better my words and structure them to make my writing blog more efficient for the next person coming along who might find what they are looking for. I also seek out to support a fellow writer.

I love it when I come in here to post a blog only to find that like a rock out of thousands of rocks, I’ve been discovered by new blood, and that a new follower is on my list. I try to read all their blogs, try to comment, I try to be the all to the end all of a day, but in the end. I read and write.

Little by little I’m being discovered, hair by hair, people are finding the strand of hope they’re looking for within my blog. Inch by inch I get that much closer to knowing that there are people out there with like minds who share the same interests as me.

When I first began my blog, I had no vision of where I wanted it to go, or the types of people that I’d meet. After five years of consistently blogging day in and day out (give or take a few days) I have met some of the most wonderful people. I could NEVER have met such grand folk in person. This is the best way to meet genuine, caring, loving, God fearing personal people!

Some have taken the f2k free writing course, some have joined Writers Village University and have become my personal friends. This is what blogging is all about, unearthing of friendship you’d never find elsewhere on the planet. Over 10,000 hits, over 80 followers; this discovered gal is on cloud nine! Help me, in discovering you, and our future, together!

Going Forward

Try not to become a man of success but a man of value.
Albert Einstein
***

I’ve been a tad bit wrapped up in seeing to it that once again, I put others before myself. I’ve decided to move on for many reasons.

One is, I have a tendency to dwell and cling to things that are really not in my control. I watch as others go on with their lives, live it to the fullest, but me, I always draw concern where others are concerned. I live vicariously through them and want to aid and assist. But when it comes to aiding myself? I’m at a loss there.

I need to take control of myself and get busy writing!!! I need to revise my novel, check out some markets and move past the past. Never did like the past anyway, too hard to get over that hurdle as it sticks out like a mountain down an innocent enough path that I’m trudging through on a daily basis. You know what I say? MOVE mountain!!! Ahhh...now that’s better.

A nice clear view ahead of me. Maybe it was the shift in temps. The other day we neared 100 and the humidity was awful, and the winds, well they didn’t go anywhere. This morning, my heat actually clicked on because of the drop in temperature and I raced to turn it off because I’m loving the swift cool breeze that is settling over me, giving me clear thoughts and inspiring me to write!

I realized that there is a lot going on in my life that is just not within my control to change or fix. It has me in a flux of mood swings and uncertainty and the kind of person I am, I like to have complete control of every situation, but I know, in the depths of my being, I am not in the driver seat, only God can do the driving. I’m just his passenger, with a seat belt on!

Life has gotten the better of me and it is only through writing that I can just be free to create characters; strong characters who overcome all the obstacles facing them. I can create worlds where the very intricate chromosome of life is in my control. I can bring forth new plant and animal life, have a hobgoblin if I so choose. It is through my writing that I can lose myself and forget that my reality even exists in this place and time.

As Joni is inundated with her present circumstances, drowning in the frothy waves that are washing over her, she will lose herself in the intimate relationship of writing that has come to be a healing and nurturing point throughout her life. 

My writing friends sustain me, are actually THERE for me. The Writing Community is MY family!!! We’ll weather this together, you and I. Now I need to write...

Is anyone else so enamored with writing as I?  Oh, you’re off writing? Glad to hear it!!

Double Double Toil and Trouble

"However great a man's natural talent may be, the art of writing cannot be learned all at once." Jean Jacques Rousseau
***

Well it seems I’ve stirred up some trouble again. Just when I think the stew is cooked, I go and throw another coal on the fire.

As a writer, my goal is to encourage other writers, and try to help them build the confidence in themselves that will get them to the next level of their journey. My aim is to motivate them, teach them, and give them the best information that I know, to see to it that they keep writing until their fingers bleed.

The first thing I tell the new writer is that if you don’t have a thick skin, can’t handle criticism, can’t take the heat when it is bearing down on you, then writing is not the field that you’ll want to enter into, no matter how much you like writing. Sure your mom loves your writing, your friends say what a natural you are, and you yourself feel like you can do it, but when a bomb drops, you’re the first to run for cover.

Writers need to be able to handle the heat. More times than not, you will hear the words, “This could use some work.” or “Might I suggest you try this instead.” These are not words saying your writing is bad, these are writers who know what they are looking for and want to help you become a better writer and assist you in getting from point A to point B.

As much as we love our moms, they do not know what they’re looking for when it comes to storyline, plot or structure. Their child has written a masterpiece and they think it is the Goldmine of the century, but then you hand it to a critique group and you find, it needs work? “But my mom said...” Forget what your mom and friends say, listen to what your writer friends say.

This week I may have lost a writer in the making. I can only do so much to stretch out my hand and offer comfort where they might need it. The rest is up to them, and I’m hoping with the strength and comfort the writing community offers to people, this person will find his way back to doing what he loves.

Writing isn’t about always being RIGHT, it isn’t about money, and it certainly isn’t about ego, it is about doing what you love and sharing it with others. Your hard work is rewarded by people loving your work, being touched by something you wrote or paying you an honest compliment.

We all, as writers, need to hear the good stuff, as much as we need to learn from the bad stuff. Mistakes are made and you move on. You’re a writer! Show the world what you’re REALLY made of!

Creeped Out

Prov. 6:30 Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;
***

Yesterday was kind of scary. I know my friend rectified the use of my work by putting my name on it, but it had me wondering about the whole using my poem for mass emails without my name on it.

He received my poem in his mail, without my name on it, liked it so much, touched him actually, that he posted it on his blog. New to the writing world and the Blog Factory, he just isn’t sure of the etiquette used by writers, or bloggers for that matter.

We writers are a different breed. We respect each and every writer right down to quotations. If you read my blog, you know I have a Quotation Saturday. I don’t post a quote normally unless it has an author’s name. The sites I visit have a lot of Anonymous quotes, and I usually pass them up, unless it is a really a great quote.

Why? Because I think authors deserve to be recognized, even if it is just a quote. You wrote it, you claim it!

The incident made me want to delete all my poetry, here and in f2k. But if I do that, I am cowering and giving the thief the right to steal, and no I won’t do that! Nimal DID NOT steal my work and as soon as he found out it was my work, he put my name on the poem and apologized. It was not his fault, it was the person who emailed it to him, and he promised to help me find the culprit, because it is what it is. Someone stole my poem, didn’t bother finding the author, and is emailing it to people.

What next? Will that person send it in and get it published under his/her name? Will they make money, even if it is pennies? off of MY hard work? This is just unacceptable in this industry. writers respect writers and what we do when we found that we’ve done wrong is rectify the situation. If this person can email my poem without trying to find the author, whose work will he/she steal next?

I know if it was a poet, they understand the respect it takes and even borrowing one line of my work,  they know they need to give me credit for that one line. When we are writing a novel, and we use quotes or lines from songs, we can not legally use it without getting permission from the author of said line/quote/song. I read a lot of Stephen King and he’s used tons of song lyrics, lines from poems, etc. But in the front of the book amongst the tiny print, you’ll see, ‘USED WITH PERMISSION’ and it lists WHERE he got the permission from, either author, or the author’s estate if he/she is deceased.

My quote of today? “Writer’s respect writers. If you don’t, then YOU are NOT a writer, you are a thief, a moral misfit.” Joni Zipp (end quote)

Plagiarism Abounds

A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.
Thomas Mann

It happened, it really happened. I was looking at someone’s blog this morning and they had a post titled, HOPE. A poem followed, all out of stanza form mind you, but there it was, my words.

There was no name, so if you were a reader of this persons blog, you’d assume that he or she wrote those beautiful words. But guess what? They we MY beautiful words, and I was not receiving credit for writing such words.

I keep proofs of all my poetry and writing. Rough drafts and what not, all my work is copyrighted and lawfully protected. But to see your work on someone’s blog, without credit has a tendency to raise the antenna and make one wonder.

I know that when we release our work publicly, there is always the chance of someone stealing it. But we as writer’s respect one another and have a code within our community that plagiarism is unacceptable in all ways, shape and form.

If I’m quoting someone, I always give credit to the author. Why? It is the morally right thing to do and it is showing great respect for the author. We live in a morally corrupt world, where people do what they want with no respect to any other human being. We have a diverse world where beliefs are not all the same, colors differ, religions are being trashed, and people are not being exposed in their best light.

But among writer’s, plagiarism is the most feared aspect among writers. Who feels like pouring their blood spilled pain onto the paper, working their fingers to the bone, exhausted by the aspect of tapping for hours on end, only to have that work stolen? I say stolen because anything that is taken and not rightfully the persons who did the taking, that in any place in the world is called STOLEN.

Plagiarism is stolen work any way you look at it. I post that all my work is mine and copyrighted, and that is unlawful to use without my permission. Following my blog DOES NOT give you permission to steal my work, or use my hard work, and post it as your own.

I’m honored that someone loves my writing so much that they would take it, but please, give me credit for doing all the work. Ask my permission before taking. And first and foremost, RESPECT the WRITER in ME!! And I’ll respect you.

Poetry Sunday ~ Shine On ~

Heb. 6: 4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,

Shine On...
(c) Joni Zipp

My yesterdays have gone astray
they lurk forever more.
hiding behind the pain inside,
they seek an open door.

My today's have been quite lovely
whenever I praise His name
nothing can hold me captive;
through Him I’m not the same.

My tomorrows will be brighter
more days of sun not rain.
it’ll wash away my sorrows
driving off the inner pain.

My past is gone forever
I hold the hidden key.
On a chain around my neck
it’s locked all memory.

The future of mine has promise
as a beacon holds my gaze
I long for life within the realm
where I carry all my days.

The Lord is the comforting arms,
my strength, my shield, my rock.
I may hold the key to my soul
it is HE who made the lock!




Job 33: 30 To bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living.

All rights reserved: copyright © joni  zipp

Quotation Saturday

TEAMWORK

"Dependent people need others to get what they want. Independent people can get what they want through their own efforts. Interdependent people combine their own efforts with the efforts of others to achieve their greatest success."
-- Stephen Covey

"You cannot succeed by yourself. It's hard to find a rich hermit."
-- Jim Rohn

"Light is the task where many share the toil."
-- Homer

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."
-- Helen Keller


EXPECTATIONS

Every one expects to go further than his father went; every one expects to be better than he was born, and every generation has one big impulse in its heart--to exceed all the other generations of the past in all things that make life worth living.
--William Allen White

No one rises to low expectations.
--Les Brown

SUCCESS

"The first requisite of success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem without growing weary."
-- Thomas Edison

"Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ‘Make me feel important.’ Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life."
-- Mary Kay Ash

"Success is not a pie with a limited number of pieces. The success of others has very little bearing on your success. You and everyone you know can become successful without anyone suffering setbacks, harm, or downturns."
-- Denis Waitley

Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.
--Reggie Leach


STRESS MANAGEMENT

"Nature tops the list of potent tranquilizers and stress reducers. The mere sound of moving water has been shown to lower blood pressure."
-- Patch Adams

"Denying or refusing to deal with some unpleasant fact in your life is the source of most stress and unhappiness."
-- Brian Tracy

"I am more and more convinced that our happiness or our unhappiness depends far more on the way we meet the events of life than on the nature of those events themselves."
-- Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt

"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment."
-- Marcus Aurelius

SOAR
 

One can never consent to creep when one feels the impulse to soar.
--Helen Keller
 

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
--Martin Luther King, Jr.
 

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark burn out in a brilliant blaze than it be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
--Jack London