The Writing Community

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

***

It’s been one of those years where if it was not for the writing community holding my hand as I walked through some difficult days, I wonder if I would ever have been able to get through them. Well that’s silly, I know I would have made it through. I’m a strong woman and have certainly been through worse in my life.

From yesterday’s post (if you read it) you may have gathered that it is a lonely life out here in the middle of the good ol U.S of A. but maybe you didn’t notice the angst, or maybe you did. Here lately anything I do is usually so misunderstood that people either shun me, apologize for their behavior or back away from me completely. I don’t blame them I just don’t want anyone to ever feel intimidated by me. I have problems and sins just like you! This is NOT a pity party, this is a Happy-To-Be-Me Party!

It’s okay. I’m so used to being alone in this world that when I have God over for a chat, we usually talk like giddy school kids. Okay, seriously, I do all the talking and He does a whole lot of listening.

It’s ironic, I have this one friend that understands my mind completely. We’ve never met, we’ve been virtual friends for about two-three years and every word that comes out of his mouth has substance to it. Every post on his facebook wall is of intelligent, thought-provoking posting. He told me that change is inevitable (like it or not) and to be patient, and that is what I will wait for, the inevitable face of change.

As much as I depend on books to inform me, friends to support me, I also frolic in the world of change. You’d think I would have gotten the steps down by now, but with each day that I begin to dance, there is a new step to learn, a silent whisper of change that we all have to get used to as we go through our lives.

By my New Year (which I celebrate, as always, on Easter) in 2012, my world will have taken on the shape of a piece of clay. It may be molded into something spectacular, or it may remain shapeless (which I doubt very much.) I will walk with my head held high and will have either carried you all with me on the journey or by then, you will have all run for the hills screaming, “This woman is insane!” 

You tolerate me at my darkest, cheer me at my nearest, pray for me at my weakest, and you’re all still here. I hope and pray that you come along on this journey because truly, without you, my virtual friends, I may not even have made it into a ball of clay! I would definitely be a shapeless form! To the Writing/Arts World, I give three cheers! To God...I give my all!

Home...Sweet Home?

Home is not where you live but where they understand you. 

~ Christian Morgenstern ~
***

I grew up in South Baltimore. From where I am now, it is called back East. In the Midwest, everything is either north, south, east or west. Asking for directions, you get “South on L street, west on A! The streets hardly have names either. Central, Main, names like that and the alphabet letters, now THAT is creativity!

I’m getting kind of hurt and feeling shut out and isolated. I didn’t grow up with the aroma of manure permeating my clothes. The only thing that permeated my clothes was second hand smoke and alcohol from the barrooms my dad went to. My school wasn’t in town, it was right around the corner, which I could walk to on what we deemed asphalt streets, not a dirt road. I didn’t have cows and pigs as pets, I had a dog. I didn’t grow up using the term POP!

I grew up with concrete under my feet. A solid substance if even that was the only solid substance there was in my life. It was MY life, and MY home! But if I say to someone, “I’m from back east, Baltimore.” They get this shocked look like they just saw a hundred naked men streaking through the Church or something. The ‘I’m appalled to be in your presence’ look is getting old for me. It downright hurts.

Don’t get me wrong, living out here is pretty awesome. The big rumbling tractors, the crop dusters zooming over your head, the wild Turkey’s running across your lawn, deer peeking out of the woods to see if the coast is clear. All this makes up the flatland of Nowhere Special Nebraska, where I live now. A huge contrast from back home where the skyscrapers towered over you as you walked the Inner Harbor, the parks all having historical monuments placed throughout the city/state, the aroma of the sea salt, even though Ocean City Maryland was quite a distance from Baltimore, although the Chesapeake Bay is just off of Fort Mc Henry, where unbeknownst to the mid-westerners, the war of 1812 was fought!

I think the shock I receive is from the unknown. The kids out here are not taught about the East Coast, they just hear dark looming stories and that forms their entire opinion of all people from back east. Very judgmental in my opinion, but then, the people back east form an opinion about Southerners or Northerners, but the mid-westerners? We were not taught about them either. In school we were taught that it was all flatland and farming out here, and well, that wasn’t a misconception by any means. A friend here said, “It’s an entirely different mentality once you cross the Mississippi and head East.” That’s what they’re taught.

As kids grow up out here in the State with a major hospital hundreds of miles away, a state with an airport hours away. (I grew up with BWI Airport within ten minutes of my house, and Johns Hopkins a hop skip and a jump) a state that kids want to hurriedly grow up and leave behind, but one in which, they always want to return to, with time.

We realize in life...even after being told a million times, that HOME is where the heart is.
 
Who are the ones that aid/comfort me? Assist me? Makes me feel like I’m a member of a family? Writers! Certainly not either state that I’ve been in.  If I need to actually ASK for your assistance or you need to ASK how I’m getting along? Then you don’t know me...or care.

Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to.  

~John Ed Pearce ~

Poetry Sunday ~ Today...

The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too. 

~Teresa of Avila
***
Today...

I saw you in the sky today
floating o’er my head
I glanced you in the field somehow
but not a word was said.

I felt you in my soul today
you pierced a hole right through.
I clutched you in my hand today
Lord God I know it’s you.

You saw me in the world today
approving of my worth.
You saw my inner thoughts and said
“I molded her at birth!”

You carry me around each day,
like I’m a floating feather.
You are the umbrella to my soul
through any kind of weather.

Cast me not in the sea today
like all those gone off course;
Cradled in your arms always
with hearty heavenly force!

Quotation Saturday

POETRY

Poetry is the journal of the sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air. Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and the unknowable. Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away. 

~Carl Sandburg,

Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash. 

~Leonard Cohen

He who draws noble delights from sentiments of poetry is a true poet, though he has never written a line in all his life. 

~George Sand, 1851
 

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history. 

~Plato, Ion

CHANGE
 

He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery. 

~Harold Wilson

If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it. 

~Mary Engelbreit

Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer. 

~Shunryu Suzuki

Life is its own journey, presupposes its own change and movement, and one tries to arrest them at one's eternal peril. ~Laurens van der Post

IDLENESS
 

The idle man does not know what it is to enjoy rest, for he has not earned it. 

~John Lubbock

There is a working class - strong and happy - among both rich and poor: there is an idle class - weak, wicked, and miserable - among both rich and poor. 

~John Ruskin

To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself. 

~Samuel Johnson

Shun idleness. It is a rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals. 

~Voltaire

INTEGRITY
 

I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day. 

~Abraham Lincoln
 

Transcend political correctness and strive for human righteousness. 

~Anthony J. D'Angelo

Character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that's right is to get by, and the only thing that's wrong is to get caught. 

~J.C. Watts

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it. ~Buddha

WEATHER
 

The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain. 

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
 

Rain! whose soft architectural hands have power to cut stones, and chisel to shapes of grandeur the very mountains. 

~Henry Ward Beecher

Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away the hunger. 

~Saint Basil
 

“Wherever you may be, in storm or raging sea. Maximize, minimize is not for me.” 

~Joni Zipp, on impending hurricane Irene

Putting it in Perspective

The value of identity of course is that so often with it comes purpose. ~Richard Grant
***

The week in review....

We’ve had Procrastination, Prioritizing, Networking and Focus and a culmination of the four days leads to this post.

Monday - As a writer, the Procrastination post was about where we discussed putting things off. We allow things to jumble and cloud our day so much so we miss our quiet writing time. Playing around and goofing off also keeps you distracted enough so you get no writing done and I had to make sure you saw if you were on that path. Some are on it, some like it, some could care less. Me? I’m in the mood for change.

Tuesday - This was a day where I pinpointed Prioritizing. You know, where you put the playing around on hold and make something other than ‘games and fun’ a priority, like writing?
This was also the day that an Earthquake rattled the east coast. While the local news here in Nebraska didn’t even give the story a second of its time, World news found it vital to report. All of my family is back east, in Maryland, and yes, they felt it. My 73 year old parents were quite shaken, literally. Since my mothers stroke and my dads survival of cancer, they moved to a retirement condo and they live on the eighth floor.
So while everyone made jokes about  the quake, being far from home during a panicky situation made me miss them all the more.
Perfect day for a Prioritizing post, made me SEE where my priorities lie, and what *I* need to do.

Wednesday - This was the day my Networking post went up. I went to place it on Twitter, and it is already part of a newsfeed! Yay! My Networking with fellow writers is working. I’m not just an airplane cruising through facebook happily prancing and playing and woohooing and weeHeeing, I’m actually putting into ACTION, all of this weeks posts! Wow! I think it is called follow-thru? I’m not just preaching words and going on my merry way, doing my own thing and not acting on them. I’m actually taking my own advice! Now, there’s a change I like!

Thursday - This FOCUS/Discouraged post was a way of helping me to see the err of my ways. I recently touched base with a friend I had lost. It wasn’t via facebook and doubt that we’ll EVER be friends on facebook again. You see, facebook may be a social wall, it may be a place to Network, but sometimes you see things in people, that you wish you had never seen. You see them in a whole different perspective, and maybe if you wouldn’t hang out with that kind of person in real life, maybe you shouldn’t be faking your LIKE to them on facebook. I am not one who is false and that is why my friends list is at a minimum. I actually LIKE you all if you’re on my list.


Friday - The culmination of an enlightening week. This week has been full of insights that I’ve shared with you, that I’ve learned along the path in the writing world. I give off some negatives but hopefully run over all that with the positives.

As Irene heads to the coast, as natural disasters head to the earth in a meteor shower raining down on us, as the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11 tragedy approaches, maybe what we all need to be doing is reflecting and not joking about it. Humor is good in the right place, but false humor appears as fear. Don’t fear impending doom, if it is your time, embrace it. You ARE ready, right?

Focus: Part II

The road leading to a goal does not separate you from the destination; it is essentially a part of it. ~Charles DeLint
***

I think I missed the five tips to get you focused so that you can do away with the networking of the facebook frenzy for a moment. I’ve come down pretty hard on facebook this week and it is only because I allowed it to absorb so much of my time and needed to be slapped upside the head by some things that kind of put everything into perspective for me.

Let me just say this, I am highly insulted when someone says I  basically: Don’t love my country/child/mother/brother/sister, dead or alive, that I was raised basically by the Hickmeisters of society all because I won’t repost something on my wall? I am not a conformist of this world who has a need to repost my love for my country/child/mother/ father/sister/ brother. I’m finding, my mother actually DID raise me right! :) *holds door for you*  “Now PLEASE leave. Thank you.”

By falling prey to the facebook fiasco you lose focus on things that really matter. Do you really need to know or let others know how you were raised? I have a blog for that. :)

Stay Focused

1. Many of you have jobs/children that keep you occupied; so busy you rarely find a moments time to write. Make it a point to focus on you somewhere in the day, if you don’t, you will lose yourself. Write! Junior napping? WRITE! Dad home/fed/bathed? Hand off junior to HIM and take a moment for you!!

2. Don’t lose sight of the goal at hand. Think about what it is you want to accomplish. Maybe it IS your farm at farmville, maybe you want to take a walk. Make a goal, and stick to it.

3. If writing is your goal, and you’re pretty serious about it, make an effort to sit down and write in the quiet moments you have alone. Calgon will not take you away to the bathing fantasy of your dreams. Someone HAD to purchase the stuff, right?. Make it a goal to ‘buy’ yourself some time to write!

4. Once the distractions (facebook, coffee, playing,) are out of the way, sit yourself down to WRITE! Why not write out the goals you have in mind for the day? I can bet on the list wouldn’t be ‘One-hundred things to do on facebook, then write.’

5. Focus! This is not the time to be discouraged or lured away by all the shiny objects dancing around in your face, or all the peeps on facebook that you know as acquaintances (excluding your network of friends, mind you) FOCUS on your goal! Grab what you want and go with it. Become your dream and soon...all the flashy elements will become diamonds in the sky!

FOCUS

One half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it. ~Sidney Howard
***

I’ve set in motion a plan that I have for my life but somewhere along the line I got sidetracked by all the cute rides at the carnival. The roller coasters, the Carousel, the games and stuffed animals, what happened? This isn’t the picture I had in mind for myself.

I had a picture of a professional writer. One who becomes published with a real hard cover book sitting on the shelves at Barnes and Noble and maybe a few articles submitted, and Short Stories published, and most definitely a few books of poetry out there. All sidetracked by play time?

Not any more. A rude awakening! I’ve been God Slapped! I’m tired of being discouraged to the point of depression. I’m tired of putting my goals and dreams aside for a few moments of howdy do’s, a few games of yo/farm/hippie ville and a wave and a few hugs. Is this all worth it, for real? Is my sanity worth it?

I don’t think so. I have an email, I have a blog, if people really cared to see me or wave to me or give me a word of encouragement, I am a part of an online writing site, you can all wave and flutter by there can’t you? Or here?

I am normally a fun-loving free-spirited person but here lately things of the smallest caliber have crawled under my skin and turned to worms in my stomach making me want to vomit, and it can all be very discouraging.

When I see people make fun of God, and spew vulgarity, while others wink wink and say “Oh you’re going to hell.” Am I supposed to just sit like a carved statue on the side and listen but not react? Well, I  have chosen to focus on me and my writing. Through my writing I may rant and rave and get a whole lot of ugliness off of my chest that I’ve carried around a lifetime.

Let them laugh, mock, pretend; let them wallow in hypocrisy and drown in their own sorrows because me, I’m focusing on me as I change and grow to be the woman that God himself carved me out to be. I just hope that some people know that the way to encourage someone is to support them. That simple.

As my family, who is all back East and I in the Midwest, survived an Earthquake that by Maryland/DC/Va standards was big. As I watch people laugh and mock, natural disasters, I will celebrate the tenth Anniversary of September 11 attack with a candle and some prayer. Not on facebook, where it will be turned into a hatefest, racial slurs, religious taunts and all the ugly you can imagine. It is time for me, to become me, and time for you, to become you. What an enlightening week.

Now is the time to focus not just inward...but upward. As I grow and change, as the world shifts...will I stand alone? Only time will tell.

Networking

Just the word sounds important as it stands alone up there.
 
Networking is defined as: the practice of making contact and exchanging information with other people, groups or institutions. Usually, networking occurs with other people who have interests in similar areas. The goal of the networking relationship may be to further your personal employment opportunities or to cultivate new clients or the expansion of business relationships. Networking is also a term of art used in the computer industry.
 
Monday we figured out that we have the procrastination bug, and I devised tricks to get that little thing nipped in the bud! Then on Tuesday, I gave a few tips on how to Prioritize your schedule so that you’ll have the time to write and take action instead of putting things on the back burner and making all your time about playing on facebook.
 
Now today I’m here to tell you, to GO to facebook. But I’m also here to tell you that you will not be going for fun and games. You’re not going to visit your friends, wink, hug, LIKE, and pretend you’re in the worldwide playground of the internet. You my friend, are going to NETWORK! If you want to do all that stuff, go ahead, but if you’re a writer and trying to NETWORK, I would not advise making Facebook a Farmville of a place with animals popping up, crops of people on your list (unless they are writers), and the abundance of games absorbing your wall.
 
Networking with like minds takes a certain finesse. When my friend from Finland told me about facebook and how I should network to jump start my writing career, facebook was the place to do it. Another writer friend, M.D. , introduced me to things like Twitter and Weebly, and Ping! All in my arsenal of networking my way into my writing career.
 
Someone had briefly mentioned MySpace but I quickly learned that place should have been name MySmut! So I quickly blocked that place and all the trash it carried with it. Facebook quickly became my virtual world for networking. But I  was new to the scene and did all the wrong things that got me nowhere in my writing. I played game upon game,  I poked, preached, ranted and raved, hugged and ignored, only to realize, I’ve lost the Networking battle.
 
Or did I? Something happened a few months back; I realized I was NOT prioritizing and making my writing come first. While I was off mentoring and facilitating, helping out other writers, editing and whatnot, I lost my love... of writing. I got so caught up in being self-righteous, I lost something along the way and only recently found again. Something I’m not letting go this time in my pursuit of Networking.
 
My list of five things to propel you into NETWORKING on facebook?
 
1. Accept friends of like minded ability. Not the ones who want to play; the ones who are as serious and professionally minded as you!
 
2. Make a separate account for family, games and the playground mentality.
 
3. LIKE, everything Writing related!!!  Then your HOME wall will be filled with vital info, instead of game updates or who went to pee and felt you needed to know this.
 
4. Participate! Actively participate in your writing pages that you have LIKED. These people are professional, welcoming, and they love sharing.
 
5. If you want to rant, rave, preach, and stand on a pedestal, either make a blog for just that, or make sure your network of friends is of the like mind, or surely you will lose some portion of your networking capabilities.
 
Maybe this warrants another post...at another time. :)
 
SUPPORT YOUR FELLOW WRITER and THEY’LL SUPPORT YOU!

Prioritizing!

If you don't think every day is a good day, just try missing one. ~Cavett Robert
***

Yesterday’s procrastination post went over real well. I think I hit the nail on the head with what writer’s fear more than writer’s block, more than rejection, MORE than their mother saying, “I told you so!” and that is the Procrastination Bug.

It creeps up on you too, in an unsuspecting manner, like the tick I found on my leg this morning. It clung to my leg like I was a Thanksgiving feast. That’s what the procrastination bug does, finds unsuspecting victims and climbs aboard but once it bites you and has you under its control, you need the next step there is in fighting it and possibly finding a cure for the disease or at least a solution to help you muster through.

Okay, I’ll tell you since you twisted my arm. It is called PRIORITIZING! This is the bug that you WANT to bite you. I’ll call it a ‘friendly leech’ that’ll suck the procrastination venom right out of you and leak the prioritizing bug right into your veins directly!

Let’s see if I can nail this one in five steps:

1. The number one thing that you are going to put into action to deter Procrastination Bug, is SILENCE!
You are going to silence the outside world and stir your inner world into action. I live on a farm in the middle of basically nowhere so silence comes pretty easy. But I’m not just referring to noises that the OUTSIDE world brings in, I’m referring to the inside noises that have gripped you. Inside noises you say? Yes, the internet is inside noise!!! Silence it, just for an hour a day while you PRIORITIZE!

2.  SACRIFICE - Yes, you’re going to need to sacrifice a little time on facebook with your friends. Maybe sacrifice mowing the lawn or weeding the garden or running errands, but somewhere along the day towards PRIORITIZING you need to give up something in order to sit down and write!

3. IGNORE - Yup, that too. It may feel like you are ignoring your friends and they might wonder what happened to you while you’re not ‘active’ in their online events, but you show them this post and let them know, “I’m not ignoring you, I’m just prioritizing my time.” They’ll toss the old guilt trip at you and say, “What? I’m not a priority?” And you’ll answer, “Not when it comes to becoming a published writer and playing Farmville on facebook, no, sorry, you’re NOT.” 

4. FOCUS -  This is the hard part. This is where you are going to write until your fingers bleed, even if you have nothing to write. Sit and make something appear. The more you put into practice the art of prioritizing, words will flow and you’ll be banishing procrastination.

5. ACT -   This one is the hardest of the five! This is where you’re going to need to connect to the internet, and find a market for your work! No, LIKING everything on facebook is not searching markets, it’s not a priority to even glance at facebook. We need MARKETS!!! Now get to it!

Procrastination!

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. ~William James
***

Have you ever heard the words, “Don’t put off til tomorrow, what you can do today?” With me, procrastination seems to be my middle name.

I’m always putting off something one way or another. In my writing world, I’ll say, “I’ll write about that tomorrow.” And guess what, four days later I’m still trying to put it all together in my head so I CAN write about it.

Even this post, I started writing it and wound up veering off topic and wrote a poem instead. At least it is writing, right? I wanted to start a new blog, I put that off. I wanted to wash up the floor, and beau began to wash the walls. I wanted to wash clothes but instead I played computer chess (which I won a few games, I might add!)

I just want to procrastinate, I think it is in my blood, the genetic gene pool. I believe it was inbred into my system to put off whatever I can and it will just go away! I don’t believe that, but if it is genetically mutated into my system, how do I get rid of it?

How much do you want to bet that this post gets put off again. It is 9:00 am Monday morning, and this is not getting posted within twenty minutes that’s for sure!

Okay, let’s figure out what causes this Procrastination.

1. The number one cause is DISTRACTION. You can be distracted by an email, a phone call, or by surfing for things unrelated to your writing, like FACEBOOK. By allowing these distractions to consume you, you are also allowing Procrastination to fester like a mold!

2. CHORES - Have you ever had a chore to do, and put off writing, to do that instead? To be honest here, I do it all the time. My chores seem to come first where writing is concerned. Mowing, vacuuming, dusting, scrubbing, all important aspects of my procrastination disease.

3. PRIORITIES - What we see as a priority, may not be a priority, and it takes us away from our only chance at the quiet stillness of the morning. The time, for me,  that I can really dive into writing.

4. ATTITUDE - Yup, attitude. I have the attitude that I’ll get to it when I get to it. I put it off because I think it will still be waiting for me when I get there, not realizing someone might get there first. They’ll grab the thought right out of my head and act upon it, where me, I’ll still be sitting back with my attitude in check, and putting off what was supposed to be DONE!

5. Last but certainly not least....THE POTHOLE SYNDROME - A dear friend told me this weekend: We all have our own roads we must travel on. Sometimes during the ride we run through large, gaping pot holes. Other times it's smooth sailing. No ones road is perfect. So don't worry about it. Just keep your eyes on the finish and God will help us through the pot holes. ~ M.D.

I needed to hear that. I need to fill those potholes with the flowers of my writing and that nasty ol’ disease PROCRASTINATION can hopefully, flee! Finished 9:39 a.m.!

Poetry Sunday ~ Fruition

Some things have to be believed to be seen. ~Ralph Hodgson
***
Fruition
***

Winds of time have swept the fields
in stardust frivolous play.
Green and amber sweep the lot
where crops of corn display.

Tossing in the fearless wind
I watch the tassels shiver.
Rain slices down the sky
From God’s own hand deliver.

Thirsting for the satiable drink
they each stretch forth their arm
Rows upon rows gallantly march
upon the fruitful farm.

All heads seem to bow in prayer
as the rain seeps in the soil,
quenching all things desired
through various days of toil.

The ground was tilled
the seeds have been sown;
Hard labor now rewarded
by what is fully grown.

Never look at an empty field
as if it’s fertilized dirt.
try to see the wondrous beauty
of the corn rows fanning skirt!

Quotation Saturday

HONESTY
We tell lies when we are afraid... afraid of what we don't know, afraid of what others will think, afraid of what will be found out about us. But every time we tell a lie, the thing that we fear grows stronger. 
~Tad Williams

If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything. ~Mark Twain
 
Those who think it is permissible to tell white lies soon grow color-blind. 
~Austin O'Malley

The most dangerous untruths are truths moderately distorted. ~Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

TRUTH
God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please - you can never have both. 
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I never dreamed of being Shakespeare or Goethe, and I never expected to hold the great mirror of truth up before the world; I dreamed only of being a little pocket mirror, the sort that a woman can carry in her purse; one that reflects small blemishes, and some great beauties, when held close enough to the heart. 
~Peter Altenberg

Without faith there is no truth, for that is all the truth is or ever was. 
~Robert Brault
 
It is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth. 
~Oscar Wilde

MORALITY
Morality is a private and costly luxury. 
~Henry B. Adams

It is with flowers, as with moral qualities: the bright-coloured are sometimes poisonous; but, I believe, never the sweet-smelling. 
~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare
 
The Seven Deadly Sins are a litany of victimless crimes, compiled to distract attention from the bloody felonies of the righteous. 
~Robert Brault
 
Children lack morality, but they also lack fake morality. 
~Mignon McLaughlin

TRUST
 
I think we may safely trust a good deal more than we do. ~Henry David Thoreau
 
You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment unless you trust enough. ~Frank Crane
Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him. 
~Booker T. Washington

I trust everyone. I just don't trust the devil inside them. 
~Troy Kennedy-Martin

In my life, I have trusted many, only to be let down. I am NOT always morally correct, which is a real bummer. But I know the TRUTH of MY God and will carry Him with me until we meet. ~joni zipp

FUN!

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

***

In my writing, sometimes I can be so dramatic as to lose sight of what I’m writing. An outline is good in those instances, but my fun comes when I just sit down, free write and have fun doing it.

A lot of my poems just flow from me like one of those rivers that are at peak capacity? When my words come across as dark, dreary and depressing, or redundant and quite annoying, then usually my life is in a silent whirlpool vortex that spills words out like gum balls from a broken machine.

You notice that the gum balls scatter all over the place, like my words, and you look at all the pretty colors, like the imagery in a poem, and you want to pick each and every one of the gum balls up, like the work of tightening my poem. Then you realize that it is fine the way it is and is a little obscure so that the reader has to figure out the meaning.

I like to think my readers are intelligent, so I give them words that they have to sort of disassemble. Their minds have to think on the profundity of the subject at hand. Not that I want them confused as the poem strikes them upside the head, but I want them to think, “What is in this woman’s mind!” I want the poem to reach inside their mind and become  a tornado of thoughts and a hurricane of explosion.

Just as a short story should leave you wondering in awe of the fluid beauty of it’s delivery, poetry has to become that same form of delivery. I don’t hit my mark with everything I write and that is what we writer’s need to take into consideration when being the pizza man for readers. We need to allow the reader to call us up, (picking the book up) and we need to give them great service (delivery of a good story) and make sure they inhale all that we offer (our words, not the pizza.) ;)

Now isn’t that what writing is all about? Fun? Well you know you can write, have fun AND eat pizza, but please know, it could get messy on the keyboard. Now, where was I? FUN. That’s what writing is! I’ve been told I have wit, wisdom AND beauty and that is what I intend to carry to my work. But most importantly have fun doing it, or the work will come off as forced.

Now what are you going to do??? Write? Eat some pizza and have some fun! :) Go get ‘em!

Worldly Wednesday ~ Conformity

Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
***

Those are words I don’t just read, they’re not just words, to me. To me, they are THEE Word! Sometimes I find that people, understandably, have a hard time practicing what they preach, or what they read in their bibles.

Practice meaning, exercising, making constant use of, or putting into action. We can not just read the bible and put our own spin on it so that we shape it into us. We have to be molded into it, and I mean that in a good way. Conforming to this world, is reading what you want, watching what you want, doing what you want and never giving a second glance at the Bible to see what God wants. He wants us different, and rightly so. Every religion wants us to be different, not just Christianity. We might all have different Bibles that we use, but I believe, we all have the same God.

How would you feel being invited to someone’s house, only to be ignored or disrespected? You wouldn’t like that now would you. That must be how God feels when we ‘claim’ to be Christian, but then disrespect Him by not living as one. He comes into our house, sits at the table, you bring out the food, jam to some rap music, read your book Twilight or The DaVinci Code, drink a beer, and then look up at God and realize, “Oh, you’re here?”  He looks at you and says, “YOU invited me!” What’s your reply? “Wanna beer?” How does that make you feel? Good? Bad?

What I said is exactly what people are doing. They’re conforming to this world, inviting God over, then asking him to partake of what THEY believe in, not respecting what HE believes in. And you’re okay with that?

My writing has taken on a dark nature as of late. When someone comments that my poetry is saying the same thing over and over, then it is time for me to take a double-take and see what it is I’m hooked up on that is giving me a dark edge. Well can you say LIFE?

I look around and see a world where people are conformed to lust; (yes, watching half naked women (or men) prance ANYWHERE, and having the thought of, ‘man I’d like some of that’, is called LUST.) greed, (yes wanting more and more of everything is called greed); idolatry, claiming Christianity, but practicing astrology, so many other things that just bring me down as a human being trying to be righteous in an unrighteous society.

I’m not perfect and surely don’t claim to be. I am a sinner just as each and every one of you are. The only difference is this, when I invite God over, I want HIM to be the center of attention, not me me me and my selfishness. Him and all His glory! I’ll put praise music on, I’ll have a good meal and ask that he add blessing; I’ll tell Him how much I adore Him, and go right on drinking some tea and having a wonderful conversation with Him, only to open my eyes and realize, He’s been with me ALL THE TIME!!!

He’s not a stranger in my world. I don’t invite him just for dinner, or on Sunday’s because that’s what the world wants me to believe, He only want to come to dinner on Sundays? Or invite me to His house on Sundays?

My writing reflects the darkness that tries to consume my soul and the Light that owns me.  I will work on writing what GOD wants me to write...oh wait...I just did! :)

FORGIVE, LORD? HOW MANY TIMES?

I am talking. You interrupt mid-sentence as though I weren’t even there.

Forgive, Lord?

How many times?

How many???

I deliver a handmade gift I know you’ll like.  You look up with disgust when you see me at your door.  I won’t keep you long, but I determine to not bother you again.

Forgive, Lord?

How many times?

How many???

You say you “hope those old folks with their walkers stay out of the way” of your shopping cart.

Forgive, Lord?

How many times?

How many???

You lied about me, something that can never be proved otherwise.

Forgive, Lord?

How many times?

How many???

An ex-employee, you effusively greet my husband with a hug and cheerfully introduce him to your intended while I, whom you know well, am ignored.  If I introduce myself, I risk embarrassing all present, including my husband. 

Forgive, Lord?

How many times?

How many???

You sign the check, but never pen a word of thanks.  Was the amount not enough?

Forgive, Lord?

How many times?

How many???

I call. You’re busy.  You say you’ll call back.  You don’t.

Forgive, Lord?

How many times?

How many???

I am talking.  You totally tune me out, later asking for the information I have already spoken.

Forgive, Lord?

How many times?

How many???

You say you “don’t want those old people touching” your baby.

Forgive, Lord?

How many times?

How many???

What is that You are saying, Lord?

You’ve forgiven me how many times?

How many???

But it hurts, Lord.

“Forgive them. they know not what they do.”

“Forgive as you want to be forgiven.”

“Do unto others as you want them do unto you.”

“Inasmuch as you have done it to the least of these my brethren,        

you have also done it unto me.”

I will forgive, Lord.

many times.

many.

I beg Your forgiveness, Lord.

many times!

many!!!

Thank You, Lord, for loving me

                       Please help me to learn to love more like You do.

Let GOD do His Work!

Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy. 

~Leo Buscaglia

***

You know what bothers me more than anything? Is when you’re waiting for something and everyone around you is in more of a hurry up, get ‘er done mode than you! That should make things go smoothly, right? Less tense for you? As if you haven’t got enough on your plate?

I can not tell you how many times in the past month I’ve heard, “Any news yet?” or “Hear anything yet” When I simply said, “No, haven’t heard anything. I WILL let you know when I do.” So do they think I’ve heard something and am keeping it a secret? Do they seriously think this is info I can sit on and keep for myself?

Some people know and respect the tense situation. The anxiety of it all and they keep their mouths shut and just are an arm of support during this time. But seriously, I think all the rush rush rush, lets get it done attitude is what cost us a successful outcome last time and I’m wondering, will it hinder it this time?

My friend at church yesterday said, “Well I hope the call comes soon.” And I said, flat out, “It is in God’s time that the call will come. I don’t care WHEN it comes, I’ll just WAIT ON GOD!”

We live in world where patience is not accepted. You sit here waiting, day after day, you move forward with patience in one hand, faith in the other. But when people insist on putting these thoughts of  “Hurry up” or “Can’t wait” or “What’s taking so long.” Are they the ones who lack faith in the patience process or do they feel that they have some form of control when they can’t even be patient and wait without handing you the tension.

No one is eager or more in the ‘waiting’ mode than beau, who awaits this cornea transplant operation more than ANYONE! Second, I guess, would be me, since we’ve walked through this together hand in hand, patiently, anxiously, apprehensively and everything in between. But I never and I mean never, wake and say, “Sure wish that call would hurry up and come in.” How selfish is that statement? This isn’t about ME or YOU, or anyone but BEAU!!! Is the hurry up mode going to have a different outcome than the wait and SEE, mode?

As people sit in the background fretting, the when’s and hurry ups, I sit here and just pray. Sure money is important, but I do believe that God will handle and take care of EVERYTHING down to the last penny. There is no NEED for worry! But go right ahead, if that is what makes you get through this, then worry away. But I’m telling you, I WILL let you know when I hear something. PROMISE!

Me, I’m just here. Let me know when *I’m* needed, Lord.

Poetry Sunday ~ Insanity ~

Some people always sigh in thanking God. ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning
***
~ Insanity ~

I will not suffer insanity
for want of naught profanity.
My life is valued higher than
all the snakes who think they can.

I will not conform to this world
let gold and greed be unfurled
I’ll not partake of mans own sickness
I’ll ride the galaxies true quickness.

I want a man who sees stars in my eyes
peers right through this beauties disguise.
He’ll be a man who meets my level
and walks in the light, not with the devil.

He’ll meet me on the astral plane
there we’ll soar and there remain.
I won’t look back for earthly treasure,
For God’s own tempo meets my measure.

Can two be one on this earth,
can He help me see my worth.
The Lord has bled all love on me,
allowing me bliss with eternity.

Quotation Saturday

GOALS

The important thing is to strive towards a goal which is not immediately visible. That goal is not the concern of the mind, but of the spirit. 

~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
 

One half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it. ~Sidney Howard

Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible. 

~Doug Larson

The road leading to a goal does not separate you from the destination; it is essentially a part of it. 

~Charles DeLint


GIFTS

You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. ~Kahlil Gibran
 

But it is a cold, lifeless business when you go to the shops to buy something, which does not represent your life and talent, but a goldsmith's. 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Gifts,"
 

If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give. 

~George MacDonald
 

The manner of giving is worth more than the gift. 

~Pierre Corneille

GRATITUDE
 

God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you?" ~William A. Ward

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving. ~H.U. Westermayer

There is no such thing as gratitude unexpressed. If it is unexpressed, it is plain, old-fashioned ingratitude. 

~Robert Brault
 

As each day comes to us refreshed and anew, so does my gratitude renew itself daily. The breaking of the sun over the horizon is my grateful heart dawning upon a blessed world. ~Terri Guillemets

GOD
 

Any fool can count the seeds in an apple. Only God can count all the apples in one seed. ~Robert H. Schuller
 

God understands our prayers even when we can't find the words to say them. 

~Author Unknown
 

If God had wanted to be a big secret, He would not have created babbling brooks and whispering pines. 

~Robert Brault
 

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell. 

~C.S. Lewis

True Friends!

3 John 1:14 But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name.
***

I have friends! Sure I do. I have friends that care and love me; respect and admire me. All not within my grasp, because those within my grasp stay as far away as they possibly can. I remember one of my writing friends telling me, “If they knew you, like we knew you, always caring, loving, giving, sharing...they’d love you as much as we do.”

I’ve been down these passed few weeks and it really has nothing to do with anything in general, it has to do with things on a grander scheme. Have you ever missed your family and wanted to see them, only to know in the deepest cavity of your heart, you know that it is not possible to go see them?

Have you ever wandered down a dark alley, all alone and the only light shining is that of a star from a steeple on a church, other than that, you’re alone. Have you ever felt like no one on this planet cared for the pain you were in, then from out of the blue, people, your friends, do something in a grand matter to show you they care, and get this, they expect nothing in return! Friends from one corner of the continent to the other?!?! Amazing people!

Did you ever have a family member from 20 years ago friend request you on facebook, and what? Do they want to be friends NOW? Do they want to know what is going on in my life, so they can insult me and tell all their friends they ‘knew me when’? What do they want from me? They don’t want to be my ‘friend’ that’s for sure and that is the reason I  ignore most of them. They don’t know me, could care less about me, and only want to know OF me.

Whereas my friends in the writing community, they really love me. It’s a family kind of love. You know, the kind I never grew up with, only dreamed about having one day in my life? That unconditional love where they can put someone, in this instance me, in front of their own needs.

We’re a family, us writers and if one has a need, we all circle around to help that writer, and yesterday what arrived at my front door because of the love that they felt for me, just nearly dropped me to my knees. I know I cried puddles of tears to think that these people, none that I have ever physically met in my life, wrapped their love around me, and comforted me in a way no other person could do, they SHOWED they cared. And it was more than what came to my door...it was in the compassion and heartfelt warmth that was carried in the door with it.

Thank you all, mentors, TRUE FRIENDS, from the bottom of my heart. I hope I can give you one tiny measure of happiness that you gave to me abundantly!!! God Bless you all!!!

Jas.2:23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.

Leader

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

In writing, we need to be leaders and not followers. As we go down the writing path, we are to set new trails for other new writers to sow, tread their own path. You can always tell a follower by the way s/he mimics another person. They will either copy their style, do what the leader is doing, or downright be like a mime and mimic the leaders every move.

On facebook I watch as followers repost everything that is ever posted as a repost. They copy the style of other facebookers, and do the same thing, where it all becomes a mesh of the same, insanity in a bubble filled room.

I like bubbles but ever since I got a computer bubbles have taken on a new shape and are not the soapy film residue with air stuck in it, it has become little pop up windows that are annoying and an insult to my intelligence as I’m trying to work and have coffee.

My peaceful morning is saying good morning to friends over coffee. Which is quite normal, right? Facebook is open, my rough draft is open as I try and write the day’s blog. But somewhere along the fine hairline of the morning, bubbles start popping up and I don’t mean one person coming in to say ‘good morning’ I mean people LIKING, commenting, liking other posts and the bubbles go to the top of the screen and it all looks like insanity trying to climb its way into my peaceful morning. And again, if I see one more WOOHOO and WEEEEEE, I'll just vomit. But hey you don't have to earn my respect, I have to live with your disrespect.

Facebook has been a total turnoff to me in the past few weeks, and as I try to gain my sanity back, I can’t leave the few really dear friends I have that are in other states and countries, dangling without a wave of hello from me.

I was leading the way one day and as I turned the corner the followers were following and then on another day I decided to change the lead, and guide in a whole different direction and guess what...they followed me again. :)

None of this probably makes any sense, but I’ll be darned if I allow one spittle of insanities touch to drive me mad and off the deep end. I need to regroup and rethink my path and I will not hold hands with the zany and crazies of the world at this juncture. I need calm, peace, tranquility and I will follow whoever is going to lead me there into that lightened path.

There are so few leaders of this day. Okay...I’ll continue to lead you...

Poetry Sunday ~ Alone ~

Numbers 11:14 I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.
***

ALONE
***
Alone
in the corners of my mind
I scurry to find
no one there
who gives a care.

Alone
in the crook of his arm
there is no harm
He sets me free
while holding me.

Alone
with nary a friend
at the very end
no one true
who really knew.

Alone
in my walk
allowed to sulk.
I saw pretense
how immense.

Alone
with all my thought
a wish for naught.
Take me home
for my soul to roam.

Alone
with a glorious Light
that scares the night.
I will not fear
because He is here.

Deut. 32:12 So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.

Quotation Saturday

ACTION

Between saying and doing many a pair of shoes is worn out. 

~Italian Proverb
 

Note to self: finding a cool quote and writing it in your journal is not a substitute for Getting. It. Done. 

~Betsy Cañas Garmon
 

Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action. 

~Walter Anderson

All know the way; few actually walk it. 

~Bodhidharma

HUMOR
 

Humor is perhaps a sense of intellectual perspective: an awareness that some things are really important, others not; and that the two kinds are most oddly jumbled in everyday affairs. 

~Christopher Morley

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is. 

~Francis Bacon

Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquillity.

~James Thurber

A sense of humor is a major defense against minor troubles. 

~Mignon McLaughlin

BEING YOURSELF
 

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. 

~e.e. cummings, 1955

He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away. 

~Raymond Hull
 

All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naïve. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: that I am nobody but myself. 

~Ralph Ellison, "Battle Royal"

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. 

~Oscar Wilde

SOLITUDE
 

Man loves company even if it is only that of a small burning candle. ~Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. ~Henry David Thoreau
 

Language... has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone. 

~Paul Johannes Tillich

When the superficial wearies me, it wearies me so much that I need an abyss in order to rest. 

~Antonio Porchia

Contagious Disease...WARNING!

Matt. 10: 16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
***

I have read where writers have this disease that they give to other writers. It’s called the writing bug. They go around encouraging them to write, helps them along in their WIP (that’s Work In Progress for those not in the know) and sees  their friends through the tough times.

I have many writing friends in various communities. I’ve had friends die, move on in their own lives, and some who’ve walked forward without ever looking back to see where it was that they came from. I’ve also watched successful writers hang onto those who've helped them get to where it was they were going.

We’re a strong breed, us writers. When we’re slapped in the face with diversity, we rise to the challenge and slap it back with words. When we’re clobbered by more people taking out money (just because legally they can), and no one putting anything IN to your bank, when people run away from you instead of run TO you, because they are afraid that this freaky evil gnome that has you by the hair, might see them and try taking them down, also.

What they don’t realize is that the gnome has spread across the gardens of the world because people have relished their adorable idealistic seeds for centuries.  Cute little harmless evil gnomes? When have you ever known evil to be cute and harmless??? NEVER!

I’m researching Writers Who’ve Committed Suicide and I’m finding that in some instances the evil gnome has won the fight. I was taken to a Wikipedia page and it listed over 275 writers, whether literary, poets, columnists, or historians, that have committed suicide, because the sword was mightier than the pen.

Just what is it that drives a writer to do the deed? I can bet it is loneliness. They’ve cornered themselves into isolation. All their ‘so-called’ friends abandoned them at their time of pivotal need, and they lay there and slowly sliced their veins, throats; cut out their hearts with a single blade; jumped from a cliff, bridge or overpass, all just to be rid of the nothingness that they felt.

Writer’s don’t carry diseases around and disperse of them. They have a pen in their hand and way too much love in their heart. As I sit here and tears stream down my face causing the puddles to form into a pond of hurt, I find solace in my writing, my isolation, my pain, because with of this clobbering me in the face and no one to hear the sobs, I find pieces of myself strewn all about, and it is up to me to put all the pieces back together, alone.

I watch as the hypocrites use the Lord for their own gain. I watch as they lurk around corners with smiles and pleasantries trying to attack that one little lonely isolated unsuspecting lamb who chose this fork in the road instead of the other. I watch as they become something deviant and I watch as I go, down the right path, into the Lords arms. 




I'm NEVER alone as long as I have Him!

Luke 10: 3 Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.

Isolation

Psalms 34:17  The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.
***

As a writer, I enjoy the quiet still mornings where the only sounds I hear is the refrigerator kicking on and off, the creaks of the bed where slumberers are still resting and the wind gently tapping on the window, stirring my muse.

When I was kid, I would go to the park and that is where I would never be found on a seesaw, or a maypole, or sliding board, I could be seen swinging high into the clouds. I’d go so high, I often imagined that I could fly and sometimes, with my eyes closed, I did. In the air of the swings forward motion, I flew off of the swing and soared above the park and saw all the people below laughing, giggling, inane behavior,  while the grass swayed, the clouds spun and I was free, finally free, until I realized, I was just sitting on a swing.

Even as a child I liked isolating myself from people. Maybe that is why I chose to write at such a young age, because no one really liked me, I had few friends, and life was isolation for me, reading and writing.

I don’t isolate intentionally. One day I’m happy go lucky, then I turn around and I’m alone in my thoughts with words bouncing like ping pong balls off the page. Words in a sea of foam, go crashing front and center and elude me but I catch them and toss them onto paper and then, it happens, I’ve written a thousand words that I didn’t even know were lurking in there.

I have this thing with wanting sincere people around me. Whether online or offline, I like people who are sure of where they are going, know where they have been, and have found that God is the only thing in life that will get them from point A to point B.

I can count my genuine friends on one hand, and that’s if I had a few digits missing. The genuine one’s reach out to me, comfort me, and make me feel loved, the others use words words words to convey their sincerity and to me, it is more hurtful than actually comforting me in my time of need. And most, who claim sincerity, wave me off like butter on a piece of toast.

Isolation to a writer is a place of contemplation. The small things run off the shoulder like water off a gooses back, (Canadian friends inside joke there.) It’s the larger and grander things that aren’t so easy to just let roll. They’re there, and you have to face them, write about them and move forward! So today, as my friends whoop and holler and have a grand old time, I will cherish the ones that embrace me in my isolation, love me in the darkness of the day, and bring sunshine and light to a cloudy day. Thank you!

Air-brushed

Proverbs 17:22 A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones.
***

Have you ever heard of the term air-brushed? That’s what is done to pictures whether in magazines, or photography studios. You go in, they put tons of make up on you, embellish you quite a bit, then aim and shoot, process, air brush, then print. The picture is then a perfect image, no lines,wrinkles blemishes. That zit you went into the studio with magically disappeared, and you are delivered a perfect picture of yourself.

Editors are the air brush experts of the writing industry. We writers write and it is their job to embellish and make the writers work nearly perfect for the publishers and then it is on to acceptance.

I was reading a King novel and his editor missed an air-brush moment. The characters name was Tad throughout the whole book and in one sentence he was called Ted. You know, an error like that can really make you trip over words.

You expect the errors from small time publishers but from big time publishers that are making millions from an author such as King? I expect perfection! Well, now I know not to because there is nothing perfect in this world.

Did you ever wake up to face the world feeling airbrushed until you smile at someone and they look at you weird, point to your front tooth and say, “Got a little something there.” You then feel awkwardly embarrassed and remove the chunk of yesterdays broccoli that you THOUGHT you had brushed away, (but broccoli is a stubborn veggie.)

Or did you ever wake up with a song in your heart and you just start singing it, not even caring if you’ve got the words right, or if it is in tune, you just want to rejoice in waking up, only to be told, “What is that?” By someone who doesn’t like your singing.

What I’m getting at is that the simplest of moments can ruin the bright and glorious ones. One comment can leave you bruised, one correction can almost shatter an already unstable personality, one incident can change the world you live in.

I’m in an airbrushed moment of my life. I feel like God is up there with a big eraser and saying, “No this isn’t right. How did I mess THIS up so bad?” And I know it is just my own insecurities seeing things that are not there.

God makes no mistakes! Life cannot be airbrushed into perfection. As much as we want this or that different, this is just the way God wants us. And as I set my priorities straight, facebook will fall to a glimmer in my eye, the writing world will dim to a low light in the fog. I will rise above the ashes and move on in the direction God intends for me.

Editors aren't perfect, publishers aren’t all that perfect either, and certainly authors are just human beings with flaws. Whether in words or in pics, we’re not perfect, life isn’t perfect.

I think I’ll climb into my airbrushed magazine and pretend all is right with the world out here.