Quotation Saturday

GARDENS

It is good to be alone in a garden at dawn or dark so that all its shy presences may haunt you and possess you in a reverie of suspended thought.
~James Douglas, Down Shoe Lane

There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling.
~Mirabel Osler
 
Science, or para-science, tells us that geraniums bloom better if they are spoken to. But a kind word every now and then is really quite enough. Too much attention, like too much feeding, and weeding and hoeing, inhibits and embarrasses them. 
~Victoria Glendinning

In my garden there is a large place for sentiment. My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams. The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful.
~Abram L. Urban

WEEDS

A weed is but an unloved flower. 
~Ella Wheeler Wilcox

What is a weed? I have heard it said that there are sixty definitions. For me, a weed is a plant out of place. 
~Donald Culross Peattie

I learn more about God
From weeds than from roses;
Resilience springing
Through the smallest chink of hope
In the absolute of concrete....
~Phillip Pulfrey
 
You must weed your mind as you would weed your garden. 
~Terri Guillemets

SPRING

Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn.
~Quoted by Lewis Grizzard
 
Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments, not the composer. 
~Geoffrey B. Charlesworth

Where man sees but withered leaves,
God sees sweet flowers growing.
~Albert Laighton

And Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast
rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.
~Percy Bysshe Shelley, "The Sensitive Plant"

SOUL

The windows of my soul I throw
Wide open to the sun.
~John Greenleaf Whittier, My Psalm

Good for the body is the work of the body, good for the soul the work of the soul, and good for either the work of the other. 
~Henry David Thoreau

A sensible man will remember that the eyes may be confused in two ways - by a change from light to darkness or from darkness to light; and he will recognize that the same thing happens to the soul.
~Plato
 
With all your science - can you tell how it is, and whence it is, that light comes into the soul?
~Henry David Thoreau

The soul, like the body, lives by what it feeds on. 
~Josiah Gilbert Holland

What Dreams May Come

Dreams are illustrations... from the book your soul is writing about you. ~Marsha Norman

***

Well here we are. Today I’d like to talk about a few things, if you don’t mind.

For one, I almost gave up on writing (yeah right, you say?) No, seriously, I really have not felt like writing because a few loose cannons went off, and tried to disable me, but then I realized, no one can hurt me but me! I am my own worst enemy when it comes to writing.

I’m no longer a part of a certain writing site, just too much has happened, too much pain and bitter feelings there and as I let the administration down and many writers, I have other avenues in writing to pursue. My old friends will have to visit my blog if ever to see me, or not visit me at all and let me get on with my life. Thanks for the many good years, but now it is time for me to go and grow. They know who they are, know what they did, and they have to wake every morning and live with trying to wreck a writers dreams. Personally, I hope they look in the mirror and feel good about themselves.

It is Spring as you might have all noticed, as the robins are dancing in the yard, flowers have reared their head from the soil, and a mild winter will bring us a beautiful flourishing abundant Spring and Summer for sure. Well Summer is still iffy, since I think we’ll be getting some horrendous storms that will cripple a couple places, but don’t hold me to that, okay? It might just be an amazing and uneventful summer where you are at.

Dreams come from imagination. Your conscious mind creates things and it is up to you to make that dream become reality. My dream of writing cannot be put out by a few watery hoses; someone better bring out mightier and more powerful arsenal to squelch THIS flame.

While the first three months of the year have not been uneventful with Omaha trips, infections poisoning our systems, attacking us, and months of the same from my once joyful writing site, I am heading into Spring, and my New Year (Yes, I celebrate MY new year on Easter) with promise and HOPE for a new beginning.

As I’ve peeled myself away, I have opened new layers of consciousness which have enabled me to meet new people, become a part of NEW places to advance my writing because as it is told to me often, I have a talent, and as such, I must find a way to utilize the gift given to me.

Next week, we’ll begin looking at grammar and all the useful tools available. I will not list the different sites I’ve signed up to, because I do not want the vipers to follow me and continue to haunt and taunt me. But you’ll see, as I move forward, we move forward together. New tools, new aspects of the writing field, can only mean New Growth as Spring comes alive and showers me with what dreams may come alive for me as the days roll along.

Own Your Dream

"A dream is the seed of possibility planted in the soul of a human being, which calls him to pursue a unique path to the realization of his purpose." ~ Sharon Hull

A seed of possibility. That means it is a dream that possibly could come true. The seed is planted and just like Springs planting season, you place the seed in fertile soil, water it, and watch it grow.

This is no different for a writer with a dream. You need to be around fertile people who move you forward in your writing dream, you need to water it often, meaning add positive thoughts and pursuits, and you’ll be well on your way to pursuing your dream.

When your planted dream is on infertile soil, meaning vicious, malicious, spiteful, jealous, hurtful people who smite your dream on a daily basis, you know then it is time to uproot that plant and put it in the ground of moist soil where you can flourish. By keeping it in the infertile soil, you are only allowing people to poison your seed. And as they they daily add poison, the seed will eventually die.

There are many definitions to karma and many religions embrace it. A very basic definition of karma is: the good or bad emanations felt to be generated by someone or something.
 
Have you ever done something wrong to someone, only to soon be hit with something bad happening to you? A lot of people think nothing of it, just bad timing or what not, but you are naive in thinking when you hate, hateful things won’t happen to you.
 
I’m a positive person who is always spreading love and a positive atmosphere wherever I go, but as my once blossoming seed is planted in a malevolent place, my seed is dwindling as the poison is sucking the life out of my dream. All from people who call themselves writers? Writers helping writers is no longer the motto, but writers smiting writers is the underlying thread that will bury the site destroying more than just my dream, the dream of many writers. (One site has already been put on hiatus because of them.)
 
What those envious dream squashers don’t realize is that a dream is in the soul of a person. Not a smite button! The poor things hate and think so little of themselves, that trying to be vicious to another writer is going to make them feel better? “What goes around, comes around.” They are only squashing their own dreams and any chance of becoming a REAL writer. Poor things. I pray for them daily as they stomp and try and do not succeed in destroying MY dream.
 
No siree! I will keep moving on and keep the dream moving along, like the flow of a river. I will plant my seed in parts of the world where my positive nature is appreciated and welcome!
 
To own your dream, only YOU can keep it alive! It is not a wound for others to put salt into, it is a tattoo across many peoples heart that they want removed out of envy, but just can’t seem to rub it off with soap and water. Nope, your dream is yours and yours alone. Where you plant the seed, makes all the difference in where it grows and flourishes.
 
Own your dream! Tattoo it across your very own soul and keep it alive by adding love to it daily. Love life, it will LOVE you back!

Poetry Sunday ~ Sandhill Crane

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

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

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

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

Finding the sanctuary a yearly reprieve
until they decide to leap and leave.
Journey’s end to their timely stay
The sandhill crane must now fly away.

Acts 1:7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.


Seasons come and go...

*** 

There are seasons that come
and seasons that go
seasons of essence
where we all must grow.

Fall for the foliage
we shed our past
silent sorrow
that never last.

Winter, the snow
will shelter our pain
blanket our soul
with granules of rain.

Spring’s the time
for life to bloom.
sprout through the season;
a fresh soul to groom.

Summer the season
renewed growth surges.
the year now complete
the new you emerges.

Quotation Saturday

FRIENDSHIP

A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world.
~Leo Buscaglia

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.
~Albert Schweitzer
 
It's no good trying to keep up old friendships. It's painful for both sides. The fact is, one grows out of people, and the only thing is to face it.
~Somerset Maugham
 
I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.
~Plutarch

In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, for in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed. ~Kahlil Gibran
 
“A true friend is one who comes and wishes you a happy birthday, without the auto-reminder of a social network.”
~Joni Zipp

SPRING

It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!
~Mark Twain
 
Awake, thou wintry earth -
Fling off thy sadness!
Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth
Your ancient gladness!
~Thomas Blackburn, "An Easter Hymn"

Science has never drummed up quite as effective a tranquilizing agent as a sunny spring day.
~W. Earl Hall

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.
~Anne Bradstreet
 
The year's at the spring
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hillside's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in His heaven -
All's right with the world!
~Robert Browning

Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world.
~Virgil A. Kraft

”Spring is in my heart,
Spring is in my soul,
tis the very season,
that makes me feel whole!”
~Jon Zipp

FLOWERS

Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into.
~Henry Beecher, Life Thoughts, 1858

I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.
~Emma Goldman

Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844

Look at us, said the violets blooming at her feet, all last winter we slept in the seeming death but at the right time God awakened us, and here we are to comfort you.
~Edward Payson Rod

End of the World?

Here lately I’ve been hearing nothing but talk about the end of the world. Big booms in Wisconsin waking people in the middle of the night, the government scrambling to make sense of it all. Nation rising against nation. War, pestilence, famine, a society of moral-less inhabitants and we wonder, where does that leave us? You and I?

I think as writers, it is our duty to bring to the world truth. I always felt there was a place for writers in any given age; take for example the writings in the Bible or even before the bible was written, there were writers. I feel as this age passes, we writers will also have a place in this society and we can either bring people fantasy, fact or fiction.

As humans it is our nature to turn a blind eye. We see people getting beat up and all we can do is watch. We see a house burning down and we just stand there with our mouths wide open for precious moments saying, “Wow, looks kinda bad.” and that is BEFORE thinking to dial 911 for help!

We’ve become a society of voyeurs and a lust filled nation thriving on sitcoms with nudity and profanity garnering the laughs a minute, and a majority of people are eating this stuff up and turning their heads to this lewd behavior. Are we that gullible or are we that weak as to allow this to take place and still walk with your head up? Do you hold NO shame in your actions at all?

We as writers are the ones who are bringing this stuff alive. Do you not realize that? T.V shows become such because a writer, wrote a script and brought it to someone of the same low moral caliber and weak mind and everyone sat around laughing at the big boobs, killing sprees, murder, and victimization. Writers have desensitized society to the point a young boy can get shot and killed and the police, so called authority, can do nothing, because of a statute?

It is sad when a sitcom can be called GCB -- why not use what it is really-- a show based on a book titled Good Christian Bitches??? Are the words offensive to you but not the letters? What? That is no different than text talk.  You’ll sit and write OMG or LMFAO, but would you speak this way to a persons face?

And we as the good righteous men and women of society sit back and say, “There is nothing *I* can do.” YOU’RE WRONG!!! You have a voice, you CAN stand up! YOU are a writer, you can move mountains with your words but you choose to live in your cave, and tickle the fantasy paint brush and thrive off of the pink slime? Maybe it IS the end of the world, and maybe my VOICE or WORDS will be the last thing on your conscious mind before you go...to bed tonight.

Alone one voice is nothing...
Together we can become a choir!
One voice to tell the world
Two voices bind them
I have HOPE to see in the dark,
And all at once, I’ll find them!
~ Joni Zipp ~

Wild World of Writing

The writing world is just wild! With Authors, Publishers, Agents, and Editors, we find ourselves in a world of words, bouncing around like balls in a BINGO machine! It’s a wonderful world mostly, where like minds join together for the same common interest and that is the love of reading and writing.

The definitions of such are below:

AUTHOR --
1. a person who writes a novel, poem, essay, etc.; the composer of a literary work, as distinguished from a compiler, translator, editor, or copyist.
2. the literary production or productions of a writer:
3. the maker of anything; creator; originator:

WRITER --
1. a person engaged in writing books, articles, stories, etc., especially as an occupation or profession; an author or journalist.
2. a person who commits his or her thoughts, ideas, etc., to writing.

PUBLISHER --
1. a person or company whose business is the publishing of books, periodicals, engravings, computer software, etc.
2. the business head of a newspaper organization or publishing house, commonly the owner or the representative of the owner.
 
AGENT --
1. a person or business authorized to act on another's behalf:
2. a person who works for or manages an agency.
 
EDITOR --
1. a person having managerial and sometimes policy-making responsibility for the editorial  part of a publishing firm or of a newspaper, magazine, or other publication.
2. a person who edits  material for publication, films, etc.

Publishers, Editors, and Agents are not necessarily writers/authors. They are in the business because they were either writers in their previous years and found the business exciting enough to stay in the field one way or another, or the love of reading has brought them to this juncture.
 
And not all writers make good editors. I see some well published writers/authors of their own works still in need of an editor who can pick out that typo and make their work appear more professional. Say a writer posts an article at Helium. If they have not edited their work and many typo’s abound, what are the odds of that author ever being taken seriously?
 
Is an agent necessary to get your work into the hands of the publishers? Not necessarily, but they do know who to pitch your work to and whose hands it would best have a likely shot at being published. So as you can see, it is one wild world this writing domain that I’ve gotten myself into. With ups and downs, in's and outs, the Wide World of Writing is a kaleidoscope of adventures and can bring a richly rewarding creative world to life for you whichever you are in the industry, writer/author, agent, publisher or editor.
 
As the Cat Stevens song says, “Oh baby baby it’s a wild world!” ...it goes onto saying, “But if you wanna leave, take good care, hope you make a lot of nice friends out there, but just remember there’s a lot of bad and BEWARE!”
 
The same can be said for the writing world.

Hard Pressed ~ Happy Spring!

Prov. 7:19 For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:

***

Well I said you’d be ‘hard pressed’ to get any personal info out of me, well here is that light glimmer of a moment, hard pressed.

I wanted to let you all know where I’ve been, just in case you’ve missed my daily posts on writing. I have some coming up but my days and nights are just full of thoughts and things that need to get done, places to go, people to see, and writing (shame on me) is way back there, hiding in the shadows.

It all began on March 8th when beau went in for an eye doctor checkup. He was seeing him once a month after his cornea transplant surgery and all was healing well by January so the doc said, “I’ll see you in March.” Boy have we ever! March 8th came and we found out there is an infection! He’d see us in Omaha on the 12th.

Yay, an Omaha trip takes us on an eight hour journey. Four to get to Omaha, and four hours to get home, and with all my back problems, I was not looking forward to it, but it was a necessity that needed to be taken care of. On the twelfth, we made it to Omaha in three hours, but we missed the Doctor by a half an hour and was sent on to Council Bluffs Iowa, twenty minutes up the road from where we were in Omaha. (I didn’t know Iowa was so close.) Another trip was scheduled for the fourteenth and I knew the sixteenth was going to be in there too, and it was.

I drove on the fourteenth, arriving on time this time, but we were sent to a pharmacy there to get new eye-drops which took us off course for another hour and we made it home by five that day. No change in the infection and it appeared a new one had popped up! By the time I got home I was sore, and felt I had aged 20 years.

Friday I could not go. I was in too much pain, so his mom took him. They left at 6:30, arrived home at 3:30, after again being sent to a pharmacy. The hospital pharmacy, to their surprise, had some of those Celtic River-dancer's there, so at least they were entertained while waiting for the prescription. Another appointment was set for Monday.

Monday the nineteenth, I drove, through wind and some pretty heavy rain! We left 7:20 and were back home by 3:40. A new record for me. The one infection had cleared but the other remained.  And an appointment for the 22nd was made.

Ironically on Monday of this week, the rain was pretty heavy as we neared our stopping point for our half-leg of the journey. The traffic had slowed to a mere 55 in a 75 mph zone, the rain was so heavy, beating on the roof and windows like mad drops seeking shelter! I pulled off seeking a break and food! But as we got back onto the road, the rain had come to a drizzle and not far was a car off to my right with a man standing out there. There was another car, whose side was smashed in, off to the left in the grass, almost facing us. No police on the scene yet, which meant to me, ‘fresh accident.’ It also meant, *I* was protected once again by God! People do not like to slow down for the heavy rain and many had passed me up as I tried in vain to hit sixty.

I take my time, drive safely and let all the speed-demons pass me up to get where they are going to, in such a hurry, that they’d risk their life and limb for. I mean seriously, is ANY place that important to get to? The appointment on the twenty second was rescheduled because doc has emergency surgery, which makes me wonder, ‘what was God protecting me from this time?’

My birthday will be spent on the road drinking in all the beauty this breathtaking Nebraska has to offer. I’ll take my time, enjoy the view, and Thank the good Lord for this journey!

Rom. 1:10 Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.

Poetry Sunday ~ To Him be the Glory

"I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I set your rules before me."
– Psalm 119:30

To Him be the Glory

***

I walk the path of loneliness
all rocks are gathered round.
I try to move them one by one
my duty earthly bound.

The burden mighty heavy
with each rock I toss aside.
I look around at no one
who is standing by my side.

“Why do you feel so alone,
when I placed within your reach,
ones to help you down the path;
hardy lessons for me to teach.”

“Lord the load is heavy.
I sometimes cannot see,
all the pillars gathered around
to walk the path with me.”

“I feel as if I struggle alone,
can do it all myself.
Hardened is the journey I tread;
people sit by on the shelf.”

“My child, all around you waits
companions to ease the road.
You need to see the well lit path;
you need to share the load!”

“But will I have failed in my job,
for not embracing the task?
I want to give my all to you
and do all that you ask.”

“You’ve given me the best of you
and that is all I need.
Your witness and your testimony;
a mighty strengthened seed.”

“Go now child and let them see
the blessings that I’ve sent.
Your journey far from over,
your light has not been spent.”

“I see them Lord, gathered here;
all from You to me.
We’ll walk the path, never alone
to You give all the Glory!”

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." --Jeremiah 29:11

author’s note: Sometimes we feel so alone on a journey, we never see right in front of our faces the people surrounding us, wanting to share the load. Our prideful selves thinks we can and HAVE to do it alone. You’re never alone as long as you have God, you’ll never see if you don’t open your eyes!!!

Quotation Saturday

Happy St. Patricks’s Day, to those who celebrate it!

St. Patty’s Day

St. Patrick's Day is an enchanted time - a day to begin transforming winter's dreams into summer's magic. 
~Adrienne Cook


He was a terror to any snake that came in his path, whether it was the cold, slimy reptile sliding along the ground or the more dangerous snake that oppresses men through false teachings. And he drove the snakes out of the minds of men, snakes of superstition and brutality and cruelty. 
~Arthur Brisbane

For 'tis green, green, green, where the ruined towers are gray,
And it's green, green, green, all the happy night and day;
Green of leaf and green of sod, green of ivy on the wall,
And the blessed Irish shamrock with the fairest green of all.
~Mary Elizabeth Blake

There's a dear little plant that grows in our isle,
'Twas St Patrick himself, sure, that set it;
And the sun on his labor with pleasure did smile,
And with dew from his eye often wet it.
It thrives through the bog, through the brake, and the mireland;
And he called it the dear little shamrock of Ireland...
~Andrew Cherry

TRUTH

The trouble about man is twofold. He cannot learn truths which are too complicated; he forgets truths which are too simple. 
~Rebecca West

Theories are private property, but truth is common stock.
~Charles Caleb Colton
 
One of life's regrets is that you didn't always tell the truth, and now it's too late, because the truth has changed.
~Robert Brault
 
Truth is the breath of life to human society. It is the food of the immortal spirit. Yet a single word of it may kill a man as suddenly as a drop of prussic acid.
~Oliver Wendell Holmes

TRUST

We're all born brave, trusting, and greedy, and most of us remain greedy.
~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966
 
I trust everyone. I just don't trust the devil inside them.
~Troy Kennedy-Martin, The Italian Job
 
Deciding whether or not to trust a person is like deciding whether or not to climb a tree, because you might get a wonderful view from the highest branch, or you might simply get covered in sap, and for this reason many people choose to spend their time alone and indoors, where it is harder to get a splinter.
~Lemony Snicket

In God we trust, all others we virus scan.
 ~Author Unknown

The Right to Write

“A strong positive attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug.” 

~ Patricia Neal

I, like anyone else has every right to write. Although at times I don’t feel like writing, like this week with the two ten hour trips to Omaha. Yeah, there is an eye infection in the cornea transplant that needs close attention and as my days are consumed with spring, cleaning and driving, there is very little time to write.

As writer’s we must always find the time to sit down and spill out onto the page words that either make sense or words that make no sense at all, as long as you keep the pace with tapping the keys. I’ve been awake since 3:30 this morning and have struggled with staying awake, wanting to sleep,  but writing anything was just a big turn-off.

I sit here now typing, but my eyes are heavy as if I have window shades on them and a little gremlin hanging on the cord and keeps toying with the idea of UP and down. I say that because they’re not really blinks my eyes are doing, they are heavy laden shade pulls.

In the past few weeks, there have been a few who think that I have no right to write, and in their crippled world try to bring me to their level. They wake each and every day and anxiously run to the writing site just to click the SMITE button, as if to make me feel less? I don’t know what their point of spreading negativity is, I could really care less, because for every one I get knocked down, five more come in and raise me to heights they only dream of obtaining. I’m sorry that they have no life, but *I* do!! I’m sorry their life has been relinquished to the lower echelons of existence.

It is pretty sad when a person is so weak and lifeless, that they have nothing in life and are left to to feeling whole by bringing someone down? I pray for them as they walk (or don’t walk) in the shadows of darkness while I’m here surrounded by the joyous light of every day! Each and every second of my life is built on how to make it count in a positive fashion.

If you’re a writer, you normally stand by and support your fellow writer. That’s at least what I’ve learned over the years, but here lately, there are wanna-be writers that don’t really comprehend the etiquette and respect of a writer and truly don’t even belong IN the writing world. It’s writers like that, that have no right to write because I’m certain all that they spew will be of a negative nature and all that they try to lift up for themselves will be slaughtered and taken down.

Allow me to say, in my darkest of days, I walk in the LIGHT. When I am trampled down, I bounce right back up like one of those little punching bags that you try to knock to the floor but it keeps standing erect no matter how many or how hard the blows are.

I have a right to write as much as you. So allow me some peace in the JOY of my life. We’re writers, and as such we ALL have a right to write. Sometimes it’s a God-given talent, other times it’s a try-to-hard-to-people-please.

Write right and carry with you the power of positive thinking! Then and only then will something positive waltz into your life.

"Your attitude can take you forward or your attitude can take you down. The choice is always yours!" 

~ Catherine Pulsifer

Poetry Sunday ~ Emergence

Ps. 85:11 Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.


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


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


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


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

Quotation Saturday

PEACE

You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.
~Attributed to both Golda Meir and Indira Gandhi

Five great enemies to peace inhabit with us: avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride. If those enemies were to be banished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace.
~Francesco Petrarch

I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it. 
~Dwight Eisenhower

We shall never be able to effect physical disarmament until we have succeeded in effecting moral disarmament.
~J. Ramsay MacDonald

BEAUTY

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
 
Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.
~John Muir

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.
~Kahlil Gibran
 
Some people, no matter how old they get, never lose their beauty - they merely move it from their faces into their hearts. ~Martin Buxbaum
 
“Some people will never know the treasure of beauty because their heart is wrought with ugliness!”
~ Joni Zipp

BIRDS

I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.
~Henry David Thoreau

Have you ever observed a humming-bird moving about in an aerial dance among the flowers - a living prismatic gem.... it is a creature of such fairy-like loveliness as to mock all description.
~W.H. Hudson, Green Mansions
 
Use the talents you possess - for the woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except for the best.
~Henry Van Dyke

My favorite weather is bird-chirping weather.
~Terri Guillemets

SPRING

Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn.
~ Lewis Grizzard
 
Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments, not the composer. ~Geoffrey B. Charlesworth

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.
~Charles Dickens

The year's at the spring
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hillside's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in His heaven -
All's right with the world!
~Robert Browning

Blogging III

It's better to write about things you feel than about things you know about.
~ L P. Hartley

The blogging world is made up of some do’s and don’t’s. There are things you can do to ensure you have a good blog and there are some things that will be a no-no to your readers and have them clicking for something else to read. I’ve probably done one or more of these on the list, so don’t fret if you do too. They’re just a quick guideline.

Here are some do’s:
1. First and foremost, be yourself. Allow your reader to be a voyeur into your world and get to know your personality through your voice.

2. FOCUS. Having something to focus on, like for me it is writing, poetry and quotes. Yours may be photography, every day mommy, or cooking. Just remain focused and your reader will keep coming back to taste what you’re offering.

3. LINKS. It is advisable to post links to either other blogs, other posts of yours or informative links within a post. Your reader will feel more connected to you and find your blog of interest. I hear it helps with the search engines too.

4. Images. Sometimes a reader needs to be visually in touch with you. Photos can be one way you connect your blog post, through an image, to reach your reader. This is brain stimulation for the reader.

5. Be responsive. I get few comments, but when I do, I respond to each person. Many have become close friends over the years and not commenting may have driven them away. Comment to your reader!

6. Promote! It is advisable to promote yourself in any way you can, via facebook, twitter, or other avenues. Promoting your blog is your ticket to readership! They won’t read if they don’t visibly know you exist.

Now onto some don’t do ideas:

1. Don’t overdo it! When you’re new to blogging, you have a tendency to want to blog every day, every hour if possible. Set a reachable goal and pace yourself.

2. Don’t bore your reader! If you have a photo blog, don’t ramble on about last nights dinner. This will not always go over well with your readers. Allow your blog to evolve over time and when you know your trusty followers well enough, then give them something new to nibble on.

3. Don’t make grammar mistakes! This is one I believe I’ve made a few times on my blog, but I usually catch it before it goes to the reading public. I’m not perfect, but my readers of a writing blog, expect more from me! Be more for your reader. Go above and beyond in bringing them all that they expect in your blog.

4. Don’t make your post one long paragraph! Break it up with some ‘white space’ for the reader. Make it aesthetically appealing. Just as you need a break, so does your reader when he/she is reading. Long paragraphs equal boring posts on the blogger scale.

5. Don't limit WC. WC stands for word count in the writing world. Writing longer posts, with breaks in the paragraphs, makes your reader feel they’ve gotten hold of some juicy stuff, and comfortably too, I might add.  I’ve tried limiting my posts to 500 words, but more times than not, I go well over that and I think my blog posts are all the better for it. Remember, more words means meatier juicier blog posts. (keep in mind #2 on the don’t list)

6. Do NOT be negative! Unless you have a blog about Gripes of a Mom, being negative gives off many negative vibes as I’ve learned the hard way on this one. Be positive and inspirational. This is what readers want and being a bummer in the readers world will surely get you less reads and have them surfing for a more inspirational blog.

So there you have it. A nice little list to help guide you in the blogging community. Write on folks, but most of all, Write RIGHT!

Blogging II

There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you.
~Z.N. Hurston

To Blog or not to Blog, that is the question. I see many blogs about nothing yet I see many more about something. People have a need to share with the world their everyday lives. It’s as if it is a form of medicine for them. Much like the social networks are an addictive form of sharing, chatrooms the home of the homebound, blogging is to writer’s the medicine of the field.

If you have something enlightening to tell the world, or you’ve discovered a ruby among the rubble, you don’t want to keep it all to yourself, you want to share it with the world. The social scenes allow for tiny bits and pieces, but a blog, that can give you an entire mouthful to spoonfeed your followers. And if it something everyone wants to hear/read then your followers will read you every day to see just what it is that you’re sharing with the world.

A blog can be a step in the path your going down as a writer. Writer’s like myself like to give you morsels of the writing craft, while other blogs give you authors and interviews with authors, while some blogs review the books that they’ve read, while there are some blogs with absolutely nothing to offer, and I wonder why they even try blogging. That’s right, blogging is a form of mental release in a world where sharing what you ate for dinner has become status quo. People have a need to share with someone, ANYone, their everyday, month, year, happenings.

It’s not just about blogging, it is also about promoting your blog. Promoting it on facebook, twitter, blog catalog and many other places that will get people to come and read what you wrote, that is if they are interested in what you have to say. And it helps if you have friends because via friends you get hits and shares. People will share with others the things you’ve written if they felt it worthy enough to share.

Here lately, I have a set of  ‘so called friends’ who apparently like what I’m writing so much that they run back and tell their friends what I’ve written. Then those friends come and visit me, but not without an agenda to sabotage all of my hard work that I put into writing my blog. This is the reason I’ve chosen to keep my personal life personal and become a quiet blogging recluse, sharing only what the writing world offers me.

Sure I’ll write blog posts about writing, but you’ll be hard pressed to learn anything of me on a personal level, because well, I’m keeping myself closed to friends who cut you in the throat, find folly in bringing you down, and sit in sheer joy by bringing on negative vibes to my positive world of blogging.

Blogging can be a fortified essential nutrient in your writing diet. Write right and they’ll come to read what you wrote. Write wrong and they’ll move on to the next blog that excites them. It’s all about reaching the reader and have them liking what they’re reading. To blog or not to blog, THAT is the question!

Blogging

Observe, don't imitate.
~John M. Ford

Blogging is a tool in the writers arsenal. We as bloggers, either have something positive to say or something negative to say but always, a writer has SOMEthing to say; and a blog is a nice way to say it.

I remember a couple of years ago when my beau was losing his sight, I made the suggestion that he might try blogging, to tell his story of going blind. He put together Drums in the Deep, and was well on his way in the blogging community, sharing his journey.

Well like most people, he got bored quickly as his sight diminished with every day, and he was becoming discouraged. Then he started a new blog about audiobook reviews and he has found a nice niche which he can enjoy writing and enjoy reviewing, since audiobooks became the norm in his sightless world.

Many of you know that last year the miracle of sight was given to him, and then he finally got the chance to SEE his blogs. It didn’t take him long before he revamped both blogs and made them more appealing to the reader, who may have no clue that he went blind and got his sight back three years later. Blogging became a part of his life.

He has such a nice voice I had suggested and tossed around the idea of him becoming a narrator for audiobooks but that seed fell by the wayside as we both have been dealing with our health issues first and foremost. But now that he can see, (still not 100% yet) he has begun to think ahead for the future, HIS future. He is now thinking also about how cool narrating would be and once he starts watering that seed, you just never know what will flourish!

Just as the writing sites used to be a part of my life, blogging has been a way to communicate with my reader and teach them a few basic points in writing. I’m not a college scholar but my tips are tried and true to the best of my knowledge and is what gives my life purpose. To teach a newcomer some basics to get them started on their own journey of writing is my gift to you.

Throughout my life, I’ve realized a few things, (haven’t we all?) I realized I have a purpose. No my purpose isn’t to become a millionaire, be president, or to become the the first woman to venture onto Mars surface. Nope, my purpose is to plant seeds in everyone’s life and give them that little grain of seeing hope in their lifeless world. One day the seed takes root, once they’ve watered it, and has the possibility of growing into great things.

So while I may not seem to have accomplished much in my life, know that I am a Master Gardener, serving a purpose for the Almighty. What the individual does with that seed is totally up to them. I’ve given it to them, they can either plant it or toss it, the CHOICE is up to them.

Blogging is a seed that I give to you, my readers. Use it to the best of your ability and make something flourish from it!

Poetry Sunday ~ The Mist

Hope is some extraordinary spiritual grace that God gives us to control our fears, not to oust them. 

~Vincent McNabb

The Mist
Crossing over the empty field
fingers stretch out like tendrils of vapor
Prior stalks crept skyward but now
the pasture keeps vigil with the midnight caper.

Creeping, clinging, clawing finding its way;
sauntering, slithering into the life of me
Through the trees soft sworn breeze,
the mindful mist just has to be.

The moisture whispers softly sprinkling
sounds, a hiss, a cool bliss singing.
life is short the fork is swaying
with the earth, all but swinging.

The sun is sneaking sinewing and peeking
rays they linger beyond the gist
it is where one day my soul will lay
evaporating as surely will the mist.

Quotation Saturday

GOALS

Goals are dreams with deadlines.
~Diana Scharf Hunt
 
The road leading to a goal does not separate you from the destination; it is essentially a part of it.
~Charles DeLint
 
The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher.
~Thomas Henry
 
I don't care how much power, brilliance or energy you have, if you don't harness it and focus it on a specific target, and hold it there you're never going to accomplish as much as your ability warrants.
~Zig Ziglar

ATTITUDE

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
~Herm Albright,
 
Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.
~Anthony J. D'Angelo
 
Oh, my friend, it's not what they take away from you that counts. It's what you do with what you have left.
~Hubert Humphrey

I've decided that the stuff falling through the cracks is confetti and I'm having a party!
~Betsy Cañas Garmon

GRATITUDE

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

You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.
~G.K. Chesterton
 
The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!
~Henry Ward Beecher
 
Grace isn't a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It's a way to live.
~Attributed to Jacqueline Winspear

Let Your Light Shine!

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. 
~e.e. cummings
***

When your going down a long stretch of road say, in Corn Country, isn’t all you wish to do is to have a little change? A bend in the road perhaps, more barns even. A house would be a nice change of scenery even in the miles of field. Presently Corn Country is under the siege of the Crane migration. A wonderful light in the rising of each day to hear those warbling sounds out in the fields, dances in the sky, and a joyous stay in the fields as a layover before they once again move on.

Writers need to embrace change too. Most of all they need to let their light shine the brightest among fellow writers and not stand in the stagnant waters of  negativity. I know of some writers who will never make it any further as they have literally crippled themselves in their writing journey because they won’t move on, won’t embrace change, in essence paralyzed their writing career. They gather with them other writers who enjoy the dark negative life. A writer in the dark will go nowhere but deeper into the dark.

It is pretty sad when you see once bright and shining stars diminish and basically die out because they didn’t take the route of letting their light shine. Writers need to always work toward improving themselves in their writing and in the community of writers.  They needn’t hang on to being a downer and dragging people down with them. If they wish to be a dominant force of downing, then leave the writing community behind and allow us to let OUR light shine.

Me, I’m soaring at the moment. My light is a beacon for all to see. My writing is at a high point, and I CHOOSE to bring to you, the writing community, positive words! Remember yesterdays post? What's in a Word? Well there is a positive and negative in words, and I choose to be positive in a negative world. It started out as a dim flashlight walking through the halls, echoing voices of negative testimonies against me, then as I neared the light at the end of the tunnel, MY light began shining brighter and brighter.

I became a beacon of hope through my words and actions! Writers write because THEY to want to be that beacon of light for their readers, and no matter which genre of writing you go into, you must remain that beacon of light and positive attitude or surely you and your words will lie in the abyss. You may have friends there surrounding and comforting you, because you and you alone dragged them down with you. See what negativity can do? Shame on you. And you call yourself a writer?

Become a bigger and better person today. Become a WRITER today and expose to the world all the Light that you have within your power to become and share the positive words that will carry you to the next level in your life. A higher level; one of respect and admiration because you, Let the LIGHT Shine!

What's in a Word?

Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret.

~ Matthew Arnold

***

What’s in a word?

Well to begin with, letters, as simple as that, letters are what makes up words. But as writers you need to be careful and choosy with which word you use because just like driving a screw into dry rotted wood, the sentence just might fall apart!
And is that what you want, your sentence to fall apart?

I didn’t think so. First you need to begin with a good strong piece of wood. Okay, too metaphorical here. The strong wood is symbolizing your strong plot! You’ve got a story all ready to build so you have got your solid piece of wood and a few loose screws. Oops again, didn’t mean that. You have screws on hand and are ready to begin writing your story!

Oh my, where do you start? Do you have a character in mind?  What I mean is, has this character been knocking on your noggin begging to be let out of the closet you have her/him stored in? Well, if you’ve got the plot idea, now is the time to let Suzie McQuirkle out of the closet and let her have a run of a few lines. What? You don’t have a plot OR a character?  Uh oh!

Ok...you need to start writing a few sentences. We do that with words. It was a dark and stormy night. Oh that is too cliché. Try something a little stronger. The car was zooming down the wet roadway... Ah little better. You can do so much with the words in a cliché. This might be the foundational piece of wood your seeking to begin building your plot and character. 

Once you have those two elements, start asking the questions: WHY? Why was Suzie zooming down a wet roadway? Was she running from something or worse, someone? WHAT caused her to flee? WHO is she fleeing from? The law, a stalker? Oh my we’re building now! Let’s not forget the WHEN and HOW of the questions, okay?

When you start questioning your character, you have begun to pick up a few more scraps of wood to add to the little story you’re building. I hate to do this to you, after I’m always saying to just keep writing and writing and don’t stop. But stop for a minute. Yes, one minute is all I’m allowing you! Look at the words you used!!! Are they strong words? Too fluffy? Too exuberant? Ok, minutes up. You’ve looked at the words and are thinking, maybe zooming isn’t a tight word, you need something MORE graphic.

Okay, time for the thesaurus. I always have mine opened as I’m writing so I don’t use the same word twice in a paragraph or two. If it is meaning the same thing, you need to find another word! Make it strong, bring home the point you’re trying to get across.
 
The car was zooming down the slippery wet road, making a speedy getaway as Suzie dashes in and out of traffic, she zipped right through the scene to safety. Safety? I don’t think so. She more than likely crashed, or you wouldn’t have told the reader the road was wet and slippery.

See all those synonyms I used. Pretty easy huh? Well it’s not and it takes a lot of skill and tried and true blood, but you’ll get the hang of it in no time. Remember, in writing, words are your friends!  Make every one count for something as you build your little birdhouse, I mean story. A few loose screws later, you might just have something! Stick with it.