Light In The Darkness

John 9:5 “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

Light in the Darkness

One spark, that’s all it takes to get the fire under you to burn brightly, to spread so others can see the light. We become conditioned to spreading hate, bad news, or controversial topics. Our hearts are set on seeing a reaction of disgruntled people joining together to fan the flames to form a riotous response.

Can you even imagine the inferno of passion you could ignite for God? Imagine the HOPE you could instill if you put aside the dark negative mechanisms that drive your day. I believe my mission in life is to bring hope to the lost, light to the dark and love to a world consumed in hate. I might be that one spark that’s needed to fan the flames.

When I was diagnosed with this disease, I felt fear and sadness flood through my screen. It was as if I told my friends, ‘hey, I’m going to die’ and their reaction was felt, even for a moment. That was a fleeting moment because my next step was to go to God; I asked Him, what could I do for You? I have this disease that everyone fears, how I can I show them there is nothing to fear and that with God all things are possible? Thus my journey began, journaling, documenting and researching and relaying a positive spin on my disease.

Job 23:10-11 “But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.”

I remember my mother-in-law and her reaction to the ‘devastating illness’, was to come out to my house and see me. An ironic response to me but I had to understand, even she, a good Christian woman, believes this disease to be about fear and death. I had to set her straight as well as my friends. No one understood where I was coming from. I stood in the doorway holding a candle of hope and yet they stood, looking on with fear in their eyes trying to penetrate the light I held.

I was being luminous where they once saw darkness. I was hope and life where they once cradled death. I was the candle being set down in a forest of negative vibrations trying to bring a light to the woods that surround the world.

Fear is a prevalent reaction in this world. Satan has a way of slithering in and using fear to his advantage and people are like flies to bug zappers. The first response is not to see God in any given situation, people turn to what they are accustomed to and that is fear. Even with the best of intentions, even when they know the power of God humans have an innate ability to trust the dark before the light.

When I asked God at the beginning of this Lenten season what I could do for Him, since I had given up so much over the year, and His response was ‘think’. I’m telling you now that has been harder than giving up all the toxic elements in my diet! I have to think before speaking, think before just blurting something out, think before writing that grumbling response. I also have to think and meditate on what will be written on any given day. A challenge for sure but a task I believe I can handle. 

Mark 7: 20-23  “And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”

God asks us all to think. Before we react to people with a defensive spewing of hate, think, and not for yourself, but what He would expect to hear coming out of our mouths. When we say we are Christian do we act like it or do we give people a reason to not want to be ‘Christlike’? Do we show the world that we’re full of anxiety and hate and that our first response is to fear?  I would hope that we all know where a fear response comes from.

It’s hard I know. Change is hard. Being strong is hard. Being a light in the enveloping world of darkness is strenuously hard. I never gave off the impression that choosing the right from wrong or the light from dark was an easy journey. If you don’t understand the struggles whether from the Bible, or a sci-fi novel, or a fictional tale of how the west was won, you should KNOW every aspect of life is hard. The choice in choosing the EASY road or the hard road is quite simple, pick what comes easy, all *cowards do and that is why so many want to choose that route. (*more on that in another post)

Think. Did I just call everyone a coward who chooses the easy road? I believe I did. I may be wrong or right but whatever I blurted out was from a stance of understanding the rewards of choosing the hard route. Examples? Let’s say someone commits suicide. To me, they took the easy way out of a difficult life. Look what they missed; a chance to try and HEAL from the warped darkness that shrouded them because the road seemed too hard. They didn’t give a spark a chance to light the fire of hope.

To me, and this is only one woman’s opinion, the easy route is filled with more darkness. An example is people think wealth will make them happy. Look at Robin Williams, he had enough money to live happily ever after but money was the deception that satan used, and in the end, the easy route got him nowhere, literally a dead end.

I think of my fellow man who consumes enough junk food in a lifetime as an easy route to feeling good and filled with life, but in the end, does everyone feel good? No, they feel bloated in a society that labels them in a negative light. To change their diet is hard stuff, again, the easy route is accepting death over life.

I choose life over death. When someone says, you’re going to die, I look at them and without thinking I spit out, AREN’T WE ALL? Then God taps me on the shoulder, a Light in the darkness has lit the world on fire, He whispers, “I AM THE HARD ROAD, WALK WITH ME.”

There IS hope, you just have to be willing to see the Light in dark places; a spark about to ignite into a flaming bush, a match to candle, the candle to dry wood, a breath of hope enflaming a sea of negativity, a Sonrise to the plethora of stars in the night sky.  

John 8:12 “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

Good Friday ~ Passion for Christ

Isa. 53:5-6 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

It comes as no surprise that as I wake and rejoice in the day, the day that the Lord and Savior died for me, the world goes on in its ignorant, hate-filled manner.

I remember when I was eight years old and my grandmother passed away. I thought the world stopped when someone died. “How can the cars be going down the street? How can people not know my grandmother died? Why does everyone ignore her death?”

It was pretty easy to figure out. They didn’t know her. They knew of her but didn’t know her or the sacrifices she made to her grand-kids even as she suffered with cancer. I see now why people act the same way they normally act even though they know this is the day that Jesus died for us. They know OF Him but don’t allow their lives to stop or change BECAUSE OF Him.

This is seen in the morning’s traffic, the morning twitterfeed, the daily facebook posts; nothing has changed and everyone is still the same person they were when they went to sleep the night before. The only thing that changed was the day. It’s a new day, it’s a Friday, same old same old.

Just as I had a passionate love for my grandmother, I also have a passion for Christ. Sometimes this scares people, intimidates them or has them so filled with guilt they steer clear of this ‘crazy lady who is TOO passionate for Christ’. Too passionate? Imagine that.

I am not different than you; I love, I hurt, I cry, I laugh but to me there is so much more to living and breathing that I can’t and won’t allow any ounce of hate to exude from my body. What kind of Christian would I be if I looked at today just as any other day; a person who knows OF Him but doesn’t allow a portion OF Him to seep from my veins?

I won’t apologize for my passion for Christ, just as you shouldn’t be concerned with NOT being passionate for Christ. We’re all allowed free will and what we do is different in all ways shapes and forms.

I’m not popular because of my love for Christ, as a matter of fact I think I’m UNpopular because of my love for Christ. Again, I won’t apologize for my ways because my ways are not your ways.

I look at today as a small sacrifice of not doing what I’d normally do and throw off all mundane chores or actions and focus, focus on Christ who did more than ‘just’ sacrifice His very life for me. Yes me!

He suffered, He bled, He cried in pain, He writhed and squirmed as he was beaten and finally He was hammered with long nails to a cross, for me! If I’m passionate about Christ it is because I understand that while the world goes on after someone dies, the world goes on after His death also, but I feel as if I’m there crying at His feet awaiting for Him to rise up in three days. My grandmother never had the chance to rise up and forgive my sinful nature, only Christ could do that and He DID! What’s not to be passionate about?

I think of a time when Jesus was making his way to the hillside to be hung. I think of all the people cheering and screaming out, “Crucify him!” I would be the woman who makes her way through the crowd and approaches this Messiah and offer Him a towel to dry his brow and wipe his face offering him water to drink.

While Jesus had believers standing in the crowd, some never claimed to know him. Some stood in the background and looked on, while others were weeping. I never was and never will be one who walks with the crowd, I will always be the one who goes against the grain and does something unexpected. This is who I am.

While the earth shakes and trembles at His words, ‘It is finished’, I am unmoving and waiting at His feet. I’m not surprised that others are not as passionate about Him, it has been going on for centuries and nothing has changed. The world still goes on and we live for the next highlight of a posting day, all because they know OF Him but won’t be changed BY Him.

Matt. 26:40-41 And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Eyes On Christ

Matt. 21:13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

Have you ever woke in the morning and went right to the news of the prior day or morning? Well, the first thing I do is read my morning meditation and that usually means an email from Bible Gateway or an encouraging word from Max Lucado. Then I read a bible verse that wraps around me like a warm blanket and cradles me in the Word of God.

Prayer is also in my morning ritual so that my days start out with my eyes on Christ.

This weeks sermon was about our focus and how we’re very easily led away from Christ wrapping ourselves up in the news and what’s going on out there in the world. If you wake up and think God is leading you to read about the turmoil of killings, wars, hate, mistrust, you are sadly mistaken. You see, we wake up and satan is already there waiting to greet you with all the bad things he’s had a hand in on the prior day or even the very day you awaken feeling refreshed thinking you have a handle on things.

When we place our focus on all the negative things in the world, we have been led right into the hands of satan and he is all the more happier to steer you away from God and Christ. We tend to place our focus on the rights and wrongs of the world, voice our opinion and walk a fine line of the double-edged sword. I do believe it says in the Bible that we cannot serve two masters, so when your focus is swayed from Christ, you are allowing satan to hold your hand and walk you through your day. Toss in a little Christ here and there to appease your mind.

With this being Holy Week, my eyes are very strongly on Christ and yes just as he was tempted by satan, I see all around me people filling their world with him. Christ comes second and that is just the way the world is now-a-days.

My week started off with my man being very sick. It started with a sore throat but by Monday morning he could hardly speak or breathe. His asthma was hitting him hard and yes it’s a place he’s been in quite a few times in his life so we pretty much know what to do when an episode hits. I made chicken noodle soup in hopes it would give him some relief, it did momentarily but by Wednesday we were at the doctors.

Tuesday night I decided to watch The Passion of Christ. Yes I had seen it a few years back and yes it had an impact on our Christian lives and yes, I knew it would impact me yet again. The movie is an extremely powerful movie that makes you think what Jesus was sacrificing on the cross. He became the sacrificial Lamb. He sacrificed Himself so we could be forgiven of our sin.

As I watched the movie it made me think of the ways that satan tries to distract us from God, wandering here and there, watching us suffer with a smile on his face and readily offering us an outlet to our pain.

The movie also made me think of the atheists who don’t understand Christians. They think we believe in a mythical creature in the sky and only believe because of some words written in a book by men. I think if they watched that movie, with an open mind, they would understand why we are so devoted to that man on the cross.

Have you ever heard or witnessed a man running into a burning building to save a life? We hold that man up as a hero, and praise him and honor him. That is exactly what Jesus did for thousands (now billions) of people. He was led into the arms of torture and flaming fire, all for blasphemy of saying He was the Son of God.

While atheists will celebrate Easter with a drink in their hand and food in their face, they won’t even realize that it is because of Jesus that they are allowed to live and breathe in the sweet air of springtime. They will laugh and scoff just like the men who beat Jesus nearly to death only to hang Him on a cross dripping with blood.

After Jesus took His last breath, the soldiers looked up and realized He WAS the Messiah. Guilt filled their heads and even the chief priests wondered what they had done and as you can see with the upheaval in the Middle East nowadays, they are paying dearly for killing an innocent man who lived over 2000 years ago.

So you might say it is a myth. You might like denying Christ. You might even find sanctuary in the arms of satan who is all too eager to carry you away from anything that resembles Jesus. But know in your heart, for this legend to be alive, living and breathing 2000 years later, don’t you feel some kind of truth in His words?

If God wanted the Bible to be backed by scientific data, He could have very well had the elite scientists of the day write His words but instead He chose men, sinners, nobodies to write the truth of His moral compass He gave to us. The Bible was not meant to be scientifically dissected but as you try and scientifically find the answers, you are falling into the trap satan has set for you, to take your eyes off of Christ and the living testimony of real people who had no ulterior motive in bringing God’s word to you lasting thousands of years.

Scientists seek to prove and disprove, satan leads to distract, life goes on as if nothing has changed except the minds of humans. The sermon on our focus was right, the more we’re led away from Christ by exterior means, the more the world becomes consumed by satan. At the end of the day when I sleep a peaceful nights rest I do so knowing that my day was consumed with God. Persecute me as you will, I sleep easier at night knowing Jesus shed His blood for me.

May the Light and Love of God go with you in each and every day. Keep your eyes on Christ. ~ Amen

Matt. 28:19-20 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Poetry Sunday ~ O Soul of Mine

Isa. 42:25 Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.

O Soul of Mine

O fretful soul of mine that grieves
Is it thou that freely leaves?
Lost amid the fruitful wine
Fleshing over such fragrant vine.

Will thou remain a mystery;
True divine I never see?
Or wilt thou rain on me with blessing,
Teach me yet another lesson?

Scouring through the murky mire,
Passion snared for earthly desire.
A valiant cross that I must bear.
My heart entwines in thy snare.

O earthly soul for all I gave,
Dwells within a darkened cave.
Allow thy shield of purity,
Seep in through my elegy.

Allow thy light to shine on me,
O soul of mine I thrive on thee.
Bequeath me in thy blazon glory;
Release from me this inner fury.

Pss. 11:1 In the LORD put I my trust: How say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?

Fervent Prayer

Matt. 5: 6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Fervent Prayer ~

It’s a big deal prayers are. Uttering words, “I’ll pray for you,” is not a prayer for a person. When someone asks for prayers they are reaching out in a desperate need because they know and believe in the power of prayer.

1 Thessalonians 5:17, "Pray without ceasing." (ESV)

James 5:16, "The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with." (The Message)

People say they read, believe, have faith; some even say the words ‘I’m praying’ then goes on with their day getting sidetracked with one thing or another forgetting to pray. Then they lie awake at night in worry and can’t remember what it was they were supposed to do. They forgot to pray for that person in desperate need. It haunts them.

Some will say I’m praying, then say to God. Prayers for John Doe. Did God hear the prayer? You betcha. Does He know John Doe? Mark my word. Will He answer that prayer? Well let me tell you, He was already at work on the person in need of prayer. The bible says, The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. (KJV)

God is waiting for the righteous man to pray FERVENTLY. He’s called you to pray. He NEEDS you to pray. He already has the person in need covered, but it is YOU He needs to hear from.
Is uttering the words ‘praying’ an effectual fervent prayer? Did you actually stop what you were doing to ‘fervently pray’ or did you put it on your to-do list and go about your every day hob-nobbing?

Fervent means: having or showing great warmth or intensity of spirit, feeling, enthusiasm, etc.; ardent:

Do you see the difference in the ESV bible and the KJV? I think the ESV downplays prayer and has people who ‘are right with God’ praying and is a power to be reckoned with. Really? That sounds so much different than FERVENT prayer of a righteous man/woman, to me anyway.

Righteous defined: acting in an upright, moral way; virtuous: a righteous and godly person.

A righteous man is easily seen in his ACTIONS. Let’s say a man goes around hating this, despising that, gossiping, showing himself in his actions. He dilly dallies his day away laughing and mocking thinking himself a bigger person because afterall, he reads, has faith, believes. Does that make him an upright moral person? So him uttering the words ‘praying’ falls flat. It’s nice that he utters, but it would be more powerful if he FERVENTLY prayed and made himself a man to be reckoned with.

I know people who say, ‘I’m praying for you’ and really mean it. You know how I know? Because I can SEE them living morally upright, they ooze goodness and graciousness, they can never be seen spewing discontent. Are they sinners? Yes, we all are, but their moral compass shows through and it is like a beacon of Light on their forehead.

If I can see no light shining from a person, how do you think God sees it? Sure we can put on righteous looking garb for the world to see, but God knows and sees everything. You can’t wear a veil for Him because he sees through it, easily.

“Are you judging me on HOW I pray?”

No, not at all, only God can do that. What I’m saying is this; when a person asks for prayer what is really happening is God is looking at YOU! He heard the person ask for prayer because he asked with fire and passion; what He is waiting for is for YOU to pray FERVENTLY! To serve Him FERVENTLY! To walk in righteousness FERVENTLY!

God knew what He meant when He said; The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. The question is, do YOU?

Rom. 12: 11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;

Quotation Saturday

HUGS

If you're angry at a loved one, hug that person. And mean it. You may not want to hug - which is all the more reason to do so. It's hard to stay angry when someone shows they love you, and that's precisely what happens when we hug each other.
~Walter Anderson, The Confidence Course, 1997

...A hug is an amazing thing
It's just the perfect way
To show the love we're feeling
But can't find the words to say....
~Johnny Ray Ryder, Jr., "A Simple Hug"

Every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.
~Maya Angelou

“Sometimes it only takes a hug to make the hurt go away.”
~Joni Zipp

PASSION

Let men tremble to win the hand of woman, unless they win along with it the utmost passion of her heart! Else it may be their miserable fortune, when some mightier touch than their own may have awakened all her sensibilities, to be reproached even for the calm content, the marble image of happiness, which they will have imposed upon her as the warm reality.
~Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
~Attributed to Howard Thurman

The same passions in man and woman nonetheless differ in tempo; hence man and woman do not cease misunderstanding one another.
~Friedrich Nietzsche

You can have anything you want if you want it desperately enough. You must want it with an exuberance that erupts through the skin and joins the energy that created the world.
~Sheila Graham

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.
~Jack Kerouac

HEARTACHE

A final comfort that is small, but not cold: The heart is the only broken instrument that works.
~T.E. Kalem

Count the garden by the flowers, never by the leaves that fall. Count your life with smiles and not the tears that roll.
~Author Unknown

Sorrow is the mere rust of the soul. Activity will cleanse and brighten it.
~Samuel Johnson

Ask me why I keep on loving you when it's clear that you don't feel the same way for me... the problem is that as much as I can't force you to love me, I can't force myself to stop loving you.
~Author Unknown

I am tired, Beloved,
of chafing my heart against
the want of you;
of squeezing it into little inkdrops,
And posting it.
~Amy Lowell, "The Letter"

HOPE

Hope, deceitful as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route.
~François Duc de La Rochefoucauld

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

Hope itself is a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords; but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain.
~Samuel Johnson

A Passion for Writing?

Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you're doomed.
Ray Bradbury

***

Are you passionate about writing? I may not make millions of dollars on my writing but truly, I don’t write for the love of money. I write because it is a fire burning inside me that I call my passion in life!

When you sit down at the computer are you sitting down because your passion for writing is calling you, because the virtual social world is tugging for you to come on in and play? Or is sitting down to write a chore you’d rather let someone else clean up for you? Whatever the reason you are sitting down at the computer, your passion  is calling you to come and stroke the softness of the keys, to tap out a sumptuous piece of writing that is worth reading by other people.

If everyday you come to this computer and get nothing accomplished in the writing world (assuming you’re a writer) does what you came here to do, actually make you feel complete? Are you accomplishing what you set out to do? Writing takes on the roll of passion as it moves you forward in your writing journey. It doesn’t take a nonchalant approach, a fun filled whimsical lifestyle, it takes serious passion!

As I watch other writers move around me, I sit at the observance level watching them make their way through the day. Yeah, did you know you can glean a lot by witnessing people throughout the day, move through the virtual world, thinking themselves a fly but really are a loud elephant stomping through the safari? They are leaving a trail behind of who they are, piece by piece, step by step, the squirrels like myself follow and study the elephants as they walk slowly, making a mark, their mark, in the virtual world.

Are you going to be one of those writers that is admired for your writing? Are you going to be thought of as the silly one that went through the day getting nothing done, but had fun doing it? Or are you going to be a passionate writer, that people look up to and want to emulate?

I’ve discovered that each writer is different in their actual passion for writing. Some I see, setting goals for each day, and accomplishing them daily as they publish, submit, and get published. I call those writers the Goal Setters! I examine the behavior of some writers actually working on a novel or story, writing every day to move one word closer to getting the book or story where they need it to be. Searching markets and striving to be the best writer they can be. I call that type of writer The Go-Getters! Then there is the writer who writes sometimes, plays all the time, never accomplishes anything with their writing in their day of service to writing, and I call them, The Wanna-be Writers.

Writers need a passion for writing and whether it is reading or actually writing, you need to stoke the fire daily or you will certainly watch a once flaming element burn out and turn to embers before your eyes. Make a wise decision in your journey, because it is all the passion that is left in you today.

Baby Steps...

Follow your passion, and success will follow you. 

~Terri Guillemets

Baby Steps ...
 
...into the world of writing

I remember watching a movie, quite a few years back titled, What About Bob, starring Billy Murray, and who cares who else was in it, it had Bill Murray. (I’m kidding, I’m sure it had quite a few other good named actors in it) Veering off topic there. In the movie (which I own and watch over and over again) Bob fears everything, so he goes to a doctor who basically forwards him to a specialist.

Long story short. The doctor tells Bob to take baby steps, every second of the day, so that he can get to where he is going, and eventually in the end (after a long hilarious bout of driving his doctor insane) Bob is healed, sorta, kinda, somewhat. teeheehee! Are any of us ever really healed, come on now, be honest.

I have a knack for shamelessly calling writers insane, but I’m telling you, you’ll be hard pressed to find writers themselves saying otherwise. They’ve gathered in their cubby holes, tapped on the keys for days at a time, expounded on the threshold of many words, (eww, that sounds gross) and have all come to the conclusion that they are sane. A sane writer? Now that is some funny stuff.

What is needed is baby steps. You can’t just think that you can write because you see a bunch of other writers hammering at the book, don’t believe for a minute that you can knowledge yourself into writing, by that I mean, you can study until you’re blue in the face, if you don’t have what it takes, it isn’t going to happen for you.

I’ve seen so many come into the Village, (wvu) WANTING to be writers and they quickly gave up when they realized, they were not cut out to be a writer. They crammed, purchased, shelled out time and money, but still in the end, they missed the passion of a writer. They had the will to write, but without the drive and nerve ending passion that it takes to wait, years and years before an ounce of effort pays off, they quickly dissolved from the radar screen.

They actively pursued someone else's writing dream, just to fit in. That is seriously not the way to do it. I have been writing since I was a baby and learned HOW to write the alphabet. I took baby step after baby step, and grew to write poetry, for my English classes, for holidays, and actually I saved money. I entered free contest (vanity) only to be let down but still, I persisted. (I did win honorable mention, but wondered how many others won that title also.)

It wasn’t until about 10 years ago when a computer magically walked into my house, free of charge, that my entire life and writing dream took a turn around. I diligently sought out writing groups where I could feel a part of something.

After taking a two year writing course with Christian Writers Guild came to a close, the fire was lit and my passion burned inside as I grew as a writer. And I’m still taking baby steps but now, I feel as if they are strides, strides in the right direction after cutting out the insanity and moving forward.

My baby steps have led to a full gaping walk. How about you?

Joni Zipp's : https://apps.facebook.com/yourlifecontest/content/see-again

How Do I Love Thee...

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

***

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Poetry Sunday~ Slam Poetry?

Proverb 17:8 A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it: whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth.
***

Why I write...

I write because words, like a slow effervescence, shower streams through my veins like blood, forming sentences which I know to be verse. I write so all that is within me bubbles to the surface and is put onto paper making sense of all the insanity.

Whichever way I go, whether up or down, verb or adverb, they all tend to lend credence to what I have taken from my brain and brought into your reality. I see letters in my mind forming words which in return form a sentence that I give to my readers and they decipher the madness and relate to my brevity.

I clearly have no special form because I invent the reality that the readers are saying that they can relate to and I know deep within my soul I have touched someone on a magnanimous level. They may see me as a human conveying a message whether in fiction form or non-fiction form, but one can grasp the meaning because they’ve been there.

Hold true to who you are and write what you know. No matter what anyone tells you to change, keep the truth always front and center in your heart and mind. One day you too will find the words attached to the letter...ACCEPTED!

***

A simple exercise in f2k offered by a mentor.
My answer surprised me as it turned into a poem, if you will.
This is Slam Poetry or as some call it Beat Poetry.
Definitely a sign of growth in me
and my writing!

***

A Writer Reads...before he writes

Writer’s are adament readers before they become affluent writer's!

If you are a writer, you didn’t just stumble upon the idea one day and dream it into existence. You had to begin somewhere. More than likely you were young, took a liking to reading and thought that maybe YOU could be a writer too!

I started with poetry at a very young age. The passion inside never left as I waltzed through life trying on different fields of color, never coming up with anything of substance except my love of writing. I wrote in journals, in notebooks then I moved onto the computer.

My life took on a whole new world where my imagination not only lived but soared above the skies, floated through the clouds, landing gently on a piece of paper. Where I once had lived in the mind of Alice (in wonderland) or through Gem’s mischievous ways (To Kill a Mockingbird) or dappling into the unknown with Eleanor (Haunting of Hill House.) I was now writing stories of mystery and intrigue through a child’s eyes, (Jenny’s Plight) or through a ghost who loved her tenant, (The Haunting of Mrs. Willowby.)

Writing stemmed from many years of reading. Continuing in my reading I also interlocked with educating myself not only in the craft of writing but also the art of writing.
Writing as an art form should not be overlooked. Making words stream together like a gentle river or a rapid stream, you can form a story and make a masterpiece of something so simple as language.

Read, educate, write, produce; writing will then become to you all the doorways it holds for me. I can do your homework for you and list the many books out there to help you attain your dream but it is much more fun to dig and find them yourself. Amazon.com is loaded with Creating Fiction, Shaping the Story and many other books to start you on your lifelong journey with your love of writing. (or you can go to your local library and dig too.)

Come on, what are you afraid of? Become a writer. Read your heart out and gain knowledge and smell the sweet aroma of success. If not for anyone, do it for YOU!

Reading is to the writer, what the sun is to the earth, the sustenance of life. ~joni

The Write to Choose?

Does one choose to become a writer?

I’m thinking it is inbred in our being, becoming a heat seeking missile erupting feverishly if we never call upon it into existence.

Why become a writer?

Is that the write question we need to be asking? What called you to become a writer?
Again this is assuming that people who have never written, never felt the churning inside, just educate themselves because ‘becoming’ a writer looks like fun?

I don’t think so.

I think that no matter what career you chose in life, whatever path you were headed down as a profession, if you were meant to be a writer, it surfaces like a volcano. The volcano was standing right there all along, you saw it but you never REALLY bothered with it because it never bothered you. Volcano is the perfect metaphor because as a writer you feel it simmering. You’re going through life…a cashier, a nurse, an accountant, but then you feel the simmering brewing like a fresh pot of coffee.

It begins with a low bubbling, you think to yourself, "I’d like to write for my colleagues." Or "The pastor has asked ME to write in the newsletter!"
Whatever the case may be, the volcano erupts in a frenzy and you find yourself pursuing the art of writing.

I myself have always written cards, since I was a kid. I never gave much thought to ‘becoming a writer.’ I had teachers tell me how nice my work was, I had family that loved my poems but as a ‘chosen’ field. Nah, not for me. So I went aimlessly in search of something that maybe I COULD do! I helped the elderly, took on menial jobs (slave labor), cleaned houses, attended beautician school (for a short lived term), still I wandered and wondered what is it, what is this CHURNING inside!

Then I dug into the anthill. "What is YOUR job?" I asked the ants as they scurried out of the mountain of sand. They didn’t respond (Thank God) but they did show me something.
They climbed the mountain of sand, all in a row they marched like little soldiers, never cutting in front of the other, just content to be going all in the same direction. I watched as their little world HAD direction. (Aha, I need direction!) They carried (I should say lugged) food into the anthill. (Aha, I need nourishment!) They came marching down the anthill as if trudging to war. War with the enemy (seasons.) But it wasn’t war at all that kept them moving it was determination! (Aha, I need determination)

So late in the seasons of my life, something called out. (no it wasn’t the ants) The churning volcano inside erupted into a cataclysmic frenzy and smacked me so hard in the face it was not to be ignored.

So here I am. Not CHOOSING to be a writer. I don’t seek fame and fortune. I don’t seek the all empowering Great American Novel. Writing chose me! Something more powerful than the ants, more powerful than anything science can explain, more powerful than any deliciously well-prepared thought out meal with all the RIGHT ingredients.

The mountainous volcano has a natural flow (like the ants) Did you ever watch a volcano erupt? It erupts in colorful molten lava, (like writing erupts in the soul?) Then the hot lava begins its way down the path of creation (just like the writer creates) making fissures along the way. (A writer opens many worlds in these fissures.) As the lava flows it weaves a sinuous impression on the earth. (Just like the writer leaves an impression.)

Soooooooo my longwinded point being… Once I knew I needed direction, I aimed myself toward the moon. (A GOAL) I fed myself all the information I needed to get me going down the right road. (Nourished mySELF) Then I bathed in determination! Everything has fallen into place all on its own. Always has and always will.

Just remember…"Everything happens for a reason. For every season of your life may your branch extend into the groping sunshine and cast an effervescent light upon you to give you clarity. Then maybe you can BLOOM!" ~~ Joni's quote! ;-)