Rev. 7: 17 "For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."
Ex. 20:12 "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee."
Honor Thy Mother
This weekend coming up is Mother’s Day. I don’t usually celebrate these days but Mother’s Day has some importance since mother’s all over the world will be celebrated for giving birth and being a mother. Think about it, you would not be here without your mother. Like any other inquisitive person I had to find out why we celebrate mother’s day in the first place. I was wrong in my assumption that we celebrated the day because we were celebrating Mary giving birth to Jesus or some other religious aspect. I learned something new today and want to share what I learned with you. Info from my google feed: Where does Mother’Day come from? It is celebrated on different days across the world but is generally observed between April and May in the northern hemisphere. The modern holiday of Mother's Day was first celebrated in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother in Grafton, West Virginia. Why do we celebrate mother’s day? Celebrations of mothers and motherhood can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who held festivals in honor of the mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele, but the clearest modern precedent for Mother's Day is the early Christian festival known as “Mothering Sunday.”
Who came up with the idea of Mother’s Day? Mother's Day started as an anti-war movement. Anna Jarvis is most often credited with founding Mother's Day in the United States. Designated as the second Sunday in May by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914, aspects of that holiday have since spread overseas, sometimes mingling with local traditions. Interesting facts about the Dark History of Mother’s Day.
When did Mother’s Day originate? In 1914, Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation designating Mother's Day, held on the second Sunday in May, as a national holiday to honor mothers. Although Jarvis was successful in founding Mother's Day, she became resentful of the commercialization of the holiday. *** I think you get the idea. Mother’s Day was all about honoring mothers and here in America we chose to see the almighty dollar and commercialized the day to the hilt. I have always just written my mother (and father, Father’s Day) a card on this day honoring them with respect with words from my heart. I think that meant more to them than any money (that I never had) to give them. While my siblings showered my mother and dad on their respective holidays with money ($100 or $50 with an expensive Hallmark card), flowers, or food (A dozen steamed crabs excited my mother and are always pricey), my mother and father always looked forward to the poem I would write that would either make them laugh but more often than not, make them cry. As my mother was going through the personal belongings of my dad after he passed she found poems of mine that my dad had in his drawer, his wallet, or used as a bookmark throughout the years. I cried tears of joy and tears of sorrow when my mother told me that my dad kept many (if not all) of my poems close to him. How much of the money, food or flowers did they still have, none, but my poems held weight, my words had meaning! So as you celebrate this upcoming Mother’s Day, don’t think of the flower, money or card you can give her, think of the words you’d like to say to her, (it doesn’t have to be a poem) and write to her. Whether your mother or mom, or significant mother is alive or deceased, write to her. Trust me on this one, your words will mean more than anything to you AND mainly to HER, the mother you’re honoring. And maybe one day in the future you’ll find your words tucked in a special place of hers that she cherished. If your mom is deceased take the words to her gravesite or read them aloud to her. Let her know that these are the words you wished you had said while she was alive basking in the gifts but not your words. Don’t let Hallmark be your words this Mother’s Day let YOU be your words this Mother’s Day!
Have a most BLESSED week my friends!
2 Sam. 22:50 “Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and I will sing praises unto thy name.”
You know, there is a useful side to the Social Network, facebook. As I see Writers Digest, and many other writing pages soar and become LIKED by thousands, I wander in, seeking the benefits to which I might reap. They offer posting of your writing, critique, contests, and some even have magazines that offer publication! So that is one of the good things to come out of Facebook and all the other Social Scenes for me. Am I ragging on them too much? I’m a writer and I need the technology to advance my learning and to write my work. The computer and the internet is a part of the writers arsenal.
I seem to come down pretty hard on the Social Scene, but again, there is a marked difference in the Social aspect, and the Networking aspect. I love all the Christian pages, so much so I can get lost in them, too. Commenting and praying throughout the day, but again, it is just a means of justifying my time spent on there among friends. Maybe I’m addicted to my friends??? Well let me tell you, they have been an ironclad support system whereas my family members have been a wet leaf of support!
Every aspect of life has Pros and Cons and the Social Scene is no different:
Pros:
1. You make friends in the writing world to which you might have never had the chance to meet, and they are SUPPORTIVE, to the brink you wonder how you got through life without them!
2. You gain from knowing these people because you can brainstorm on your work.
3. You get to be a nosey busybody, and become friends with basically everyone that you know and that all your friends know.
4. You find out who really cares, sincerely, not just for the show.
5. These people via my blog and FB just might become lifetime friends who actually give a hoot!
Cons:
1. There is a non professional feel to the Social Scene, that leaves you crying out in utter disgust as you seek sanity.
2. You get used and washed up, tossed aside like a worn kleenex.
3. People want to become your ‘friends’, not because they care about you, but because, they want to know your business.
4. You make a deal with the devil that you can not take back!
5. You become an addict, no different than the drug abusers. So, you’re not harming yourself with toxins, but sometimes these sites ar toxic!
6. You’re absorbed into the sponge like atmosphere and become a social fungus.
7 You become oblivious to the harm it is doing to your psyche.
8. You justify your actions, again, just like a drug addict. “I don’t have a probelm.”
9. You’re in the maze of confusion and have found peace there.
10. Swallowed whole, your life no longer has purpose and meaning. You’re a washed up old rag, and you like it!
As I head into the New Year, I go with God. I will keep my health issues to myself and allow you all to just keep sending up prayers for me and in some way, you will know that I am okay. I can not pretend and like my way through life, I have to have something physical and real that I can hold onto even if it is for a short time.
The cons outweigh the pros of the social network for me BUT my point in all of this, is this. KNOW your limits, stay focused on what you need to do to get to your next goal you’ve set for yourself. Achieve something daily, to make up for the wasted time. And always and I mean always keep WRITING!!! That is more essential than ANY socializing scene!
Are you the kind of writer who dissects every word? Do you find yourself not enjoying writing because of the nit-picking that you’re doing?
I’ve seen people take a sentence and rip it apart until it is perfect to their eyes. There is a course called Masterful Sentences and I just can’t find myself taking that class. I mean is there really a MASTERFUL sentence? Do you think all of the Master writer’s before us took this course, you know to make sure their work was perfect?
I don’t think so. I think one can put too much time into mastering the perfect sentence all the way down to the point of not finding a natural rhythm and flow to their writing. Something is lost along the way when your eye keeps picking out the wrong adjective or adverb or lazy modifier.
As writer’s we are in a state of wanting to get the story out and on paper. Type, type, type,click click goes the keyboard sounding like rain on a tin roof. We get the story out in a storm of words then it’s time for revisions. Now is the time to dissect your words. BUT and this is a major but, do you want to pick the story apart, sentence for sentence word for word and make it as perfect as you can? Sure you do.
Are you going to dissect it at a workshop and have everyone point out your weak modifiers? Poor use of adverbs? Sloppy use of an adjective? Did you write your story with the reader in mind or the grammar queen in mind who is going to read and dissect instead of enjoying the story?
I write a story so everyone can enjoy the flow of the words that feel right to them. Sure grammar usage is important but I really don’t want to lose the flow or the natural rhythm that I have going. I love writing! I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t write. But to think of dissecting my writing making it so illegible that not even I can recognize it as my own makes me cringe at writing. It literally causes me NOT to write which kind of scares me because it is something I love doing.
I write a lot of poetry. Now hand it to the pro’s in a workshop they can find words that are too redundant, they can find words that sound too forced, or they can pick a pair of alliterative words and say they don’t work. Change any one of those words and the poem loses its rhythm. It loses the heart and soul which once again, scares me. I won’t write a poem to be dissected. If it doesn’t have the iambic meter that your looking for then don’t read my poetry.
Now if you’re going to read my words because they touch you or make you feel something deep inside, then my writing is for you. Continue reading my friend.
I often read books for the sheer beauty of the words written. Okay I sometimes read for good content, but more often than not, I’m always sinking into a prose train of thought.
When I read Tolkien it is like diving into a masters brain. I often read his work just to stimulate my writing. Sometimes I get stumped on what to write, a block of sorts, and when I read poetry or artistic writing, it always inspires me to write.
Creativity will flow through my veins and smear the screen in colorful poetic prose and then that is when I feel my muse is flowing once again. Where are you at in your writing? Have you tried writing prose?
Let me try and put this simple for you. There are writer’s who write words. A lot of the times it’s more of a telling style. Then there are writer’s who leave you enamored with their style of work. There is a way of showing you the story through the prose style of writing that will have your reader sinking their eyeballs further and further into your story.
So what are you saying to me? (oh I can hear/read you) That you can’t write like that? You don’t know how to give the reader what they want? What is this blog all for nothing? I have told you over and over again, yet you’re still telling me you have troubles?
Hmm... the best way to get over this bump in the road is to sit and write for an hour a day. Just free write, not going back to check what you’ve written. Okay, now you’re going to look at it again. But through a poetic window with new eyes.
“The wind blew hard that day in December.”
“The gusty winds swept through my hair on that cold December day.”
It’s just a matter of sprucing up plain words with some more active adverbs and adjectives. I’m always saying, “Don’t overuse those adverbs and adjectives,” but there is a time when your words need that imagery to carry your reader to the next paragraph.
If he/she isn’t interested in your work, than you need to try harder in bringing the images alive for them. Think of the paper/screen as a palette. You are the artist going to paint the colorful scene only you have no paintbrush, you have pen (or keyboard) in hand and your words are your magic wand that will put a spell on your reader after the first sentence.
There are many tools to the left to help you get where you want or need to be as a writer. Are you using them to the best of your ability? C’mon you can do it. I know you can. I see so much activity over the Internet that there has to be room for YOU! Yes YOU can be the writer you always dreamed of being. Learn the craft. Hone the skills. Practice the elements!
Now get to it! There is nothing holding you back but you.
I’m always asked how people can make their writing have oomph. “Well,” I say, “take a poetry course!”
“But I don’t like poetry,” they say.
Well I’m here to tell you now that you don’t need to like poetry to write better you just need to put to use some of the elements of poetry to make your writing get up and dance. Yes, your writing will dance. It will do a pirouette across your blank screen. Your words will form across the sky and take flight in new directions.
Assonance, alliteration and rhythm; all of these elements digested in poetry will spew forth better writing. Rhythm in writing? Is there such a thing? Yes there is. Have you ever read a choppy book? No? Why not? Because the writer took the time to find a rhythm in his words. The editor/publisher picked up on the rhythm and decided that the book needed to be published.
Having yourself a good poetry critique group will have you becoming aware of your words. You will make every word count and you will also be finding the over used words unnecessary in writing. Being aware of those words that you use a little too much is essential.
So many times I critique a writer and they say they didn’t even SEE the word "AND" twenty times in a paragraph. By writing poetry you’ll know that the word AND is not needed all of the time to finish or begin a sentence to make it complete.
Poetry and prose isn’t all about rhyme. It is about eloquence. The way to make your writing more eloquent is by the feel and flow of the words slipping off your tongue. Some writers have said they never thought to read their work out loud. I say, “How could you NOT read it out loud?"
Do we always read silently? Come on now be honest with me. Don’t most of us at least move our lips or utter an almost silent whisper as we read? Do we all read in silence? If this is true, it’s time to speak up! Feel those words. Speak those words. Realize what you’ve written by SAYING the words.
When I read a poem I can’t help but utter the words, then by some crazy manifestation I’m reading the poem out loud, even if no one is there to hear me. Can you imagine reading Robert Frost’s poem ‘Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening’ in silence?
Well, I once again am going to tell you to speak up! Here the words, feel the rhythm, tap those keys, and make your writing dance!
