September 11 ~ a poem

Isa. 2:11 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.

***

September 11

I cradled my morning coffee,

my eyes they struggled to see

a horrific terrible tragedy,

unfolding in front of me.

Today’s background clutter,

seemed to take a second stance,

scrambling cameras everywhere,

gave rise to a deeper glance.

A plane had hit a building,

I couldn't believe my eyes.

the horror of a gaping wound,

of such an enormous size.

By now I'm jolted wide awake,

something was just not right.

I witnessed the impact yet again,

on the twin without a fight.

Billowing smoke and fragments,

scattered all around.

People frozen in a spot,

as objects fall to the ground.

Reports of other targets,

were coming into view.

My tear-filled eyes were wondering.

what this world was coming to.

In merely a matter of moments,

my blurry eyes did see;

heroes rushing into the scene,

as workers fought to flee.

The crumbling of a building,

number two not far behind.

The crashing of plane three and four,

had mentally boggled my mind.

I couldn't feel my fingers;

a wounded numbness arose.

I sat in total disbelief

as my body stood there froze.

Longing to be shaken,

from this nightmare that is real

my body shrouded in emptiness,

as I buckled to a kneel.

I prayed for love torn strangers,

whose faces dripped with fear.

I longed for welcome solace,

through the shedding of a tear.

The aroma of terror lingers,

as I'm trembling to the core.

I long for the taste of freedom,

which I sense will be no more.

A sleeping nation awakened,

by the trumpets sounding in heaven.

Altering our lives forever,

on the day of September eleven.

Copyright © Joni Zipp

Isa. 12: 4 And in that day shall ye say, Praise the LORD, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted.

 

(pics taken from google images)

God Bless America!

 

Linked In

Okay, I’m gonna share a secret. My secret is LinkedIn. I’ve been secretly lurking on this site for some time now. I go, I read, I gain. I’m sure Linked In is more than just writers communing and discussing the business but it is all I use it for, gleaning info about the writing business. It is a professional network, not a social scene.

I lurk around many sites, meaning I visit them, learn and grow in my writing. I think my friend told me about Linked In many many years ago and I had no use for it because I was so busy with ‘schoolwork’ and teaching folks about writing that I didn’t see this site for the immense amount of information that it held.

It is really a site where writers link up or any professional field of interest. I’m sure if you’re an astronaut they have groups to link you up, or if you’re a librarian, yup link ups to other librarians. But to me, this is a source to link up to other writer’s, publishers and editors.

You join the group of people that are in your field of interest, and join in the discussions of others in your field. That simple. It’s a professional site, unlike facebook where you throw things out and friends connected to you throw things back. No this place isn’t a place to show your immature silly side loaded with pics. It’s all forums and sometimes the sharing of your work. Notice I say WORK; a place to share your professionalism.

Also on LinkedIn, friends can endorse your work. Other professionals see your profile, and find interest in your work. Some will even hire you for a job. You know, a job where you get money for your work?

LinkedIn is not the immature looney bin palace of MySpace or Facebook or other social networks where socializing with the world becomes a laughing stock. I didn’t list Twitter because all that that place is good for is PROMOTING your work. To socialize on Twitter is creepy!! No, Linked In is the place for the professional, where you AS the professional, put on your intelligence cap and let your light shine!

Another place I like to lurk is Faith Writers. That is a place for writers of faith, to share their work. Granted it has benefits when you pay for their membership. There is a no-fee way to post but all the benefits come from the ‘paid’ subscription. BUT it is an excellent place worth mentioning to my writing friends. I haven’t bought into the site yet, maybe one day.

I lurk on the sites, drinking in words like a warm cup of coffee. I’m not an obsessive person (unless it is cleaning the house) or a stalker but I do lurk and see who is watching and who is obsessing, and WHO is learning from me.

My hope is that as you follow me, you’re learning from me and not abusing the situation to suit your needs. I have a lot to offer. Use my info wisely. Thank you!

Submit it right?

I have taught for many years now that there is a certain set of guidelines to follow upon submitting a piece of writing. Upon the recent publication of my beau, I had to rethink the rules and guidelines.

You see, he is not a ‘writer’ per se, but he does have TWO blogs that would say otherwise. Me, I’m a writer! I claim to be a writer and my only published works received no commission, and I haven’t been submitting like I should be. I’ve been on the learning/ teaching end.

So what made his submission so different? He wrote a blog post called Children of the Corn. Now mind you, he grew up in the country, a farm here in Gibbon Nebraska. He has many stories of growing up out here in the cornfields, tractors and such. I remember asking him recently, “You’ve never seen a sand castle?” His response was, “Have you ever seen a tractor pull?” Well I can honestly say, being a city gal from the east coast, no, no I have never seen a tractor pull. Touché!

He has no idea where he got the idea of submitting the story. But being on the internet many hours of his day, he came across, Country Living, a magazine, and thought that the Corn story would be a good fit for his Children of the Corn tale. He submitted.

He tells me he sent a request for guidelines, but he also said he didn’t wait for the guidelines, he just sent a word document and didn’t think about it again. As a matter of fact he never even told me that he had sent it. He probably just shrugged it off. He’s like that, just lets things roll off his shoulders, as for me, I would have been waiting month after month for a response/ rejection letter.

Not him, he just let it roll. No fear, no anxiety, nothing. Then when the ‘complimentary copy’ of the magazine came in August and the letter said, “Thank you for contributing.” THAT is when he told me, showed me actually, the publication of his story. He then said, “Oh I sent it way back in January. Didn’t think nothing of it.”

Well la di da! I have been writing all my life, the past ten years I have been really learning the ropes and teaching other writer’s the ropes, and here he is, just sends it off, and poof, published!

My friend said, “He must have had a good teacher.” Wink wink, thinking I showed him? Ha! No Sue, I can’t take credit for that. His high school teacher can and his wonderful upbringing but I feel all I did was inspire him to WRITE.

When I met him ten years ago, he was wrapped up in his work as an Administrative Assistant for UPS and surfing the web but did he write? No, he never did. But as he was going blind, as you can imagine, his internet surfing was getting harder and harder and that is when I told him to maybe try a blog.

Reluctantly, I believe, he tried it. Little by little he wrote more and more and thus were born, Audio book Heaven, an audio book blog where he reviews audio books for the readers, and his Drums in the Deep blog where he tells of his life.

He was blind for three years of his writing his blogs and imagine his excitement when he had a chance to SEE them and reshape and format them the way he wanted and that what you see now, is the finished product. To this day he is still writing! He requests audio books from publishers and now, he doesn’t even need to request, they send them to him!

And on his Drums in the Deep blog, he’s had enough blessings and miracles in his life to keep him busy as an active writer. And now a PUBLISHED author! Way to go!!!

So now my advice is going to change for the entire up and coming community of writer’s. If any thing, HE has taught ME!

Just send it and forget it.

Keep it a secret that you’ve submitted (I don’t advocate keeping secrets because to me, that is a form of lying, but in this instance, when it comes to submitting your work, TELL NO ONE!)

Keep in mind, you might send a thousand words, and they are at liberty to chop your work to pieces. Steven’s was chopped from 803 words down to 250, but get this, he didn’t know it was $1 a word!!! And as you can imagine his surprise by the $250 dollar check he got in the mail!

I think the number one thing I learned was to market your work to a magazine that fits your story. Don’t submit a Children of the Corn Story to City Living. It won’t sell. Country Living was a perfect place for his story, THAT is why they took it.

He had received a letter that said he could order additional copies but it only said, “IF the submission qualified for payment, a check would be in the mail.” They never informed him IF it qualified but apparently it did. What qualified it? More than likely it was because it was an original story, not a reprint, or previously submitted work and it fit right in the magazine. Just a guess.

Either way, Congratulations Steven on becoming an officially PUBLISHED author/writer!!!

Poetry Sunday ~ Called to Serve

Luke 2: 37 And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.

Called to Serve

I’m not called to serve the Lord

I’ve prayed for a task to be known.

All I get is, “Sit and wait.”

“There’s time for things to be shown.”

I sit and wait for the Earth to crack

like an egg on the edge of the pan.

Something big will erupt for sure

my service will come with His plan.

As I’m told to sit and wait

sweltering heat drags by.

Days on end the news is bleak

the earth is about to fry.

Is my work to be done public

or hidden from all eyes?

Will my service be a blessing

received only in disguise?

I know I’ll spread love around

silencing the speakers of hate

A positive force will flow from me

with a velocity so great!

Maybe my job is to change the hearts

of men who are full of distaste.

Maybe my job is done from within

Where it makes its way in haste.

Quotation Saturday

OBSESSION

“All extremes of feeling are allied with madness.”
~ Virginia Woolf

“I think you can love a person too much. You put someone up on a pedestal, and all of a sudden, from that perspective, you notice what's wrong - a hair out of place, a run in a stocking, a broken bone. You spend all your time and energy making it right, and all the while, you are falling apart yourself. You don't even realize what you look like, how far you've deteriorated, because you only have eyes for someone else.”
~ Jodi Picoult

“I love you so much that nothing can matter to me - not even you...Only my love- not your answer. Not even your indifference”
~ Ayn Rand

“I don't possess these thoughts I have --- they possess me. I don't possess these feelings I have --- They obsess me.”
~ Ashly Lorenzana

INSANITY

“Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence– whether much that is glorious– whether all that is profound– does not spring from disease of thought– from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect.”
~ Edgar Allan Poe

“Sweet, crazy conversations full of half sentences, daydreams and misunderstandings more thrilling than understanding could ever be.”
~ Toni Morrison, Beloved

“THE EDGE, there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.”
~ Hunter S. Thompson

“I'll take crazy over stupid any day.”
~ Joss Whedon

RELEASE

“Why let something build up inside of you only to hurt you more? Release the truth, release the feeling.”
~ Heather Romiti Health Wellness Coach Motivational Speaker

“If we can just let go and trust that things will work out they way they're supposed to, without trying to control the outcome, then we can begin to enjoy the moment more fully. The joy of the freedom it brings becomes more pleasurable than the experience itself.”
~ Goldie Hawn

“Secrets press inside a person. They press the way water presses at a dam. The secrets and the water, they both want to get out.”
~ Franny Billingsley

“Try to forgive by trying to understand how it would feel to be in the other’s shoes. If someone hurts you – ask them - “What hurts you so much that you would do this?” Listen to the answer and try to understand what is valid for them. They may have been fighting for your attention, but no one thinks of themselves as attackers, only defenders! So don’t judge their ways, only set them free by giving them a chance to speak. You may both learn a lot from your kindness and courage in asking for the truth. But even if nothing changes, release it, remember that you both have a right to be who you choose to be. When we make judgements we're inevitably acting on limited knowledge, so ask if you seek to understand, or simply let them be!”
~ Jay Woodman

Inspiration to Write

Now that I’ve made the decision to write, where do I find the inspiration to write and WHAT do I write?

Well first I go to the forum threads at LinkedIn, my new hangout. Topics abound on many different subjects and many ideas for writing topics spring up in my head. I thought about heading into WVU to take some online classes but I’m not ready to immerse myself into that yet.

While Writers Village University is my first love, the dedication I had to the site was lost and I’m having a heck of a time in getting back there. I find I can’t concentrate too well there. I still have ‘friends’ there but getting into a class and writing is just not in me yet. Maybe one day WVU will creep back in like the writing bug? Maybe I’ll find delight in going to class and sharing my writing once again, but for now I think I’ll stick to blog posts and poetry.

I’ve been with LinkedIn for quite a few years now but never felt like a real participant in the community forums. On the site, there are so many writers there it kinda makes your head spin. I’m not talking about wannabe writers, many are published writers, editors, and anything you need to know about writing is found there.

I find great discussions going on way out of my league because these folk seem to have MFA degrees and Bachelor degrees, and slim pickings for the wannabe’s like me. At least at WVU we all seem to be on the same level trying to acquire knowledge and grow as a writer from what we learn there.

While I don’t find inspiration at WVU, there are many that have, if you’re in the right clique. As many of you know, I’m not into cliques and all they stand for. I find more isolation in cliques than inspiration and I think that may be what drove me away to begin with. I’ve always fit into my blogging experience. It’s my haven where I can write share and possibly inspire folk.

I’ve met some great people via the blogosphere and even though you don’t see comments from them all, I know they’re there. They’ll read whatever they can and when I write something that triggers a response, they’ll comment. Other than that, I’m in an isolation booth, the Cone of Silence if you will, where I do all the talking in silent mode, they do the listening in an audience mode and this, my friends, is where our minds meet.

Back to the topic: Inspiration. Where do you find it? For me at this juncture, it has been in the forum groups at Linked In. They ask a question, and people intelligently respond and I feed off of their knowledge. I have written because of them and it is because of them I jumped back in the saddle.

I normally don’t contribute to the topic because most of what is said are things I would have said, so my input isn’t necessary. But I do find it as inspiring as watching the sunrise over the treetops, or the wind bustling through the trees, or the rain (rare to see this year) but rain none the less is definitely an inspiration-filled day.

Inspiration can be found on many different levels; in words, nature, forums and discussions. You just need to see words for all they’re worth and to me words are hidden gemstones of inspirational writing.

What inspires you to write? You don’t have to answer, just mull over the thought for a bit, be inspired and WRITE!

Back in the Saddle Again

Back in the saddle…again.

So all my blog followers know, I fell off the horse (metaphorically speaking) and have to get back in the saddle. I was hit pretty hard in the writing gut, and I didn’t want to come back to the writing world. But as all of you know (that are writers) you can’t just brush it off like lint on a sweater.

No, writing is in your blood whether your want it to be or not. It will pull and tug at you until you put SOMETHING, anything on paper/computer. It’s been calling me slowly back and my poetry is what I started with as you can see with some of my recent posts of poems.

I’ve had ideas for blog posts swirling in my head like a mad twister crossing the farm. I want to take it slowly and that is why I’m starting with poetry. My poetry is closer to me than any fiction tale I could write. I figure if my beau can get published, just for the fun of it, I think I can intentionally try, right?

I tried taking the f2k class offered from WVU back in June, but my son needed an emergency procedure done, taking six weeks healing time and that cut me right out of the f2k session. I won’t apologize for putting my son first before writing, since no one else on this God’s green earth thinks of him, I most certainly do! Yes my writing is important to me, but always, my son comes first.

I figured with him getting back to school, his senior year I might add, I thought now would be a fine time to get back into writing. I started with, to me, some cheesy crappy poems, next up some blog posts, and then I’ll work on getting something published.

There ya go, I’ve set goals for myself and I think that is all-important to accomplishing things, whether it’s writing or cleaning the house. I’d like to get back to my other blog of the story of my life too. It hit too close to home and dredged up some bitter memories for me, so I halted it, feeling I was divulging too much. When you write too truthfully that it hurts, then it’s time to step back and take a break.

With fall and cooler weather headed my way, I won’t be relinquished to mowing, vacuuming and cleaning, days on end! I think I’ve got OCPD, (not to be confused with the repetitive actions of OCD) OCPD just means I have a Compulsive Personality disorder, among other things wrong with me. I love it clean and luckily my beau does too, so we’re both clean freaks!

While my house is ‘walk-in unexpectedly’ clean, I can now focus more on my writing. I’m sure y’all will benefit from it too. I’m also sure y’all have heard it before but remember, I was coming from a very hurt place and now I feel I’m more healed and ready than ever. I’m not doing it for comments, I’m doing it for ME!

Remember these words: “When you fall outta the saddle, get your butt back in the saddle, and ride like the wind!”

Poem ~ I AM THE ONE!

“I knew you were waiting, I knew you were waiting for me…”

I Am The One

I am the one

or so he does say

I am the one

that takes his breath away.

They were mere pebbles

he tossed in the ocean.

I am the one

that gave his love motion.

Mistakes happened

along the road.

I am the one

to which love flowed.

Love didn’t happen

along the old path

Left behind

is bitter wrath.

I am the one

he found to be true

The love of his life

the only he knew.

The others he left

adrift out at sea.

I am the one

he chose only me!

Is God dead?

Pss. 40: 10 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.

Is God dead?

I’ve been taking a break from writing these past few months, and a friend of mine made the comment, “You’re abandoning your God given talent?”

“No, no I’m not,” I offer, “I’m taking a rest.”

We live in a day and age where people need proof that God exists. They go on and on about having faith, but then they seek out ‘proof’ in archeological findings to see if He was really real, if Jesus existed, if the flood was real, if Moses parted the sea. Is that faith?

I can be preachy at times, but that is by my choice not because someone or some religion expects it from me. I don’t and won’t push my beliefs on anyone but I will share when my heart is heavy laden and I need to get things out there.

I read the news daily and also the comments. Whatever you do in the yahoo comment section, don’t mention God. You’ll get thumbs down out the wazoo! It seems to many that God is an imaginary creature that man has created in the wellsprings of the mind and passed on for thousands of years. Is His legend dying?

By no means. If He can still anger so many people for existing, then I think he is very much alive. They just need proof.

I know this is a writing blog but among writers this debate goes on and on too. This weeks question:

Does adherence to rationality lead to atheism ?

George (opposes Christ) wrote: Paula, I'm glad you are so certain. I know it gives great comfort. I agree that there is a lot of wisdom in the Bible and the Judeo-Christian religions. There is also a lot of mythological fantasy obviously written by man and plagiarized from previous versions of a God.
None of that convinces me that I am doomed to hell for not buying in to the whole nine yards. I go to church with my wife often. At the end of the sermon, the Pastor always says, for those who have not found him yet, ask him into your hearts now. I do that with as much earnestness as I can. The message I get in return is, "You are on the right path, keep trucking, no worries."  (Joni’s note: So where does this message you get come from? Your mind?)
It takes no faith to be an Atheist or Agnostic, it takes great faith to be a Christian. Why many keep trying to make a parallel with that is beyond me and shows a weakness in their faith. LOL 
Where we agree is that in the working of the laws of nature there sometimes appear (for me) positive, unexpected, synergistic results that I choose to attribute to a "Higher Power." I have observed countless miracles in that manner and I am constantly amazed by them. (Joni’s note: Higher power? Would THAT be God?)
The people in my wifes' church here in Texas pray for everything, world peace, end the drought, win the lottery, cure cancer etc. I don't have faith in that kind of "Prayer on demand" but they do, despite any rationally measured success rate.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it until new evidence appears. Which I am open to.

Paula (believer of Christ) wrote: If you were God and you created beings that you love, then do you make them robots? That's not love. That is slavery or worse. So you create this universe and humans evolve from that. They have a choice. The wrong choices humans make have terrible consequences for other humans and nature itself. We have to take responsibility for this and not blame God.

I get really mad at God sometimes, but this life is going to end for me some day. What evidence do I have that no matter how bad this life gets there is still a sunrise? Don't slam the door on my viewpoint. Go back and reread the biblical accounts and the books written about the evidence. There is real evidence.

Cathy (a believer) wrote: George, I don't think that Jesus performed "magic" which is usually a form of trickery where the hand is quicker than the eye. Now how they saw people in half and separate the box, I have no idea. But Jesus was pure, God's power which is ever present for all of us flowed through him. It was his intention rooted in compassionate love that allowed him to use that power to heal the sick. It's like having a very well wired house but never having established the service contract. It is capable of making the lights go on and all of the appliances work but with out meeting the condition of turning on the source, nothing works. So what is the price for service? That is what the whole gospel and teachings of Jesus are about. It is the instructions manual about how to get to the state of a pure and contrite heart that will get the evil and distractions or our fleshly appetites out of the way and under control so that the divine power can flow through us. We are designed to be fully divine. Jesus was the fully functioning 'model unit" so to speak to show the way and motivate mankind to change and return to God.

*  *  *

Let me tell you, George went on for pages decrying the falsity of God and Jesus. Every scientific theory he came up with, there was a believer with a somewhat better argument, in my opinion. But then again, I’m a believer.

I’ve learned many things in my young life, and as a believer there are some things you just don’t talk about: money, God and Religion. I myself don’t have an argument for atheist. They don’t believe and maybe never will. Believers will speak and write, often falling on deaf ears. But hidden among all the rubble is TRUTH. That is where people get divided; seeking out the TRUTH.

In my rational mind allow me to ask you this: How come no one blames Zeus for striking their house with a lightning bolt burning it and all material things to the ground? Why doesn’t man blame atlas for the climate change? Why do they blame a God they don’t believe in? Boggles the mind.

Where does all this fit into the WRITING world?  Apparently the writers of the world are seeking some truth to their writing so that they’re not misleading readers. But who really has the TRUTH?

I watch as man defecates on man, destroys the very thing that they believe in and we wonder, “Where is God in all this turmoil?” There’s a post going around facebook that says something like this: “The teacher is quietest during the test.”  I like that!

He’s watching us destroy ourselves and don’t worry, He’ll be back to ‘correct our mistakes on the test’. But don’t take my word on it, seek out the proof you need, seek out the truth and before you know it, you’ll fall flat on your face in the realization of, the TRUTH!

Poetry Sunday ~ Fields of Green

Pss. 102: 7 I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.

Fields of Green

I no longer feel that I belong

I’m out on the farm all alone.

Washing over the fields so green

No more do I feel I’m my own.

I’m distant from the child I knew

The one who weathered the storms

I’m just a woman who day by day

Wakes up and mechanically performs.

My life was in the big city

Tall buildings; concrete domes

Paved roads and business mecca’s

Lined streets with towering homes.

Commotion was on every corner.

My mother and father were near.

I felt a part of a bloodline

Now no longer is anyone here.

Sure I’m made to feel family

I’m treated with love and care.

But often I feel an outsider

Not one secret worthy to share.

I’ll wallow here in self-pity,

While everyone's called to serve.

I’ll sit alone with fields of green

Wondering why I chose to swerve.

Change is a coming...

Change is coming to One Voice...

there needs to be a change

Enmity Abounds

Matt. 18: 9 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

Enmity Abounds

*  *  *

The blanket of hatred is pouring

Its darkness across the land.

Evil cannot be counted

In every grain of sand.

Marching to a different drum

The music can be heard

Waves crashing all around

The silencing of the bird.

Fires light up the night sky

Dolphins line the shore

The earth it shakes and trembles

Awakened is the core.

Lust lines the heart of man

In every quaking stance.

Hidden from the Light of truth

Like a fireflies swift dance.

Man can’t see beyond himself

Although he thinks he can.

He breeds the little seeds of hate

In his insufficient den.

Calamity will rain upon the seas

As flames fall from the skies

Be ready for mass destruction

Pluck enmity from thine eyes!

Poetry Sunday ~ The Secrets

The Secrets 

***

The lies become barriers

When truth is not there

Disguise is a veil

Of secrets not shared.

Love is an open door

That honesty fits through

It’s the cosmic tell all

That couples go through.

Lost is the love

When things are hidden

The line of mistrust

From truth now forbidden.

The love has ended

Two lives now dead

All because lies

Were all that was said.

Where do our lives go

Now that it’s done.

My life will be empty

Where trust has now gone.

More Sex Scenes for Teens?

More SEX Scenes for Teens?

Can you imagine my surprise when this subject was approached at the LinkedIn Forum. It’s a forum for adult writers/publishers/editors to toss thoughts around in the form of a Forum Topic. I don’t comment on many because through my experience, some (no names here) think they are above the little guy, and toss around their degrees acquired and their college this and that’s, that makes someone without a MFA feel small. A long post for sure, and I’m sure I’ll write more.

As the prude you all know I am, I had to comment. Here was the specific topic that got to me:

 

"More sex scenes in books for teenagers"? I'm meeting with a client (a respected, mainstream publisher) on Wednesday for a brainstorm on a possible new series of romance titles for teens, a kind of "teen erotica", with educational value - to some degree at least, in line with what is expressed in the following link. (no name)

 

No thanks, I won’t post the link on something that is telling me that we need more sex in books for teens so they can learn? They want to use erotica to teach children the ropes of love, not really love, but sexual arousal? You mean to tell me, this is where our educated children are getting their information on sex? Through these types of trashy (to me) books?

 

One of my responses went a little like this:

 

I think if we raise our children morally right, then they can make a moral decision whether to read what is deemed 'teen erotica' or not. (I personally think erotica is for healthy adults, not children)
If kids who are not raised in a moral environment read that type of book, then they are probably lacking education and hunger for the explicit content to teach them what they should feel.  

 

Wow, wouldn’t you know the higher ups (the ones who think they have ALL the answers and are RIGHT and no one can tell them differently) thought my response was spoken like a true naïve mother.

 

Joni, I am not saying that this applies to your son, but many, many parents get fooled by their children as to what they are up to, what they like to read and watch etc. And your post assumes, like so many others, that the novels we have in mind will be dirty tales of rampant sex. Not sure how many times we need to explain.
Then Paul jumps in and calls it trash. Says that kids can be tempted. Well, if they are not already temped by the trash that is out there, perhaps they might be tempted to read an erotic rendition that is not trash but has a moral message.

 

And IT (no name) went on to say:

One wonders how many copies of mom's 50 Shades has gotten to the hands of teenagers who must wonder, amid the preaching, about the hypocrisy of some parents.

 

Another WOW! For this person to assume that I’m a mother who would even TOUCH 50 Shades of Trash, one must assume, WHO is the preaching hypocrite here?

 

IT also said:

Joni, I am so glad for you and your son. Good work. As to 50 Shades, although the writing is horrible, the sex, I am told is quite good. No reason to deny yourself the experience of such literature, IMO.

 

I had said my son has a moral compass and wouldn’t TOUCH crap with erotica in it. Was this jealousy or envy that their son or daughter turned out to be a greedy/selfish/ immoral sex freak?

 

Does my son look at porn? More than likely so but we’re talking about WRITING/READING here. To call Shades literature to me is a slap in the face to writers of generations past and future generations who take writing more serious than, ‘lets add more sex so it sells’ writers.

 

I was not the only prude in the comments, there were many as you can imagine and non-religious freaks also. They had a moral compass that didn’t stem from religion, it stemmed from what they thought about a subject.

 

A comment:

Shame on anyone who contributes to sex for teens. Let them be kids as long as possible. How stupid some adults act. Such an idea only puts additional sex ides into their innocent minds. Research proves that young boys who dwell on porno rewire their minds and will be unable to sustain a relationship with a woman. So you contribute to more divorces. Shame shame shame on you. Some publishers will work for anything that makes them money No matter how you try to relabel it you are pushing sex and porno.

 

Oh, the bashing went back and forth and goes on for pages, and IT always came back with a response basically calling us unnatural, inhuman, sex-deprived beings who live in a box!

 

I had to share this forum topic with my son, who is a very vocal teen, that wants to be a writer, and loves reading books.

“Adam, what do YOU think?”

 

Adam’s response, “I think Shades is trash and NO, not all kids want to read that trash. I want to read a story and erotica is not storytelling, it’s sex. If I want sexual content, I’ll go to a porn site!”

 

Okay, I laughed, his honesty with me never ceases to amaze me. And while some uppity ups think all kids are liars and not honest with their parents, I say they are WRONG! Raised with a moral compass, kids can and will be bluntly honest!

 

I know what I like to read, he knows what he likes to read, and no I don’t find sexual gratification in a book with erotica. When did we as human beings need books and words in a book to fulfill us sexually?

 

Wow, I must have really messed up my son, huh? He has a moral compass that teens today would never know or understand for that matter.

 

Note to parents: Don’t let books raise your kids! Don’t let them learn life, sex, morals through a book! Lead by example and sure enough, your kids will learn! Talk to them, face to face, not via a text message!!!! I have to admit, homeschooling was the smartest thing I did for my son! He’s not led around by peers, he’s led by his moral compass, and that’s a GOOD thing!

Sad commentary from the ‘I know it all, IT’. I feel for this lonely person IT:

It may take another hundred years before John Lennon's image of no religion will come to pass...but make no mistake...religion as a fundamentalist ideology, is dying. I think it wise to do what we can to nudge that dying process whenever possible.

Religion, dying? While erotica is rising??? Sad thought isn’t it?

The final comment I read before unsubscribing after 200 and some comments?

The easier it becomes to get sex, the harder it is to find love!

 

I am not alone. Thank You, God!

Quotation Saturday ~ Blessings, Karma, Destiny

Prov. 28: 20 A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.

*** ~~~ ***

BLESSINGS ~ a favor or gift bestowed by God, thereby bringing happiness.

“When we lose one blessing, another is often most unexpectedly given in its place.”
~ C.S. Lewis

“You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestation of your own blessings.”
~ Elizabeth Gilbert

“Live your truth. Express your love. Share your enthusiasm. Take action towards your dreams. Walk your talk. Dance and sing to your music. Embrace your blessings. Make today worth remembering.”
~ Steve Maraboli

“For Equilibrium, a Blessing:

Like the joy of the sea coming home to shore,
May the relief of laughter rinse through your soul.
As the wind loves to call things to dance,
May your gravity by lightened by grace.
Like the dignity of moonlight restoring the earth,
May your thoughts incline with reverence and respect.
As water takes whatever shape it is in,
So free may you be about who you become.
As silence smiles on the other side of what's said,
May your sense of irony bring perspective.
As time remains free of all that it frames,
May your mind stay clear of all it names.
May your prayer of listening deepen enough
to hear in the depths the laughter of God.”
~ John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

DESTINY ~  the predetermined, usually inevitable or irresistible, course of events.

“I told you. You don't love someone because of their looks or their clothes or their car. You love them because they sing a song only your heart can understand.”
~ L.J. Smith

“There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be...”
~ John Lennon

“There are winds of destiny that blow when we least expect them. Sometimes they gust with the fury of a hurricane, sometimes they barely fan one’s cheek. But the winds cannot be denied, bringing as they often do a future that is impossible to ignore.”
~ Nicholas Sparks, Message in a Bottle

“I knew I loved you before I met you
I think I dreamed you into life
I knew I loved you before I met you
I have been waiting all my life”
~ Savage Garden

“Your soul knows the geography of your destiny. Your soul alone has the map of your future, therefore you can trust this indirect, oblique side of yourself. If you do, it will take you where you need to go, but more important it will teach you a kindness of rhythm in your journey.”
~ John O'Donohue

KARMA ~ the good or bad emanations felt to be generated by someone or something:

“Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.”
~ Eckhart Tolle

“When you see a good person, think of becoming like her/him. When you see someone not so good, reflect on your own weak points.”
~ Confucius

“If you send out goodness from yourself, or if you share that which is happy or good within you, it will all come back to you multiplied ten thousand times. In the kingdom of love there is no competition; there is no possessiveness or control. The more love you give away, the more love you will have.”
~ John O'Donohue

“Even chance meetings are the result of karma… Things in life are fated by our previous lives. That even in the smallest events there’s no such thing as coincidence.”
~ Haruki Murakami

Pss. 24: 5 He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Carma and Destiny

Carma and Destiny…

Ezek. 34: [26] And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.

Well since Steven pretty much told of the exciting day we had on Thursday the 8^th here, I thought I would add to the specialness of the day.

  

First allow me to tell you of Destiny. That is what we deemed his ’99 Explorer after his purchase of his truck back in 2003. It was destiny that rode into my life, in the fashion of a galloping blue steed, with Steven behind the wheel.

I saw that day back in May of 2003 as the day my life would be changed, altered, and would never be the same again. It was a year I would never forget and destiny was all a part of the swiftly changing scene; it only seemed fair that we gave her that name.

I know you think only guys name their cars, but this truck swept me off my feet into another state; another world than what I was accustomed to living. I had been living a sheltered life with a man who was ripping at the seams and for the protection of my son, I basically fled, with his blessing mind you, because he knew he was becoming volatile.

Destiny waved her colorful ribbons all caught in the moment of windswept storms. We dwelled in Texas for six years, and it is where I home schooled my son, got my license (at age 37) and watched as my son grew into a respectable human being. After six years in Texas, we were destined to be in Nebraska, where I sent my son to school for the first time. Now a senior, embarking on his last year of high school, he turned out to be a fine young, albeit tall, young man. Destiny was good to him too.

Now Destiny, the truck, had her inhibitions. She liked to stall on occasion, but nothing we couldn’t talk her back into a good rev. When I lost control a few years back, I planted Destiny in a ditch, and with airbags exploded, the tow- truck driver said, “You might as well junk it.” The undercarriage had been immersed in water and he felt she would never ride again.

Would you believe, the next day she started right up, we rode to his brother’s house, (he’s a mechanic) and he said she’d make it! Well, we KNEW she would, it was our Destiny! And ride she has for the past four years, never letting us down.

Now let me tell you. Here in Kearney, they have a car dealership named Crossroads. Wouldn’t ya know it that was the title for the novel I’m writing? That was its decided name BEFORE I moved to Nebraska and saw this car dealership. I had said from day one, “If I ever buy a car, it’s going to be from Crossroads, because that is like an advertisement for my novel.” I had even mentioned it again a few weeks ago, maybe even every time we ride past the dealership.

Now go back and read what a wonderful day we had yesterday. Everything went perfect, the car we wanted to buy seems perfect and too many things fell into place to not think something greater was at work. We road past Crossroads and again I said.. “I always wanted my first car to be from there.” You know what Steven said?

“I forgot to tell you, the back of the car? It has a Crossroads emblem on it.” Chills ran up my arms, tears built up without overflowing my eyes.

“This is our car! This is OUR CAR!!” My excitement as we were driving to the man’s house was building up, until we finally pulled up to the car. That is when the tears overflowed my eyes. Breathless I whisperd, “That’s my car! THAT is MY car!”

Adam in the back seat kept telling me to NOT cry, and as I dried my eyes, I got out and approached the car. We took it for a ride, and I knew, it was Karma! Adam kept saying Karma with a C and it stuck. Carma and Destiny met!

Yes, our two vehicles will outlive what the record books say because they were destined to be together. This is where you say, “Awwwwwwwww.” 

 Ecc.3: 1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

Karma, to me, is God working in every way!

Praise God!