Quotation Saturday

PASSION

You have to find something that you love enough to be able to take risks, jump over the hurdles and break through the brick walls that are always going to be placed in front of you. If you don't have that kind of feeling for what it is you're doing, you'll stop at the first giant hurdle."
-- George Lucas

"Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, ‘This is the real me,’ and when you have found that attitude, follow it."
-- William James

"The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions."
-- Alfred Lord Tennyson

"Passion, though a bad regulator, is a powerful spring."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

PARENTING/FAMILY

"Young people's values are a reflection of significant adult role models."
-- Denis Waitley

"It is better to earn the trust and respect of one child than to gain notoriety and the adulation of the masses."
-- Denis Waitley

"Role modeling is the most basic responsibility of parents. Parents are handing life's scripts to their children, scripts that in all likelihood will be acted out for the rest of the children's lives."
 -- Stephen R. Covey

"Children have never been very good at listening to adults but they have never failed to imitate them."
-- James Baldwyn

MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION

"People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing that's why we recommend it daily."
-- Zig Ziglar

"The greatest composer does not sit down to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working."
-- Ernest Newman

"A mediocre idea that generates enthusiasm will go further than a great idea that inspires no one."
-- Mary Kay Ash

"When a goal matters enough to a person, that person will find a way to accomplish what at first seemed impossible."
-- Nido Qubein
FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS

Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.
--Pamela Vaull Starr
 

The end of wisdom is to dream high enough not to lose the dream in the seeking of it.
--William Faulkner
 

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
--Patrick Henry
 

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.
--Lanston Hughes

Burnout

Revelation 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
***

Well I have two posts today for a reason. The one below is post number 666 and as much as I know it is just a number, something about it screams out EWWW! to me. So today you are blessed with TWO posts by me, how lucky is THAT?

I’ll finish what I started on that ‘other’ post.

F2k was draining. I have loved and been committed to f2k for some years now, but as the format changed, the guidelines altered, the reading and reading fell upon us, the choosing and deciding, this was all too much for my brain, with reality slapping me upside the head on a weekly basis.

So I decided to take a break. We have a lot of mentors in place for just this reason. We call it burnout when we over do it, and many of the mentors don’t get it because they have lots of time on the computer to dedicate to the course, even though life is slapping them in the face with illnesses, deaths, and hardships, you would never know it. We’re troopers.

We go on and on like energizer bunnies, tossing reality to the side and voluntarily diving into the assistance of the writer. It is what we signed on for and we are a dedicated committed bunch of folks.

I’ve decided to focus on my first love, WVU. I’m going to facilitate some courses and hopefully together with a bunch of other facilitators, we can get the course registration up and maybe even keep the people IN the class for the duration of two weeks. This is much less stress than the weekly demands of the f2k.

You have to remember, this is all volunteer work and I watch each session as mentors struggle with their lives, stay strong and commit to this seven week course. That is almost 2 months. So next round, I need a break. I’m honest enough to admit it and brave enough to stop my own downfall.

The next f2k course is April 6 I believe. That is a four week break? I can not commit fully at that time, with possible Dr. visits, hopefully eye surgery for the beau, the arrival of Spring and my New Year, and life wrapping its arms around me, drinking me in like a morning dew on grass!

Foresight is good to the extent you can know your limitations and act on them. That is what I’m doing, thinking ahead. My presence will still be felt, and I’ll miss the course, but this gal needs time to BREATHE!

Crash and Burn

Luke Luke 7:13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.
***

Yeah that basically sums up the week I’ve had. In the writing world, the f2k class has come to an end and I have to admit, this was one of the busiest sessions that I’ve lived through.

When normally the classes drop to a smidgen of folks hanging on by week six, this session saw all the classes at almost full capacity for the duration. We lost a few due to circumstances: colds, flu, pneumonia and life grabbing hold of them and carrying them away from us. But for the duration, it has been post after post, reading after reading, lesson upon lesson, feedback and more feedback.

I’m drained. I have to admit, this session took it’s toll with all of the drama in my reality grabbing me by the throat and trying to pin me down. But I kept persevering. I think June would have told me, “Keep it up, Joni, You can do it!” Funny how I keep hearing June’s voice in my head. lol That is not a bad thing because she is MY mentor when it comes to getting sidetracked in writing!

This week was no different than the other seven weeks of f2k. Monday as we were driving home, Adam and I spotted a burning house. I didn’t have my phone on me and mom was wondering if it was a barn or a controlled burn. At eight thirty in the evening, I’ve never really witnessed a controlled burning taking place.

We stopped, backed up, almost into the very ditch that tried eating me alive last year, and we approached the house. Easing into the driveway, we saw that the HOME was well on it’s way to burning down. From behind us, a truck raced onto the scene into another driveway and he went around to the back of the house.

Flames lapping up the wall as if to drink every last fiber of the wood’s moisture, crackling embers were flying all around. I couldn’t sit and wait. I jumped out of the car but I couldn’t get around to where the man was, he was on the phone calling 911, I shouted out to him with small flames dancing from the second floor shooting chunks of embers, “Is there anybody in the house?” He was rubbing his forehead with pain written all over his firelit face. No answer.

Tears forming in my eyes. I assessed the house and knew this was not a safe place to be. The entire second floor was being eaten by flames! Not hearing any screams, cries, or whimpers from animals, trembling I got back in the car and we drove home. I stood on my front steps and almost a quarter of a mile away the house was burning. I waited to see flashing lights come to the scene and what seemed like an hour but was about five heartbreaking minutes, the flashing lights appeared.

The next day, to get those haunting images out of my head, I had to go back to the scene to see the devastation. A total loss. The entire upstairs of the house as well as the back wall were gone. I looked through what once was the door I was going to bang on and saw complete emptiness. Chunks of burnt wood layed strewn about, brown water marks running down the front barely standing wall, all windows shattered and the house, now a lost ghost town where once stood a families home.

Drama seems to follow me...what with my dog getting hit by a truck, the month long of nursing her back to health, the joy of seeing my family via a webcam, the hectic f2k, and the house burning down. All a day/week/month in the life of Joni.

The Lord helps those...

... who help themselves.

Eph.2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
***

Boy I’ve heard some pretty grand arguments about this one. And yes to me they are arguments because when you try and insist on something to be true and as stated fact, you have now crossed the line into arguing a belief.

Can you imagine dying from cancer and sitting there with only this belief that if you don’t do anything that God isn’t going to help you? Because you know, if you don’t help yourself, God isn’t going to help you either?

Suppose you have terminal cancer, you do everything in mans power to be rid of this disease, and you’ve HELPED YOURSELF to try and get better, and you still die? Are your loved ones, (holding to this same belief) going to blame God? Because after all, He helps those who help themselves.

People go on and on about faith without works, to me, that has nothing to do with, the Lord helps those, if you are a person of faith, innately you help others, it is in your being as a spiritual person aligned with God. If you have faith in God and let everyone else do the works, then are you still a Christian? Does God measure your works?

I can not imagine a God who only helps those who help themselves. If this is true, then my faith is for naught, and I’d much rather be an atheist than believe that the God I have had faith in all my life, isn’t going to help me, unless I help myself. Only God knows what is deemed as works, in His eyes. No man has the power to JUDGE my works or your works.

I know of a homeless man. Brought down by drugs and alcohol wandering the streets for his next fix. He don’t seek help for his addiction and sees no problem with himself, he actually likes who he is. Many around him in his family have TRIED to help, but again, he sees no problem. So without seeking help, he remains on the streets squatting from one shelter to the other. But God, in His all powerful glorious love, has saved this man from DEATH on numerous occasions. God did not look the other way, he did not say, “Well when you begin to HELP YOURSELF that is when I will help you!”

Nope, my God has supplied the man food, given him shelter, led him to warmth, when He could have just let him die with the very first beating. Even after losing a digit due to drug use, even after being diagnosed with Hep C, this man is still alive. And God, is STILL helping him. Now I’m also sure that if this man sought help, God would STILL be there to move him forward. But God is also there when the man does NOTHING.

Let me say with all sincerity, God helps EVERYONE that places HIM in their heart. He does not discriminate, he holds no prejudices and He helps ALL. He isn’t holding out a measuring stick and thinking, “Hmm that just wasn’t enough works. Can’t help him/her/them.” Our faith IS NOT measured by our works. Salvation is not gotten by WORKS. GOD LOVES US ALL!!!!

The Lord helps those. Period!

Poetry Sunday ~ A Double Dose

Pss. 27:14 Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.

***

I Await!
(c) Joni Zipp
***

As part of me hangs
in the balance of echoes
falling to the floor in whispers
waiting to be lifted up by
the very presence of you
I await.

As I tumble, the world
collides while etching
out a form chiseled in the
measure of space and time;
the aroma of you lingers
I await.

As I cling to the hope
that one day our fog
will become rays of the sun
I’ll melt in the complexity
of your ubiquity.
I await.

As breathless as the days
linger into silent nights
I long to see the faces
left behind in a whirlwind
of a confused state.
I await!

***

 Home Again
(c) Joni Zipp

***

The sun is setting in the sky
dark clouds take over the night.
a day of joy with the sun not shy
where all was spent in the light.

Their faces looked like yesterday
memories running wild
flooding over this mind today
flashing of me as a child.

We’ve changed so much with time
in all aspects of our being
our bodies, spirits, frame of mind
in every way I’m seeing.

The joy leaps out in sunbeams,
the blood runs through my veins.
from eyes my family gleams
As my love for them remains!

All rights reserved: copyright © Joni  Zipp

Quotation Saturday

OVERCOMING FEAR

"Don't fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have."
-- Louis E. Boone

“When boundaries are present, there is fear - when wholeness and unity is recognized, fear cannot exist."
-- James A. Ray

"Never let the fear of striking out get in your way."
--George Herman "Babe" Ruth

"Do the thing you fear, then the death of fear is certain."
-- Brian Tracy

OVERCOMING FAILURE

"All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is this: Act as if it were impossible to fail. That is the talisman, the formula, the command of right-about-face which turns us from failure towards success."
-- Dorothea Brande

"The sages do not consider that making no mistakes is a blessing. They believe, rather, that the great virtue of man lies in his ability to correct his mistakes and continually make a new man of himself."
-- Wang Yang-Ming

"Failure is only postponed success as long as courage "coaches" ambition. The habit of persistence is the habit of victory."
-- Herbert Kaufman

"When we can begin to take our failures seriously, it means we are ceasing to be afraid of them. It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves."
-- Katherine Mansfield


FRIENDS

You can make more friends in two months by helping other people than you can in two years trying to get others to help you.
-Author unknown


ON WRITING

I have a duty to speak the truth as I see it and share not just my triumphs, not just the things that felt good, but the pain, the intense, often unmitigated pain. It is important to share how I know survival is survival and not just a walk through the rain.
-Audre Lorde
 

Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us all without words?
-Marcell Marceau
 

If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn't matter a damn how you write.
-Somerset Maugham

Wonderful Wednesday

I have some exciting news! I just have to share. Besides how much I love my son who is now  5’10” at fifteen and I wish he’d slow down on the growth spurt. lol

A package came for ME last week. No, not a Valentines present per se but a small little package from my niece. Hmm what could it be? Well I knew what it could be, because unlike so many other people in my life that say they’re going to do something, my niece pretty much comes through when she says she’s going to do something.

A few weeks ago, she asked if I had a web cam. “A web cam? No,” I said.  I never really wanted one and honestly didn’t know what I’d use one for. Well she said she wanted to send me one, we worked out if this ancient computer could handle it, and then she said it would be on its way, by the end of February!

What did she want me to have a web cam for? So I could see her and her mom, (my sis) and my mother and father too!!! Well slap my forehead and give me a V8! Why hadn’t I thought of that? Why didn’t she, before the time got to be six years without seeing their faces!!!

Well this brown  little box held a web cam that came on Friday. I opened it and as with all technological gadgets I just looked at it with no fascination. My son however was ecstatic! He wanted one for Christmas but well, with no money and I thought they were really expensive, I told him we couldn’t get one. Maybe after we get a new computer.

Saturday arrived and Adam wanted it installed like NOW, so he could show his internet friends. (I monitor his activities on the web, so no worries.) We hooked it up, saw some fuzz but it still sent the images across cyberspace and he was seen. Okay, whoopie!

I sent my niece a message thanking her and now the excitement was building. I realized that she was just turning sixteen years old when I left home 8 years ago, and that I had only seen her briefly on my visit back to Baltimore (but she was one of the first people that came to see me at the hotel when I arrived!) Oh the excitement!

It may not be exciting to people outside my family, who really don’t understand the grand scheme of things but to me, to me this is the opportunity of a lifetime! To see their faces to laugh with them and smile, cry and share. This was a moment of going home again without the airfare fees and all the hoopla that surrounds traveling.

Sunday came and as Adam tweaked with the settings, now making the picture crystal clear, I arrived home from Church anxiously awaiting the arrival. A few notes back to one another and then *POOF* they were in front of my face, smiling from behind tears, laughing with streams and trickles running down their cheeks. My eyes have not flooded so much in a long time.

Sure my Valentine serenade from My Sax Man was beautiful, but nothing, and I mean nothing could overpower the love of MY family reunion with my sister and niece! This Saturday is...the *Surprise for mother and dad!*

Finally...my family.

Poetry Sunday ~ A Moment in Time

Deut. 28:2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.
***
A Moment in Time
***
Miles of time has swept us away
I long to see them in every way.
To hear them laugh, see their smiles
a bridge is formed to span the miles.

Wrinkles shape faces defining age
time has taken them off the page;
placed them in their own domain
while I sit here, yet always remain.

Much has changed; I’m not the same
no longer play the family game.
But here I sit on the edge of time
a moment of love and truth sublime.

A windowed world will allow us to see
each others faces with joy and glee.
Though hugs won’t ensue, the love will flow
I’ll smile once again, with these people I know!

***
This is for Sara who, with the help of technology, will allow me to see my family once again. I’ve been away for eight years, only returned home once, about five years ago, and today, via webcam, I get to see Sara, Terri, Mother and Dad! Thank you Sara!

Quotation Saturday

CREATIVITY

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
-Scott Adams
 

All writing is a process of elimination.
-Martha Albrand
 

It doesn't matter if a student looks as sour as a lemon. You get lemonade by squeezing them.
-Antti Allén
 

There is no great writing, only great rewriting.
-Justice Brandeis
 

Short stories are designed to deliver their impact in as few pages as possible. A tremendous amount is left out, and a good short story writer learns to include only the most essential information.
-Orson Scott Card
 

EMOTIONS in WRITING

The writer who cares more about words than about story – characters, action, setting, atmosphere – is unlikely to create a vivid and continuous dream; he gets in his own way too much; in his poetic drunkenness, he can't tell the cart – and its cargo – from the horse.
-John Gardner
 

We read five words on the first page of a really good novel and we begin to forget that we are reading printed words on a page; we begin to see images.
-John Gardner
 

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

If you do not have an alert and curious interest in character and dramatic situation, if you have no visual imagination and are unable to distinguish between honest emotional reactions and sentimental approaches to life, you will never write a competent short story.
-Edward J. O'Brien
 

DREAMS

The end of wisdom is to dream high enough not to lose the dream in the seeking of it.
-William Faulkner
 

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
-Patrick Henry
 

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.
-Lanston Hughes
 

You cannot dream yourself into a character: you must hammer and forge yourself into one.
-Henry D. Thoreau

My Favorite Authors

Job 7:14 Then thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions:
***

My top five, not in any specific order:
 
Stephen King - He is one of my faves because of his style. I can’t say he has class but he’s a writer, he doesn’t need class. We writer’s know we need to grab our reader by the...throat, and this is just what Mr. King does. He takes you by the throat, throttles you around a bit, and leaves you gasping for breath right up to the very last word! Favorite book? It would have to be Duma Key, for now.

Dean Koontz - I love his class! This man knows gore, delivers a scene without degrading human beings. I’m hard pressed to find vulgarity in his words and it has to be in the characters nature for it to EVER be seen in his books, and I’ve read many. Favorite Koontz book? Odd Thomas, hands down. And I’ve read tons of Koontz’s books.

Shirley Jackson - Style AND class! Here’s a winning combination. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read The Haunting of Hill House, and her short story Lottery Ticket? Well that drew a lot of negative feedback in its day, although today, people wouldn’t bat an eyelash!

Ray Bradbury - Now this man has style, class AND longevity. Everything he touches turns to sold! He don’t beat around the bush in delivering a story. He does it with an eloquence we all, as writers, aspire to do.

Tolkien - Tolkien has an air of grace. His words flow perpetually through time, and carry the weight of a feather all the while holding you captive by his poetic style. This man treated writing as an art form and delivered to us characters that will forever remain entrenched in our hearts. Lord of the Rings is my favorite all time book!

Now, I’ve left out many outstanding authors like Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, J.D. Salinger’s, Catcher in the Rye, Mark Twain and all of the classic writers from our past that we’ve come to know and love. I’ve also not mentioned J.K Rowling or the James Patterson’s of the world today, who knock on our children’s door and they allow these characters entry, into their hearts and quickly become the favorites of their time.

Yes, anyone can write, but not all people can write a classic, or write on the levels of these authors that will carry their writing through the portal of time. It takes a person dedicated to bringing you an art and delivering to your doorstep the light, love and grace of style that only writers can display for you.

Remember, writers are your blanket on a cold evening, they wrap you in their hearts and souls and carry you to loftier worlds where you can live in the fantasy realm of your dreams. Why not hug a writer today, within a good book that is. :)

Dialogue ~ To say or Not to say

Numbers 16:31 And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them:

***

“Excuse me, can you help me?”

No! I’m busy.

“But I need your help in understanding something.”

Okay, but make it quick, I have a lot of work to do here.

“What is dialog? And why can’t I use tags?”

Well, missy, you need to listen up. Dialog is a conversation between two people in a story. Like what we’re doing?

“Are we in a story?”

No, but your on my blog and I’m talking to you!

“Oh.”

Did you see that play on words up there? This weeks lesson at f2k is dialog. The word dialog can be spelled with the UE or without, just for those of you grammar checkers out there. I’ve looked  up the word and either spelling is acceptable.

Anyway, our lesson is for dialog with no tags. Tags are the cozy words at the end of who is speaking.

“Excuse me, can you help me?” she says in a timid way.

“No! I’m busy.” The lady behind the counter grumbles.

Practicing not using tags, really helps you see into the window of the characters. We have no backdrop, no setting up of the scene, we have words. Words that need to be read by the reader, and they need to follow who is speaking. If you can’t do a 500 word piece of dialog with no tags, then you need to strengthen the personality of your characters.

Something always stands out with your character, whether it is a strong accent, a southern belle type character, a farmer Bob type guy. In practicing no tags, we’re fleshing out our character and giving them personality and making them come alive.

Yes, in books we use tags. Novels are written with the dialog using tags, but take a look at those novels, any one of them. The dialog does not have a tag EVERY SINGLE sentence of a conversation. It doesn’t because once you’ve established who is speaking, you can really carry a conversation along a few pages with a tag here and there.

This is a tough lesson also. I never said that F2k was this easy, fly by night course on easy writing. No, it teaches important skills that are going to carry you through your writing and hopefully have you writing better with just one course. Maybe through all my blog posts on the matter of the free course, you can tell if it is something that you’d like to try when we offer it again in April.

Even if your not a writer, maybe this course will give you something to try for. Believe me, it will help when you’re jotting down a blog too. You’ll soon see that this course will have you using these skills without you realizing that you’ve drank from the knowledge pool and are now serving it to others.

Talk-o Tuesday

Rom. 2:19 And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,
***

Wow, I haven’t had a talk-o Tuesday in quite some time. Talk-o Tuesday is where I go on and on about audio books and their ascent to being the top listened to way of hearing a good book in a car, on a treadmill or even just sitting with your legs crossed by a roaring fire, in the dark. Audio books is the route to take.

Why do I want to tell you about audiobooks? Because my beau has an awesome site where he does reviews. Now many of you already know, my beau is blind, but this does not hinder his time on this thing we call a computer. Nope, instead he has a screen reader and he plows away at the books like they were sand in his shoes, shakes out a couple of audiobooks in a week and gives an in depth review at Audiobook Heaven, not revealing too much, but you can get a pretty good idea if you’d like to read the book.

And there have been plenty of reviews and publishers requesting reviews! So his day is pretty consumed with listening and writing reviews. And what is also exciting? The man can write! Two years ago when he initially started going blind, to sway him from the pits of depression, I suggested he start a blog. “Just write all those mixed feelings out,” I said, “Free your mind and free your soul, write!” I have a tendency to tell a lot of folks to do the same thing, “Write to heal!”

In the beginning there was Drums in the Deep,(still going strong by the way) the diary of a blind mans quest for life. Then as his days of listening to books grew, he decided to start a blog on Audiobook Reviews. The site went through a bit of constructing and reconstructing in the beginning, but finally he hit a stride, and now taps out 3 reviews a week, in the least!

The pits of depression were all put on hold because a man,  who fought to know the love of God and decided along with God, that writing was the emotional healer that would get him through some of his darkest days, and nights too, if truth be told.

Why not check Audiobook Heaven out and show some support, you won’t be sorry. :)

Poetry Sunday ~ Broken Beauty

Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord! Psalm 31:24
***
Broken Beauty
All rights reserved: copyright © Joni Zipp
***
Daggers slicing through my heart,
I boldly stand to make a new start.

Cutting deep; vile words that slay
my heart it drips what’s left to display.

I fight to recover all I’ve lost
in the battle of ensuing frost
crippled am I; all pieces scattered
look on at me; my soul is battered.

Weary legs I wobble around
outstretched arms barely found;
the pain is icicles in my veins
wandering through the torn remains.

Wicked people try to corrupt
all this beauty in a moment abrupt
They try to topple the tower of being
plowing through all people I’m seeing.

Though life looks like a milky mist
muddling about I cease and desist.
I won’t play into the evil ones hands
I’m with my Lord in loftier lands.

Try but lose your chance to break;
my souls not there for you to take.
Bound by blazing Glorious rays,
I live for my Father all of my days!
All rights reserved: copyright © Joni Zipp

Quotation Saturday

KINDNESS

"Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile."
-Mother Teresa

"Really big people are, above everything else, courteous, considerate and generous - not just to some people in some circumstances - but to everyone all the time."
-Thomas J. Watson

"If you have not often felt the joy of doing a kind act, you have neglected much, and most of all yourself."
-A. Neilen

"You have not lived a perfect day, unless you have done something for someone who will never be able to repay you."
-Ruth Smeltzer

MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION

"People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing that's why we recommend it daily."
- Zig Ziglar

"The greatest composer does not sit down to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working."
- Ernest Newman

"A mediocre idea that generates enthusiasm will go further than a great idea that inspires no one."
- Mary Kay Ash

"When a goal matters enough to a person, that person will find a way to accomplish what at first seemed impossible."
- Nido Qubein

PURPOSE

The question for each man is not what he would do if he had the means, time, influence and educational advantages, but what he will do with the things he has.
-Frank Hamilton

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.
-Carl Jung

MIRACLES

"The only way to live is to accept each minute as an unrepeatable miracle, which is exactly what it is - a miracle and unrepeatable."
- Margaret Storm Jameson

"The next time it begins to rain... lie down on your belly, nestle your chin into the grass, and get a frog's-eye view of how raindrops fall... The sight of hundreds of blades of grass bowing down and popping back up like piano keys strikes me as one of the merriest sights in the world."
- Malcolm Margolin

"The world is full of poetry. The air is living with its spirit; and the waves dance to the music of its melodies, and sparkle in its brightness."
- Percival

"Ingenuity, plus courage, plus work, equals miracles."
- Bob Richards

Sprigs and Sprays

John 15: 5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
***

What a week! I’ve blogged, I've wandered, I've kept up the pace of the every day hum drum, all with the help of a sprig and a spray! What in the world is a sprig? A spray?

Allow me to tell you, a sprig is a small branch and a spray is an offshoot of the branch, and after the week I’ve had, had it not been for the extension of the branch, I may have been weakened to the core. The spray of friends who understood me, as a friend and a writer, reached out and consoled me.

As our lesson ‘Conflict’ unraveled, students assumed this was a physical fight scene that needed to be written. Again we go back to say, “Did you read the tips?” Conflict can also be the inner struggle that one endures when faced with a decision in his/her life. It is not a knock down drag out fist fight which conveys a conflict scene, it is the mindset of the character, it is the emotional roller coaster that the said character is on day in and day out.

So with that said, my inner conflict is being helped along by the branches that are extending outward from people who really care. They are far and few in between, but the ones who do extend are enough to fill my heart, and make it grow three sizes too big this week. I’ve had to cut out a few things, restructure a few things and focus on more important things, all for the resolution of the inner conflict raging war inside of me trying its darndest to see to it that I crumble like an unneeded wad of paper.

Friends can be a branch in the war on conflict. They can be the making or breaking of all that you stand for. You are more than likely to have a so-called friend, stab you in the back, slice you open or just go for the jugular or a prettier scenario is they can rip your heart out of your chest and toss it on the floor and stomp around a few times to see how much blood they can drain from you.

But on a more positive note to resolution, real friends, the ones who stick by you through thick and thin, (eliminate family because they’re just there as a back up) will be the ones who extend loving words, kind gestures, a heartfelt love that no other on this Earth can offer. Friends don’t let Friends, drown!

Job 19:14 My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.
***
Mark 3:21 And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself.

Tinkles and Twigs

He who has imagination without learning, has wings and no feet.
Joseph Joubert
***

Conflict ~
Conflict can be expressed on many levels. Take yesterdays post of inner conflict. I wrote it so it wouldn’t be on my back pushing me down like an overstuffed garbage bag, but remember, conflict in a story can lift your words to new heights.

We have antagonist and protagonist in reality and in our fictional stories. The job is to know who is who and where they lurk. In life, they can seemingly be your friend, who has turned and gone to the other side of the moral spectrum, and in fiction it can be the butcher, the baker, or the candlestick maker. You are the creator so your antagonist can be whomever you want them to be. (Reality can hold antagonists such as your Butcher, Baker and Candlestick maker, too.)

I love conflict in a story. Have you noticed as you’re reading a book (or listening) and the story is going along smooth, a happy gathering of folk all laughing having a good time, then gunshots ring out in the neighboring apartment. This stirs a story into conflict. The characters all flee the scene and in doing so a person is shot dead! Why didn’t they just stay where they were?

You know why? Because the conflict would have fell flat. Conflict needs to be stirred in ways that the reader is trying to read so fast and get through the pages, they flip and flip until the story concludes and you find you’ve read the entire book in record time!

Without conflict, you have a toddler genre ready to absorb all the good in stories. But even in Children's writing, there NEEDS to be a conflict to get your point across and you can draw the lines from good and bad. Kids need a moral compass and as writers our job is to see to it that through our antagonist and protagonist, they can see the good guy and the bad guy. A child always wants to see the hero win in the end.

Adult novels, while some bathe in smut, most have a genuine love story wrought with conflict.  Like Odd Thomas. Not too many characters touch me like the Odd one and his endearing love for Stormy! No smut a bout it, this love went deep and lasted through four novels, all the while fighting off the demons that Odd had to carry around with himself.

So you see, conflict, whether real or imaginary are the things that make up life, whether fiction or non-fiction; whether internal or external, conflict arises when one wakes up in the morning on a seemingly beautiful day. The bars of sun stream in the window, not a cloud in the baby-blue sky, you open the door and are assaulted with the biting cold, the rush of traffic, the neighbors dog barking and every other conflicting noise, sound, sight, you can imagine.

Make your writing DANCE! Add a little conflict to it!

A 'DO NOT read' post

John 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
***

Just when you think someone cares...

Have you ever been writing until your fingers bled, anxiously anticipated sharing only to find that nobody really cares about your writing? Today I’m going to throw myself a pity party with hats, balloons, streamers and noisemakers, yeah especially noisemakers. You’re all invited to come, but no one will show, it’ll just be me, a woman and her thoughts.

I have this quote it goes something like, “Thank your readers and the critics who praise you, and then ignore them. Write for the most intelligent, wittiest, wisest audience in the universe: Write to please yourself. ~Harlan Ellison, and really that is all we’re doing because nobody really cares what you write.

We can pretend, we can read what others write, we can comment out our gazoos, or not, but what it really boils down to is, nobody gives a flying fig. Everyone cares about himself or herself, and everything else is just there, a fly on the wall being looked at ready to swat it out of the way first chance you get.

I feel my writing has been put on hold while I take care of everyone else. I throw myself into situations of aiding and forget that sometimes I am the one who needs the assistance. Does anybody care? Does anyone know that this is what’s happening to me? No, of course not because they are busy obsessing and consuming themselves with themselves. Selfishly devouring all that they can muster while a withered leaf gets tossed under the snow mound. They are a sort of self mutilating cannibal, eating and drinking of whatever it is that THEY have to
offer/want/need and forget about the lil guy or in this case, gal.

Today is the day (okay I tell myself this all the time) that I am going to put a halt to my placating of others and tend to my own needs. I’m going to be a self mutilating cannibal and consume myself, with myself, remembering those that forgot me and forgetting those that pretended to remember me.
 
Sometimes it scares me to be a writer.
 
“From the earliest records of ancient civilizations to the most recent works produced by modernity, the history of literature bears witness to the creative power of the human mind. We have before us a vast library of stories, plays, and poetry to enjoy at our leisure, but in some cases this creativity came with a price – the life of the creator.” Ketterer Brandt
 
From Hemmingway to Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf  to John Kennedy Toole all authors who decided maybe writing just wasn’t in the cards for them. The list is long, the lives are many, writers write because they love to write, they die, because maybe they were faced with cannibals too.
***
From Lord of the Rings ~ J.R.R. Tolkien’s work

Sam: Do you remember the Shire, Mr. Frodo? It'll be spring soon and the orchards will be in blossom, and the birds will be nesting in the hazel thicket. And the whistle in the summer barley in the Lower fields. And eating the first of the strawberries with cream. Do you remember the taste of strawberries?
 
Frodo: No, Sam. I can't recall the taste of food, nor the sound of water, nor the touch of grass. I'm naked in the dark. There's nothing--no veil between me and the wheel of fire. I can see him with my waking eyes.

Poetry Sunday ~ Silent Slumber

1 Cor. 15:18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
***
Silent Slumber
(c) Joni Zipp
***
The fields they sleep
awash in snow
man in slumber
a tale of woe.

Mark the line
of night and day
into a realm the
soul does sway.

Often sought
but never found
Heavens light
with earthly sound.

All the while
he is caught up
the fields erupt
to fill his cup.

Over flows
ones own being
never grasp
all he is seeing.

Bind the love
within your soul
breathe it in
and be made whole.

All rights reserved: copyright © Joni  Zipp

Quotation Saturday

DREAMS
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
--Henry David Thoreau
 
Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.
--Harriet Tubman
 
All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible.
--T.E. Lawrence

FEAR OF FAILURE
We learn wisdom from failure much more than success. We often discover what we will do, by finding out what we will not do.
--Samuel Smiles
 
One who fears failure limits his activities.
Failure is only the opportunity to more
intelligently begin again.
--Henry Ford
 
Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.
--William Shakespeare

HAPPINESS
When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.
--Helen Keller
 
Happiness does not consist in pastimes and amusements but in virtuous activities.
--Aristotle
 
Happiness resides not in possessions and not in gold; the feeling of happiness dwells in the soul.
--Democritus

Moving Write Along

2 Tim. 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
***

No friends it’s not a typo! The free creative writing course, F2K , is moving WRITE along. Writers are all writing, friends are being made and the creative juices are flowing in an endless stream of thought and consciousness.

We’re on Lesson three and this is the tell tale lesson. This is the lesson where the folks either give up or keep on trekking in the writing course. I like to see everyone complete the seven week course but life happens a lot of times, people get sick, they get sidetracked, and a writing course becomes second in line to the more important things in life.

I’ve noticed that a lot in life. People become so absorbed with ‘other’ things that they forget what is most important and right in their faces. They question the path, doubt their beliefs, place materials above the one thing that needs to remain constant in ones life, and that is your faith.

Without faith, you’re path is going to be a miserable road to nowhere, full of pebbles, rocks and sometimes boulders that will hinder you from going anywhere. I like to think that when someone enters a writing course, that something deep inside was guiding them to take this path and that they would listen to the inner call to take on writing as if it was handed to them from the Divine One that leads them.

I watch as a lot of writers lack the faith and confidence in themselves. I see one woman stray from writing because she fears sharing her work with others. I watch others after years of study and hard wok, still doubt the very gift that they have within their clutch. An excellent writer, but her lack of confidence has shattered her dream of ever becoming a success in the writing world.

Isn’t  it enough for you to write, receive accolades from your peers, be lifted up by their words of pleasure and joy in reading your work? Why would anyone doubt their own work with all of this positive influx of feedback? Because faith is what is going to carry you.

Trust in your ability! Have faith that you were meant to do this. Not this-that-and-the-other thing! Writing is a God given talent. One of my sons, so called friends, mocked him when he said he was a writer, “Anyone can write!” she taunted. I’m here to clarify and verify for you, that NO, not ANYONE can write. A writer writes! Others spell correctly (possibly) and form sentences but it takes a writer to bring those words and sentences alive!

Moving right along... Writers WRITE RIGHT!

Inspiration

Job 32: 8 But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
***

Over the years, my following has grown; I’ve been spammed, I’ve been approached to do reviews or maybe even a pay-per-click to garner money, and by and by, I keep coming back to what inspired me to start this blog to begin with.

I’m a writer and have been one for many a year now. I’m also a Christian, and I pray that you, my following, doesn’t hold that against me, because I love you all no matter what you believe in or what inspires you to live each and every day. 

Often times something traumatic happens in my life and I have to share it with you, or maybe something miraculous (like Sassy, my dog, surviving being hit by a truck) happens where I just feel compelled to share the event with you.

Yes this is a writing blog, one where I give tips on writing, teach you a few techniques, but woven in my words are, and probably always will be, the inspiration that moves me. Inspiration is like a warm rise of the sun. It bubbles up within you, feeds your energy, then slips you into a gentle calm, where you are moved into action.

Inspiration can’t be stolen or borrowed but it can be released to where another individual feels totally inspired within themselves and in turn, inspires someone else, and so on and so on. We can all become a chain link of inspiration and we can slowly change the mindset of the world but only if you have the best of intentions, the joy to pass it on, and the legs to stand on when it doesn’t go as smoothly as planned.

Strength will guide you, you’ll find that the flaming shroud of inspiration has reached right through the screen, reached out by the clutching of two hands, been expelled by the warmth of a hug, shared by a kind word, embraced by the open mind, cherished by all who come in contact.

I can display a picture and immediately your mind is flooding with other images, words that want to jump onto the page, feelings that run through your veins like an IV hooked up to the emotional stem of love. Inspiration can be found anywhere and everywhere and it may just cause you to write something brilliant, or inspire another person to write something amazing.

Whatever the case may be...find inspiration in every waking moment, glorify Light and Love, praise the day you were born and Inspire someone today!

Poetry Sunday ~ Orb of the Night

Job 31:26 If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;

Orb of  the Night
(c) Joni Zipp
***
The moon is full this quiet night
lending the snow a glistening light.
Trees stretch out their arms in praise
shadows dance in the moonlight haze.

Quivering branches lend a clutter
to all the snow-capped fields aflutter
The orb shines down in wedded bliss
to the ground it gives a kiss.

Stars they’re hiding from the glow
of the moons showering show.
Animals tucked safely in homes
sound asleep while moon glow roams.

I raise my voice the echo sounds
off the billowy cotton grounds.
Inner cry for welcome release
into His hands I find my peace. 

All rights reserved: copyright © Joni  Zipp


Pss. 136:9 The moon and stars to rule by night: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Quotation Saturday

FEAR OF FAILURE

Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.
--William Shakespeare
 

Every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success.
--Napoleon Hill
 

Failure is blindness to the strategic element in events; success is readiness for instant action when the opportune moment arrives.
--Newell D. Hillis
 

They fail, and they alone, who have not striven.
--Thomas Bailey Aldrich

GOALS
There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.
--Henry Ford
 

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.
--Seneca

It is not enough to take steps which may some day lead to a goal; each step must be itself a goal and a step likewise.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 

Who aims at excellence will be above mediocrity; who aims at mediocrity will be far short of it.
--Burmese Saying

IMAGINATION
Where beams of imagination play,
The memory's soft figures melt away.
--Alexander Pope
 

Believe that you have it, and you have it.
--Latin Proverb
 

The imagination is the secret and marrow of civilization.
--Henry Ward Beecher
 

Imagine every day to be the last of a life surrounded with hopes, cares, anger, and fear. The hours that come unexpectedly will be so much more the grateful.
--Horace

What a prompt will do...

We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
***

If you’ve been to WVU or have taken f2k, you know that somewhere along the line, you’re going to run into a prompt. What is a prompt? Well a writing prompt is just that, it is used to get your muse flowing and start writing.

Some days, as writers, we get blocked for things to write about. Our story closet has been picked dry and so we need to dig into that storage bin and find something, ANYTHING to give our muse a lift.

Does an old smelly sock do it for you? No, What about a shoe? Aha an old shoe you haven’t worn in years. An old faithful shoe that has memories tied to it. Ahh, now we’re getting somewhere. What kind of memories? Good or bad? Oh I think I went digging and struck gold!

Do you realize there is a prompt waiting for you around every corner? Just walking out the door, the odor in the air can elicit a writing prompt, as well as the sights of a barren street or empty parking lot, slamming doors, bouncing balls on a basket ball court? All of these sights and sounds can trigger a writing prompt.

Julie likes to dish out the ‘Three Word’ prompts. Name three random things, tie those three things together in a story. It takes a little practice but sometimes you get some of the best unblocked writing ever. Why? Because you were not really thinking about writing, you subconsciously had those three things in your mind, you wrote about them and tied them all into a nice little ball of yarn and you shared it with your writing friends.

Some will look at you, (not knowing what the three things were) and think, “What is this story about?” A writer will give them a clear picture hopefully and they won’t have to ask that question.

Now some writing prompts are Picture Prompts. This is the one where you look at a picture and from what you see, you write a story. This one is tough because you have to dig into your memory pool and pull out some really creative writing. A picture is worth a thousand words, literally.

Then there is the Sentence Prompt. This is where a partial sentence is given and you finish it and spin it into a webfully woven tale. Take for example: “Clarice walked into the store and could not believe her eyes. What did she see?” Just something as simple as that can help you unblock the block and have you writing until your fingers pop off your hand.

As you journey down the writing road, always remember that there is a prompt that will bring in the shovel and start digging you out of the slump that you might be in. Don’t take writing for granted, use it to your advantage of being the healer that it is meant to be.

Poetry Sunday ~ Destiny's Call

Ps. 8:5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

***
Destiny's Call
(c) Joni Zipp

Oh gentle flowing whispering stars,
Guiding my shaking hand.
Echoing through my body and soul,
I fight to take a stand.

Angelic points of light behold,
My eyes can see your glory.
Quaking in my tattered shell,
Beseech me with thy fury.

I want forever more to taste,
Thy golden drips of sight.
To bask amid your glorious rays,
So still throughout the night.

Carry me in thy humble embrace,
Into the brilliant realm.
Where no man breathes a flux of air,
As destiny mans the helm.

All rights reserved: copyright © Joni  Zipp

Quotation Saturday

ON QUOTATIONS:

When I quote others I do so in order to express my own ideas more clearly.
- Michel de Montaigne


One must be a wise reader to quote wisely and well.
- Amos Bronson Alcott


The maxims of men disclose their hearts.
- French Proverb


To select well among old things, is almost equal to inventing new ones.
- Nicholas Charles Trublet


A well-cultivated mind is, so to speak, made up of all the minds of preceding ages; it is only one single mind which has been educated during all this time.
- Bernard de Bovier de Fontenelle

ON LIBRARIES or BOOKS:

No possession can surpass, or even equal, a good library to the lover of books.
~J. A. Langford

Me, poor man, my library
Was dukedom large enough.
~William Shakespeare, The Tempest


How still and peaceful is a Library! It seems quiet as the grave, tranquil as heaven, a cool collection of the thoughts of the men of all times. And yet, approach and open the pages, and you find them full of dissension and disputes, alive with abuse and detraction— a huge, many-volumed satire upon man, written by himself. . . . What a broad thing is a library — all shades of opinion reflected on its catholic bosom, as the sunbeams and shadows of a summer's day upon the ample mirror of a lake.
~George Gilfillan

ON SUCCESS:

Keep steadily before you the fact that all true success depends at last upon yourself.
~Theodore T. Hunger


We are all motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is, the more he is inspired to glory.
~Cicero


Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.
~Robert Collier


The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will.
~Vince Lombardi

ON WISDOM:

It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.
~Francois De La Rochefoucauld


The first step in the acquisition of wisdom is silence, the second listening, the third memory, the fourth practice, the fifth teaching others.
~Solomon Ibn Gabriol


Years teach us more than books.
~Berthold Auerbach

The Miracle Dog

John 6: 2 And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased.
***

Do you believe in miracles? You’ll probably say, “Yeah sure.” But maybe with some apprehension you’ll try hard to remember seeing the last one or you might wonder what really was a miracle or just pure luck.

Let me tell you, there is no such thing as luck, they are all miracles and blessings, whether you like to believe it or not, the Holiest of Holies, rains a blessing on you, he doesn’t shower you with luck and money; blessings and miracles are so much more explosive than sheer luck.

Remember I told you my dog Sassy was hit by a truck last Tuesday? She walked around pacing and yelping in pain. Not a constant yelp, it was only when she went to open her mouth. Money hindered all possibilities of getting her to a vet, so prayer was our only source. A lot of you might say, “That’s foolish.” Well, not in my shoes. When you’ve been in my shoes, then you can judge for yourself.

For now all I live on is prayer. Seems to be working. Saturday evening the snow started to fall. Not just an inch or two, by Sunday morning there was easily six inches of the white stuff, enough to hinder us from going to church. Then throughout the day, six or seven more fell stopping all activity on the roads, causing hazardous conditions throughout the state, school closings and the like. Cancellations of all kinds were being posted on TV.

Early Monday I HAD to get out and shovel some kind of path for Sassy, so she could get out there and do her business. She was yelping minimally but she also had confined herself into the back room of the house where it is very cold. I read somewhere that the cold eased pain for dogs, and she instinctively knew this because this is where she lay, curled in a ball for days on end, never coming into the warmer portions of the house.

We all kicked into mothering Sassy. Beau, Adam and I all took to hand feeding her, making soft foods that we knew she liked and took with apprehension but still she ate and drank water on occasion. A tough week to say the least, then the snow to top it all off, what an amazing fete that lay before us.

On Tuesday, yesterday, something strange took place. As I sit here tapping on the keys, movement out of the corner of my eye. Sassy peeking around the corner at me. She was looking for food. I rose to make her two hot dogs which she devoured. Then I found her laying in the bathroom all snug as a bug on a rug. I moved her to the hallway on a towel, and later she came into the living room, with coaxing and hasn’t returned to the cold cave since.

She’s feeling better! A  living miracle! Still healing but definitely on the road to recovery. A neighbor came with a plow truck last night, unburied our truck and made a path for us and our neighbors behind us. Sassy almost barked full throttle, but a little *woof* was let out and I sighed in relief. My dog was now in the throes of a miracle. Something money can never buy. A miracle is prayers answered!

Praise be to God, and no other!

Poetry Sunday~ Transcendence

Pss. 108:4 For thy mercy is great above the heavens: and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds.
***
Transcendence
***
Pillars of smoke cloud my being
hinders the light to which I’m seeing.
Trails of ringlets reach  the sky
I watch them float wondering why.

Portions of me float in the air
I bask amid the sky bound lair.
Dangling on the edge of mist;
love entangles my weakened wrist.

Life it dances on a nimble thread
past and present mingled dread;
where has all the promise gone,
lying with the earthbound spawn?

Buoyancy carries my spirit away
I visit the place where souls can play
No corruption; nothing to deceive
In this place my heart will cleave.

Returning now to the Earth I roam
nestled in the place called home.
Joyous light surrounds me now
I give to you a solemn vow.

Light and peace is what we seek
for the humble and the meek.
The Lord is there by your side
always longing for you to abide.

Drink this in; take what you will
it’s up to you, your soul to fill.
Don’t allow a weakness to win
forgetting LOVE is the grandest sin.

Quotation Saturday

FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS
Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.
--Harriet Tubman
 

Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.
--Pamela Vaull Starr
 

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.
--Lanston Hughes
 

The question for each man to settle is not what he would do if he had means, time, influence and educational advantages; the question is what he will do with the things he has. The moment a young man ceases to dream or to bemoan his lack of opportunities and resolutely looks his conditions in the face, and resolves to change them, he lays the corner-stone of a solid and honorable success.
--Hamilton Wright Mabie

GOALS
A man should have any number of little aims about which he should be conscious and for which he should have names, but he should have neither name for, nor consciousness concerning, the main aim of his life.
--Samuel Butler
 

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
or what's a heaven for?
--Robert Browning
 

Every ceiling, when reached, becomes a floor, upon which one walks as a matter of course and prescriptive right.
--Aldous Huxley
 

It is not enough to take steps which may some day lead to a goal; each step must be itself a goal and a step likewise.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 

INSPIRATION
 

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be.
Now put foundations under them.
--Henry David Thoreau
 

First say to yourself what you would be;
and then do what you have to do.
--Epictetus

The Walking Mad

Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.
Henry David Thoreau
***

Today, six days into the new year and already I’m fighting mad with myself. I thought this was going to be a good year and the start of something good. But the other day, my dog was hit by a car.

I heard the truck, I saw how shaken Sassie was with blood on her face, her body trembling, and panting like a mad dog when coming back into the house. Instincts said, ‘the truck hit her’ but it looked like a bite of some wild animal, I just wasn’t sure.

She yelped as if something hurt, I just didn’t know. She paced around the rooms, tried hiding in spots, frantically searched for something that was nowhere to be found. I put her on the leash and took her outside, maybe she could give me a clue as to what happened, and I saw the red truck still parked over at the empty neighbors house.

He got in his truck, trailer following, bouncing with a rumble and he pulled up to where Sassie and I were standing. He got out, “Is she okay?” My response, oddly enough was, "Did you hit her?"

He went on to say how she came out of nowhere, he didn’t see her but he heard her yelp, a little too late. He stopped to see if we ‘Needed to put her down.’

“No way!” I said adamantly, “she ain’t going nowhere.” He reached to pet her and in Sassie fashion, she licked his hand. (Never bite the hand that hit you?) A little yelp left her mouth and he got back in his truck saying how sorry he was. Also that we should get her to the vet.

The vet ~ just to walk in the office can run hundreds of dollars, money we only dream of having. I took Sassie back in the house, where she paced, let out a few more yelps, then finally settled down. I put ice on her face for the entire day, she slept in my room (a rarity) and the night broke into morn where we all scurried to take care of the wounded dog.

Instincts are vital instruments in our psyche’s. Sometimes I listen to mine, other times, the voice of reason gets in there and smacks me around a bit, leaving me confused and thinking my instincts were all wrong, but in the end, my instincts have a pretty good percentage rate of being right.

This week has been a mad week of newcomers into f2k, the free writing course. As I mentioned earlier, this is a new site, but a course that is twelve years old and still going strong with hundreds of wannabe writers scrambling to get in and get writing. They don’t read the tips from the mentors, they don’t read the rules and regulations, they just want to write. “Where’s the lessons?” one says, another shouts, “I can’t find the classrooms!”

Over and over again throughout the week, I’m telling them READ THE TIPS! LEARN to maneuver the site!  But again and again they scream, “Where’s the lessons? Where do I post?” I understand that a new site, a new forum can be intimidating to a lot of people, but if only they’d take the time to read the tips, they would not be lost.

The point of this whole post is this: Sometimes we need to listen, either to what others are trying to help us with, or what our instincts are trying to burn into our brains. We can’t be neglectful of the help that is given us and think that in some way, that WE are in control of everything. Step off your high-horse! You don’t have all of the answers to everything. Sometimes you just need to trust and obey!

F2K Begins

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

The exodus has begun. People flocking to the Social Scene, f2kers all lined up outside waiting for the classrooms to open so they can make their way in to begin the writing journey of a life time.

F2K is the free writing course that I’ve mentioned over and over throughout the years. Monday was the last day to register, so if you’ve missed registration, I’ll have to see you next time around. And since the course happens four times a year, the likelihood that I’ll get to read you and your writing is pretty good.

F2k Stands for Fiction 2000. It is a free course offered by R.J. Hembree and is a child of Writer’s Village University. Some are afraid to sign up because they think there is a hidden fee? There is no hidden fee. Free means just that, FREE! I had quite a few people from here (my blog), and Face book friends take the course, and they loved it.

Can you imagine a writing course making a writer out of you? I’ve seen people who have never written a thing in their life take the course, and come back time and time again because of what they learned the first time around. They were never writers before but they loved the course so much, that they came back to learn and seek out that writer hiding within.

The lessons never change so if you take it once, you’ll get to see the same lessons the second time around, but they are so flexible, you can have numerous characters and plenty of story options to work with, with each session. Don’t be afraid of opening a vein to a new character, or peeling back layers of yourself and finding that you’ve always wanted to be a writer. And most of all, never tremble at the sight of writers who’ve been here before you, plunging into the course right along with you.

Sometimes it can seem intimidating working with long time writers, but soon you find out, that we are learning and growing with you. We don’t know everything and there is always a portal of knowledge that we need to climb through to make us better writers.

You can join the F2K Social scene, free, but you won’t have access to the classrooms if you didn’t register. But you can hang out and learn, what with all the discussions on the board, blog entries, fun and camaraderie, you’ll be glad you did.

Poetry Sunday~ Cimmerian Morn

2 Sam. 22: 29 For thou art my lamp, O LORD: and the LORD will lighten my darkness.

***

Cimmerian Morn
***
A cloud descends
like a brick of gold
a new year begins
memories unfold.

Snow it glistens
steadily falling
no sounds to hear
but my heart calling.

Goodbye pain
so long to sorrow
may intimacy fill
my longing tomorrow.

The winds strong gust
it steals my heart
loneliness holds
a poisonous dart.

Fate will lay
its palm on me
carried off
by destiny.

The Lord will fill
my veins with bliss
Ascend my soul
to happiness!

Quotation Saturday ~ Happy New Year

~HAPPY NEW YEAR~

“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.
 ~ Bill Vaughn 
 

“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day. ”
~ Edith Lovejoy Pierce

“New Year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights 
~ Hamilton Wright Mabie 

For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
~ T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"

“The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul”
~ G. K. Chesterton

“People are so worried about what they eat between Christmas and the New Year, but they really should be worried about what they eat between the New Year and Christmas”

~ Author Unknown

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.
~ Benjamin Franklin
 

Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.
~Hal Borland

The Old Year has gone. Let the dead past bury its own dead. The New Year has taken possession of the clock of time. All hail the duties and possibilities of the coming twelve months!
~Edward Payson Powell
 

Glory to God in highest heaven,
Who unto man His Son hath given;
While angels sing with tender mirth,
A glad new year to all the earth.
~ Martin Luther

A happy New Year! Grant that I
May bring no tear to any eye
When this New Year in time shall end
Let it be said I've played the friend,
Have lived and loved and labored here,
And made of it a happy year.
~ Edgar Guest
 

Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.
~Oscar Wilde