Facebook Woes

The act of writing is an act of optimism. You would not take the trouble to do it if you felt it didn't matter.
~Edward Albee
***

I remember a few years ago a friend told me about facebook being a place to hook up with fellow writers and the possibilities of networking. I saw that as a step in the right direction, then I started getting friend requests from people I hadn’t seen in thirty years, so I clicked the ignore button and accepted mainly writers, and very close family.

The site quickly became a game. Sure I loved Farmtown, loved the Garden Patch, Yoville, Frontierville, but they soon became a place where there seemed to be a hidden agenda behind every game I liked to play. Then my computer stopped allowing the games to load, which was a blessing in disguise really. It unhooked me from the claws of doom. But not before I met some awesome friends through the games!

I post scriptures and well wishes and spread good, positive thoughts to everyone who enters my page. I’ve met new Christian friends along the way, and quickly I’ve been a positive link in a negative society.

Here lately the Social Scene that I liked, has now become the scene that I loathe. I’m not a political person by any means. I don’t bash our government for every little thing they do wrong and I certainly am not a partaker of spewing hate to the masses. I go to Facebook for a positive experience, but lately, (until I change my settings) a lot of negative is surfacing.

I don’t care if the president plays golf, is an ‘original born American’, if he had peas for breakfast, if HE is the one who made the call on getting bin Laden. I care, as an American citizen, that other American citizens who have freedoms BEYOND what many countries have, can sit on a high horse and declare their Christianity and in the same breath HATE.

Am I not to love my enemy? Am I not suppose to turn the other cheek? When has facebook become the end all gateway to information, much of it in way of virus’s and more hate?

People love to hate. People love to question. I love to write, share, spread good and call humanity on their ignorance. I am not perfect, I am a sinner. I am tired of facebook and the people who spew hate, and the people who LIKE the people who spew hate. I will limit myself on the scene for a while, rethink my plan of networking, and continue to write what is near and dear to my heart. I will love all, no matter what the others want me to hate.

There are a lot of good people on facebook, sure. But there is also an agenda.  I was told that with this Government of ours that my Christianity was in jeopardy. Little does that person know, the government doesn’t hold MY Christianity in its hands. God does. Her Christianity may be in jeopardy, but mine was built on a Rock!

Versatile Blogger Award

The rule for accepting  The Versatile Blogger Award stipulates that I have to tell you seven things about myself.

Ravenne’s Seven Things About Myself That Haven’t Made National News

1.  I have never hung my underwear outside on the clothes line. Joni responds: ( I have and even had them stolen! And that was WAY before VS was EVER heard of)

2.  I am a human hamster who pads her nest with many, many books. (Joni bellows: I’m a ham!)

3.  I lie to telephone salespeople and say I am the maid. (Joni says: I answer and do a Chinese womans impersonation.)

4.  I play Lady GaGa songs when I’m in the car. (Joni says: I play praise music.)

5.  I buy salad and then I never eat it. (Joni responds: I buy pickles...and eat them)

6.  I sweat like a pig when I’m on the treadmill. (Joni infuses: What’s a treadmill?)

7.  I use my finger to draw smiley faces in newly-opened jars of peanut butter. (Joni smiles: I draw smiley faces on steamed up windows and in dirt on trucks!)


And now Seven things about myself you wish you knew:

1. I love my country. The people running the country are NOT perfect, but then again, are YOU?

2. I am not perfect.

3. I am not a hypocrite

4. I sing praises as often as I can to the good Lord who carries me through every single day!

5. I’m sane. (though some may disagree)

6. I can not stand Americans who complain about our government. Get a life, try a third world country or something.

7. I’m going to say it... I support MY PRESIDENT! Flaws and all!

Thank you Raven for your kindness!

What price do YOU pay?

“In the heart of devastation...lies compassion. Human survival feeds off of helping one another. Reach out and have compassion on one another, it will surely get you through the mounds of devastation.” ~ Joni
***

There seems to be devastation everywhere I look these days, Whether it is tsunami’s, earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, you name it, we’re being hit pretty hard. The world, not just the U.S.

Writers have a wellspring of material climbing out of this upheaval, if they can see it, grasp it, then write about it, we’ll have a pretty good amount of stories coming out of the ashes. I know I like to write, but sometimes as the blank page sits there staring at me in the face waiting for me to put something on it, I draw a blank as what to write.

But all I need is a picture, or to read the days news and a story can bubble up from that and grow. Not necessarily a fictional piece, but writing about the reality of today's world really interests me.

I watch as people follow false prophets, are mislead by the almighty dollar, going ga ga over false beauty, attached to their materials. They draw concern at the mundane happenings in their world and give a tiny thought to the world around them. They might give a big thought about the world around them, but are helpless in helping.

What I’m getting at here is that we can NOT put a pricetag on life, in any way shape or form. We are only here because we were breathed into existence and as He knows every strand of hair on your head, it might do you good if you got to know one word out of his mouth.

We are not here for ourselves. We are not here to acquire all the materials in this world that we can get, we’re not a part of the whole and the whole being, me me me!

Many years ago, I gave up everything I owned. (I’m crazy that way) I didn’t have much to begin with but I gave it all up, still holding onto the last remnant of me, was my teddy bear that I had at the age of three. I had a scarf that my grandmother had knitted before she succumbed to cancer. I had a ring my mother and father had given me, when I was thirteen. Those things were the last of my possessions that I held onto thinking that one day, I would see them again.

It was not to be. They were lost in a fit of, I don’t know, I was told a tree fell on top of the shed that they were in, and no one even tried to salvage the final part of me that I didn’t want to let go of. I was devastated.

But soon I realized, this life isn’t about the materials! I hold in my heart the memories. I was trying to hold onto the last bit of my material belongings, knowing that when God said “Give it ALL up for me,” I thought He wouldn’t mind me keeping a few things of my past.

All does not mean, 3/4..all means ALL!!!

So as we muddle through the day, and worry about our hair, our value of life, remember someone has already placed a price tag on His head and He went for the ultimate price! He gave it ALL, not a mere portion.

Write about YOUR all and what price YOU would pay!

What a May...

No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow. ~Proverb
***

Well May is almost over and while I wonder where the first five months have gone, I need only look back over my posts.

I remember a time when March 21 signaled the ‘soon-to-be-arriving’ Spring. We sat day after day in anticipation of the flowers bursting their little heads through the soil, the bees onto doing their work for the season, even the ants peeked out in anticipation of the season and prepared for the next.

This year, Spring has yet to arrive. My Day Lilies have came out to greet the day, but have been bearing the brunt of high winds and chilly temps since they made their appearance. Yup it is still in the forties at night here in Nebraska, and the winds are still unbearably gusty. The days drag on in anticipation of the school year ending and hopefully the arrival of Summer, which I’m sure will be wiped out by Old Man Winter rearing his ugly mug way too soon!

We’ve had anniversaries, the 16th was our Eighth Anniversary, we’ve had birthdays, graduations, end of season sporting events taking place, all the while the winds of change have not embraced me.

We reached the twenty-first of May and I look back and think, have you written this year? I have to admit, my writing muse has taken a small break. Just too much going on with doctors visits, storms, stress and more stress. It cradles me like a newborn babe and doesn’t want to release me into the grown-up world in which I live!

Adam, my son, has gotten an ear infection. Actually TWO of them and a sinus infection. He is in his last seven days of school, four of which have been spent in bed, taking meds and trying to recover! And I’m sitting here wondering if Spring will ever tap me on the shoulder, shake me like a  pair of maraca's, and wake me from this hypnotizing funk that I seem to be in.

I’ll get back to writing. It is in my blood, it’s in my heart, writing has consumed my soul. I know there is more to life out there but right now, all I see are winds and I can find comfort in here, with my writing.

I think if you’re a writer, you know what I’m talking about. You try to do other things, but writing keeps calling you back as if it has a straight-landline to the fingers and it’s telling you to write write write!

If you bought into May 21 being the end of the world, I pray for you. The world can not end until my novel is published and THAT, you can bank on! :)

It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! ~Mark Twain

Poetry Sunday ~ In the Shadow...

A human being is only breath and shadow.
Sophocles

In the shadow...
(c) Joni Zipp

While I sit in the lonely shadow
the cloud hovers over me
I try to run away from it
its eye won’t set me free.

As I cling to the shadow
the darkness covers my being
I’m not allowed sunlight
only what I am seeing.

As I kiss the weary shadow
I lend blessing to the rain
it scurries off in fear
releasing all my pain.

As I walk out of the shadow
the Light beckons my soul
nurturing me 'til once again
my body can feel whole

Goodbye lonely shadow
leave me with my day
Let me drink the sunlight
that reigns this glorious day!

All rights reserved: copyright © joni  zipp

Quotation Saturday

ON WRITING
 

"To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music the words make."
~Truman Capote

"I always do the first line well, but I have trouble with the others."
~Moliere

"Writing well is at one and the same time good thinking, good feeling, and good expression; it is having wit, soul, and taste, all together."
~Buffon

HAPPINESS
 

Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, and in their pleasure takes joy, even as though 'twere his own.
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 

Happiness is not a matter of events, it depends upon the tides of the mind.
~Alice Meynell
 

Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances.
~Benjamin Franklin

LIFE
 

One life - a little gleam of time between two eternities.
~Thomas Carlyle
 

Life is a pure flame,
and we live by an invisible sun within us.
~Sir Thomas Brown
 

As I grow to understand life less and less,
I learn to love it more and more.
~Jules Renard
 

FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS

Our waking hours form the text of our lives, our dreams, the commentary.
~Anonymous
 

The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.
~Paul Valery
 

A skillful man reads his dreams for self-knowledge, yet not the details but the quality.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

A Day of Compassion?

“Compassion is not religious business, it is human business, it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability, it is essential for human survival.”
~ Dalai Lama

Compassion is not much unlike the emotion, love. Compassion fills your heart, warms the spirit and guides you into a blissful spin of the universe in your soul. What, you’ve never felt this before? Then truly you need to get out into the world that is in dire need of YOUR compassion.

Can you imagine, billions of people uniting in one compassionate act a day? Can you imagine a day set aside where we are made aware of such an event taking place? Have you ever had a compassionate act move your heart so much you went out and did something compassionate yourself?

I sure hope you answered yes to all the above questions. Compassion needs to move the human heart and I do believe what the Dalai Lama said, “it is essential for human survival.”

In a world where there is global devastation, like Earthquakes and tsunami’s, hurricane’s and tornadoes all wiping out and leveling the human spirit, has anyone noticed the one thing that rises from the ashes/dust/turmoil? Human compassion!

While we grieve for the dead, we reach out to the living. We shroud ourselves in compassion and forge through the barriers of devastation and bring to life the art of compassion on grand levels that actually shift the tides in the humans capacity.

I have been a receiver of such human compassion. Two years ago when we were basically forced to move to the state of Nebraska, we wondered how all of this would come together and sure enough, when we arrived after the compassionate brother and sister came to Texas and helped move us north on the ten hour trip, we arrived at a house, that had food, supplied by a church that we had no affiliation with, money, to help get us started, and love welcomed us with open arms.

As the two years pass, not without struggles, it is the human heart of compassion that carries us through our days and nights and never releases us from its clutch. Still not having the means to give compassion on a grander level than I’d like, I sit and pray for the   souls that cry out for help. I share the Word with people who might not even read the Book, except when they are in dire straits and turn to the Holy One, to help ease their pain.

Sure enough, my heart is a compassionate heart on many levels. Levels that heal, levels that make a difference. And you too can make a difference in the human fluctuation of events just by having compassion on one person!

Don’t make ONE day, a day of compassion, just like Valentines Day is marked as a day of love, I think these things should be in our arsenal on a daily basis. Not just one day a year. Think about that and act on it, you’ll be relieved that you are a part of a greater whole.

Love and Compassion walk hand in hand through the sands of time. Embrace them.

Poetry Sunday ~ Time...an eternity

Isa.57: 15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
***
Time... an eternity
(c) Joni Zipp
***
Minute by minute the clock it ticks
away at time the veil it nicks
life is fluent ever flowing while
worlds collide with no one knowing

Simplicity basks within each wonder
pluck the bad to put asunder.
Cubicles carry the coarser thrill
all vanity notions are swallowed still.

Silence I hear in my hallowed heart
beating a sound that tears me apart
My sanity shorn I fall to the ground
kissing the soil my lips have found.

His presence wraps me in the light
I long to taste within the night
the juice of every fiber of being
my Lord has granted all I’m seeing.

Whisk me from this absurdity
clear my mind of uncertainty
thoughts no more of second guessing
rain on me your bountiful blessing.

Minute by minute I hear it calling
through the portal slowly I’m falling
into a realm that none should see
until they taste their eternity.

All rights reserved: copyright © joni  zipp

Quotation Saturday

WRITING
 

"What a writer brings to any story is an attitude…"
-John Gregory Dunne

"Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go."
-E.L. Doctorow

"The idea is to get the pencil moving quickly…Once you've got some words looking back at you, you can take two or three - throw them away and look for others."
-Bernard Malamud

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
 

Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement.
-Brian Tracy, Eat that Frog
 

The great and glorious masterpiece of
man is to know how to live to purpose.
-Michel de Montaigne

WORRY
 

Don't waste your life in doubts and fears: spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will be the best preparation for the hours or ages that follow it.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
 

No longer forward nor behind
I look in hope and fear;
But grateful take the good I find,
The best of now and here.
-John G. Whittier
 

The rose is fairest when 't is budding new,
and hope is brightest when it dawns from fears.
-Walter Scott

SELF-TALK
 

Whatever is expressed, is impressed. Whatever you say to yourself, with emotion, generates thoughts, ideas and behaviors consistent with those words.

- Brian Tracy
 

If your sunshine wants far outstrip your cold morning desire, have a talk with yourself. Then have a lot more talks with yourself. Convince number one that you can succeed--and you will succeed. If you don't believe in you, why should anyone else?

- Tom Hopkins
 

End your day by privately looking directly into your eyes in the mirror and saying, ‘I love you!’ Do this for thirty days and watch how you transform. 

- Mark Victor Hansen

Hungry Like a Wolf

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become. ~Buddha
***

This morning I rose to find blogger having some sort of difficulties. They ate my words and maybe it disagreed with its tummy. I had a nice blog posted yesterday on the twelfth, only to awaken and find it missing in action, so I decided to write a post for the thirteenth, Friday, that is to say.

I, like the writing fool that I am, went to try and repost the missing post, and they are STILL having difficulties. I think its a bloody conspiracy of some sort. Don’t know what kind of conspiracy, I can only assume.

Maybe it’s the crazy weather! Do you know on Monday we here in Nebraska hit 97 hot summer-like degrees? We haven’t even had Spring yet. I think the conspiracy is that Winter wants to duke it out with Spring and in the midst of the fight, Summer jumped in to rear it’s ugly head. Then just when Spring peeked out (yesterday 70 degrees) Winter body slammed it, literally, with thunderstorms and tornadoes across the state. And for today Winter is in the lead with a 45 degree temp, gusty winds (what’s new for Nebraska, right?) and a windchill factor of 33 degrees.

So the story goes...In today’s news, in little town Nebraska, after Summer reared its ugly head this week, a fight ensued and Spring won but then Winter gave a sneak attack. "You're not done with me!" It exclaimed. Roaring evil laughter can be heard in the echoes of the wind this morning.

This is not even funny anymore! Dallas is looking all the more better every day I tell you! Maybe even somewhere east like North Carolina or South Carolina. That would be nice, and one never knows, after the ‘sight’ comes back, Nebraska might just be a bump in the road.

So as I go on with my day, blogger or not, I will win no matter what the weather throws at me. No matter what, I will tackle cleaning inside today and beat this game that thinks it is a better chess player than me. I will write my heart out too, in between chores and accomplish all the goals I have set for myself this very day. And blogger can lose to the battle of Friday the 13th, and shove my words so far up their nose that it chokes on its own spit.

There, I got THAT off my chest. Now to make the most of my day. :)

Writing is my life. The good thing about it is whether the wind gusts, the rain falls, the earth trembles, or the sun finds itself displaced, I will always have my writing, in my heart and in my head but most importantly... in the hallways of my soul.


**p.s. This is your lucky day! You get TWO posts because some internet gremlin ate yesterdays excellent post, which I reposted for you all! **

Write Right and Get Organized!

"Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go." E.L. Doctorow
***

We’re writer’s, right? Right! And we love to write, right? Right! Now you see why my blog is titled Write Right, right? ;)

But as writers are we always organized? I don’t think so. I’ve done my Spring cleaning, where I do every nook and cranny in the house and I do daily cleaning because, well, I like it pristine and beau likes it organized. We’re both like that y’know, we like things just right, where nothing is in disarray. Perfectionist? Not by a long shot. Demands order? Most definitely!

Now some of you might be thinking, ‘You’re beau is blind. How does he know if it’s not clean?’ The man has a nose for dirt and disorder and he will call me on it every single time! He can smell a dust bunny in MY NEIGHBORS house, and he’ll think it is living here somewhere, lurking under a bed or something. Okay, so he’s not THAT paranoid;  he might be blind, but when you trip over a shoe, you don’t need eyes to know that it is not supposed to be there.

I remember when I lived back in Baltimore, my mother would always come over for a visit. She’d say, “You didn’t have to clean up for me.” And my response was always the same, “I didn’t, it’s always this clean.” So what am I getting at?

Well it seems I peeked into my folders and found disarray! Beaus folders are perfectly neat and tidy but mine look like Hurricane Joni flew in while I slept and disheveled the documents placing them here and there and essentially everywhere..

Sure I have folders and in the folders are documents, but I think I’ve found some Short Stories that have been misplaced, and rediscovered as if striking gold while I panned for a document. How cool is that?

Not cool at all because upon finding them I realized they were really good stories and should have been submitted by now, but no, they’re lost among two books of poetry, Writers Village University files, F2K lessons and tips, and a bunch of other stuff that I didn’t even know I had!

I did the Between the Lines course and the MFA course years ago but there they were, files of the undead, lurking innocently in my secret storage facility. What I’m saying here is that I’m not as well organized in my virtual world as I am in my real world. Maybe this is my way of rebelling against order? Maybe this is the only place that my mess is safe and no one else will even know it looks like Phyllis Diller’s hair, on a good hair day!

Today I am going to take the time to Spring clean my files and folders and get them organized so you can all follow in my footsteps and do the same. Organize your work! Don’t misplace your hard work, in the files of miscellaneous, learn how to target what you want, and where you want it placed. Label it so  that it stands out as important to your eyes and you will soon find yourself, ORGANIZED like me. :)

Talk-o Tuesday

"Writing is an adventure." Winston Churchill
***

I haven’t had a good Talk-o Tuesday in a bit. This is where I talk about the audiobook industry and a pretty cool blog that does reviews on audiobooks, audiobook-heaven.
The audiobook community is alive and well and moving forward in the 21st century. I’ve read that audiobooks are pretty much equal to good old fashioned print books, on the take-out lists at the library.

I overheard one woman at the library say that she does a lot of driving and she loves listening to audiobooks for those many hours on the road, while the librarian herself said she uses them when taking her stroll after work to drown out the sounds of traffic and such, while yet another woman piped in that she checks out audiobooks for her blind beau, oh, that was me that piped in. :)

There are audiobook review sites all over the web, and some are good, and some not so good. I don’t like a review to tell me the whole story, but I want just enough to bite on so that it makes me want to read the book. That’s what I get at audiobook heaven. And I’m not just saying that because I know the writer personally, it really is a good blog. Check it out sometime.

On the home-front, beau went to the doctors yesterday and is now on the cornea transplant list. He was on it back when he was visiting the doc in Omaha, but when he skipped his last appointment with him, it removed him from the list and so, we wait for a cornea. This doctor is close to us and beau liked him, that means a lot when you have to trust him to operate on the most delicate part of one of your organs.

He gave us the the possibilities, as much as he could without seeing the case history from the other doc, whose office was SUPPOSED to send the info, but didn’t. So maybe the other doc wasn’t such a ‘good thing’ if he takes you off the transplant list because of a missed appointment, and his office can’t be trusted to send pertinent information over to another doctor.

The dr. in Dallas warned us of such behavior between doctor’s,  and I was kind of prepared, but beau, he has this naïveté about him. This doctor has another doctor in the Grand Island area that HE works with on patients (he himself is out of the Omaha area) and when beau does get his operation, we’ll have a follow-up the next day, and one a week later in Omaha, but then the rest of the follow ups, which goes on for about a year, will be done here locally in the Kearney/Grand Island offices. Which will make it a lot easier since an eight hour round trip to Omaha every two weeks would be costly.

What will sight do to Audiobook heaven? I don’t know if it will have any effect. I don’t know if he’ll have much sight in his one eye and may still remain ‘legally’ blind, but not completely. Audiobooks will be a part of his life, the rest of his life.

Poetry Sunday ~ Happy Mothers Day ~

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!

What Is A Mother
(c) Joni Zipp

***
A mother is God’s way of saying
That He’s with you all the way
He put her here in His place
So you would never be led astray

She watches over and protects you
In any manner that she sees fit.
She brings you up to be a good person,
Yet she spoils you a little bit.

Once you’ve left home she’s still there
As God would want her to be
A mother goes on with her own life
Yet she always has room for me.

God created a beautiful thing
When He created a Mother
Especially the one he blessed me with
Who could be replaced by no other.

~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~

A Gift
(c) Joni Zipp

***
I may not be home this Mother’s day.
But my thoughts are there in every way.
My mind it thinks of  many yers past.
Memories I hold that eternally last.

I try not to think of why I’m not there.
It doesn’t mean that I don’t care.
It means that life for me has changed.
Little things grand, they’ve all re-arranged.

I think of the words spoken by my mother.
“To care for your mate, like there is no other”
I chose my son and a wonderful man.
As God has molded His master plan.

I cannot live a life of regret.
I need to be strong but never forget.
That my heart and soul may always roam.
But not always wind up there at home.

I know I long to be by your side,
To be your strength, to be your guide.
But now I see by being away.
The Lord has plans for me this day.

He wants us all to boldly see.
That strength is found in the Trinity.
The Father to mold and shape your life.
The Son who carries all of our strife.

The Holy Spirit to nourish the soul.
With all these things, you now feel whole.
Never let sorrow tarnish your heart.

Remember the love that He'd impart.
 

All rights reserved: copyright © joni  zipp

Quotation Saturday

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 posessions and not in gold; the feeling of happiness dwells in the soul.
-Democritus

PEOPLE

You must look into other people as well as at them.
-Lord Chesterfield

A good deed is never lost: he who sows courtesy reaps friendship; and he who plants kindness gathers love.
-Basil

To rejoice in another's prosperity, is to give content to your own lot: to mitigate another's grief, is to alleviate or dispel your own.
-Thomas Edwards

WORDS OF WISDOM

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

Silence does not always mark wisdom.
-Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

No man was ever wise by chance.
-Seneca

THE READER

I think the first duty of all art, including fiction of any kind, is to entertain. That is to say, to hold interest. No matter how worthy the message of something, if it's dull, you're just not communicating.
-Poul Anderson

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

The only test of work of literature is that it shall please other ages than its own.
-Gerald Brenan

Resolution

“Resolution One: I will live for God. Resolution Two: If no one else does, I still will. ~ Jonathan Edwards
***

Yesterday we spoke of the conflict in a story. Some folks think that is the height of the story but really you find solace in the resolution more than the conflict, don’t you? When you’re reading a story and your heroine is tossed into a conflict, do you not find yourself rooting for her and anticipating a resolution as the story ends?

Take for example, a young woman who has decided to get out of a troubled relationship, where conflict is heightened, where her child and her are endangered. You see her on a dusty road heading off to the sunset with a small child's hand in hers and a backpack on her back. Leaving behind everything precious; ornaments, nic-nacs, photographs, even her very first Teddy bear.

You watched the conflict build in this relationship and you pulled for her and as she is walking down the road, sun in front of her, shadows of her past behind her; you read the conclusion. Or did you?

Picked up on the road to nowhere the child and her are tossed into another relationship. Thinking it was for the best but then it happened, the same old circle of the past came running around; the relationship grew, the same resentment and pain that was left behind brewed and here she was back in the mirrored image of the life that she left behind.

Once again, you felt the joy in her resolution only to find she was smack dab in the middle of conflict once again. In writing, this is the crux of the story that you’re writing. We like to call it the inverted check mark. The conflict rises, rises, peaks, then resolves. Whew! But then it confronts the heroine again and the vicious cycle comes back and before the final chapter, either your heroine dies, or she succeeds in finding a way out of the circle that has haunted her life and held her captive for so many years.

This is the premise of so many novels so I don’t believe I’m releasing anything new to the reader and this is why my life story has been put on hold for a spell. It seems ‘done before’ even though it is unique to me, to readers, they might not find it interesting enough to pick up and scale through thirty or forty chapters of this same thing happening over and over. Maybe the title should be Karma- What goes around-comes around.

Now remember, it is all in the resolution where the reader finds reward. So as you embark on learning the ropes of conflict, no matter where they may be in your story, resolution is what the reader is REALLY looking for! 

Congratulations to me on my 700th post!

Conflict! Conflict! Conflict!

"I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." ~Martin Luther King Jr

Conflict...That is what this weeks lesson at f2k is going to touch on. As many people are having the time of their life in f2k, some learning new tricks of the trade, some are repeating this session because they love the rebirth of their writing muse, while some are puzzled by what this lesson means to their writing.

They’re usually the newbie writers who have put their writing dream on hold and have finally crawled out of the woodwork and decided to take writing on, not as a hobby, but as a possible career. The thing with that is, they walk in and think they’ll make hundreds of thousands of dollars for writing one short story or a novel.

I told the young girl that this is an art, not something you just jump into and begin making money. This is a craft that takes years of learning and honing for it ever to come to the fullness that you expect. In other words it is an internal conflict of sorts. The bug bites you, it stings for a little bit and without nurturing the wound it has placed on your heart, it will never become the healing place that writing can be.

Conflict in writing...it can breathe life into a so-so piece of work, it can cause a swell of the tidal waves coming ashore in the motion of your words. You can either have a knock-down-dragged-out fighting scene, or you can choose to have your protagonist, main character, fight the war within her/himself.

Have you ever seen conflict in reality and a need to convey it in writing? Well this has been one of those weeks where conflict has been a part of the world around me. Not only with the Osama bin Laden conflict that festered for 10 years, ate away at peoples pain and culminated in a shoot out where he is now deceased and people are relieved. It was like, up up up goes the conflict and CRASH, down comes the resolution. But also I watch as stress levels in my home rise to a heightened point, eating away at the very core, only to come crashing down in a harsh, field on confrontational conflict.

I’m always so upbeat about every tiny thing, and sometimes I allow, or feel I’m allowed a moment of anger even if it is brief, it just has to be released so I can find a resolution to it all. I’m not the only one in this household, and I’m certainly not the only one stressed out to the point of the stretching of the Bungee cord! *SNAP* It either breaks or you bounce back. That would be the resolution. Bouncing back into shape and allowing conflict whether in writing or life, to have its place, but to be resolved, and finding the pot-o-gold at the end of the rainbow.

I’m alone out here, I miss my family, I miss so much but I will not dwell on the have-nots. I will soar as an eagle and carry with me my love of writing and all the things I have in my life. My friends are a bonus to have as support, and I thank them dearly!

Don’t let conflict, ruin a story, allow it to carry your work to the next phase. Resolution!

Prioritizing!

1 John 4:7  Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
***

As a new month begins so does the need to prioritize. Have you ever just been wandering around, doing things just to do them, then find that you’re not really doing anything at all anyway? Well, that’s how it has been here.

I’m not mentoring F2K this session (the free writing course I’m always talking about) and that was one of my main tips in the prioritizing scale. It totally drained me back in the February class, and this time I chose, enough is enough, it’s time to think about me! Not that I’m selfish by any means, I just know there are things more important in life right now, and while I love aiding and assisting the new writer, I have to think of my sanity or I’m not going to be in any position to help anyone else.

I woke this morning and decided that facebook would not be my first stop. That place is a ridiculous mess also, but it is where I can connect with my sister and niece daily, and touch base while inspiring people so they have just one positive to begin their day. Can you imagine never hearing anything positive? So my goal is to greet people in the morning with a note of something positive and be on my way.

Today though, not even handing folks a positive note felt right. I read that Osama Bin Laden was killed and it drew some really uneasy emotions in me since I’m not a political person to say the least. I remember him coming onto the scene as the mastermind of the devastating events of 911, I knew we were looking to kill him, but that’s about it. I'm not up on the latest gossip.

As I write this, I peeked into facebook and was going to just pass on a positive note but I was immediately slapped upside the head with negativity. I can not stand it, when this free country rails against their own president. If it isn’t one thing it is another. And in the history of my life, the Americans who are FREE, choose to degrade, belittle, demean every single president that is in office. (Even the favorites like Kennedy and Reagan.)

You’d think that people would have more important things to do but these folk are bored, tired, angry, bitter, heartless, emotionless people, who have nothing better to do in life. They’ll claim they’re just tired of the government, but tell me, who isn’t? Would you prefer living in a Third World Country? Pakistan possibly? Korea, Russia, China?

Be grateful for EVERYTHING that you have. Stop holding onto bitterness no matter WHAT country you live in. Make the most of the daily life that you must live, and that is NOT slinging mud at others. We are here, we have one shot at life and energy is being wasted on negativity where it could be spent on prioritizing the more important things in life that will get you through a day.

Live life to the fullest does not mean be full of hate and anger people! Fill all those holes in your life with LOVE and maybe your world will be a better place to live, if not for others, then for yourself!

Poetry Sunday ~ The Tree of Life

Rev 2:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

***

Tree of Life
(c) Joni Zipp

***
 

In the vision of my eyes,
I see the world in disguise
playing with the human emotion
like a child without a notion.

I scan the open field of dreams
everything clearer than it seems.
Wandering round in an enlightened state,
hoping my words don’t come to late.

Can you feel the life of you
within the world of confusion too?
Upon the doorway of mystical bliss
there is a lot I feel I miss.

The trees they prosper with each season,
some are wounded with good reason.
Getting stronger from each storm
within each branch about to form.

Life it takes us for a spin;
seasons strengthen us to win.
This world is one we all must commune
lets play our lives in angelic tune.

Sin will compromise our feat
sacrifice is our only mete.
When we serve the One who is True,
the tree of life will flow through you.

All rights reserved: copyright © joni  zipp

Quotation Saturday

RISK-TAKING

"Be willing to launch in faith, with no guarantees of success. This is the mark of personal greatness."
~ Brian Tracy

"Dare to risk public criticism."
~Mary Kay Ash

"Be like the turtle. If he didn't stick his neck out, he wouldn't get anywhere at all."
~ Harvey Mackay

"The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible - and achieve it, generation after generation."
~ Pearl S. Buck

PARENTING 101

Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve.
~Roger Lewin

If I could say just one thing to parents, it would be simply that a child needs someone who believes in him no matter what he does.
~Alice Keliher

FEAR OF FAILURE

One who fears failure limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity to more
intelligently begin again.
~Henry Ford
 
What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?
~Vincent van Gogh
 
Our greatest glory consist not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
~Oliver Goldsmith
 
Wherever we look upon this earth, the opportunities take shape within the problems.
~Nelson A. Rockefeller

ON WRITING
 
"Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else." Gloria Steinem
"To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music the words make." 
~Truman Capote

"Writing well is at one and the same time good thinking, good feeling, and good expression; it is having wit, soul, and taste, all together." 
~Buffon

"Take away the art of writing from this world, and you will probably take away its glory." 
~Chateaubriand

"You must write for yourself, above all. That is [your] only hope of creating something beautiful." 
~Gustave Flaubert

What a Week!

Prov 25:16 Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.
***

Well it started off on the right foot as Easter came and  we went to the wonderful Church service that was flooded with the yearlies. That’s the folk who come once or twice a year? Mainly Christmas and Easter. It makes them feel like they are doing something good for God, and I’m sure God is excited to see them, but I bet he wishes they’d stay.

Then we had an awesome family dinner at my beaus sister's house, with ham and cheesy potatoes, and an egg hunt for all the tradition followers. That means that the kids range in age from 14- 22, and all have a blast seeking out the candy-filled plastic eggs, and returning to eat all the candy. What a fun sight and day. 


Beau, being blind, usually gets a little overwhelmed with all the noise but this time it didn’t seem to take a toll on him like it normally does. Maybe he’s getting used to the sounds and commotion? I know he’s having a blast at audio book-heaven and enjoying writing reviews for all the books he listens to.

Which leads me to today’s post. Where have I been all week? Well I sort of hit a stumbling block, or should I say, a Writer’s Block! The weather has been cold and windy, the days have been spent in shadows of light trickling in the window and the time outdoors is spent in a coat which really hinders any yard work or gardening that I’d like to do.

Winter has Spring in its clutches and is just not letting go and that can be quite depressing to the human psyche. Depressing and frustrating. Everything seems to be frustrating me these days, from the whimsical, “It’s gonna be a breezy day” which really means a WINDY day with gusts exceeding 40 mph, all the way to the clouds not letting the sun come out and play.

I sit at the computer frustrated at all the Social Scenes, games, people, falsity, hypocrites, weather, you name it, then I open my word to type something and I draw a total blank. Well I can write what is frustrating me and through that I’m hoping it weeds out the mangled thoughts that are hindering my writing and gets me on the right path to writing again.

See, Joni? Now that wasn’t so hard! Let it all out and get yourself back together. I’m sure May will bring warmth and sunshine. It will bring a doctor visit for beau and possibly the promising news of being put on the cornea transplant list, and all will once again be right with the world. Or will it?

Only time can tell and only time is the healer. I’m closing off all the negative vibrations and going to rejoice in the promise of a New Day. May you all seek out the positive that all the negative tries to strangle from your thoughts. Hold your head high and know, God loves YOU!
 

Tuesday was Astri's birthday ~ somber day because she WOULD HAVE been seven!

Poetry ~ In His Glory ~

Luke 23: 34  Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.

~ In His Glory ~
(c) Joni Zipp

I’ll deeply inhale the mornings breath
walk through the day of your death;
Weep as tears fall from the sky
raise my eyes to ask You why?

Why did you leave us, why let man win
to bury the burden of humanly sin?
Will we sit idle and watch as you hang
forgetting all the Hosannas we sang?

Will we remember the blood on the cross
as we lust for life forgetting the loss,
can man walk ‘round with his head held high,
knowing you came if only to die?

Agony washes through my veins
my heart laments for all of your pains.
I don’t pretend as hypocrites do
to immerse in honor every holiday or two.

I walk in the path that is set before me
trying to bathe in all your glory.
You rise to bask in heavens glow,
and gave to me the right to sow.

I’ll carry your words, I’ll heal my heart
knowing that you will never depart.
Man tries to mask all that you’re seeing
not knowing You’ve leaked into his being!

I drench myself in the beckoning light,
that cradles me through each day and night.
I drink from the cup of all your words
that fill my soul like fluttering birds.

My heart weeps red but unlike you
it only seeps my garments through.
Your bloodshed gives to me new birth
a righteous soul unveiled on Earth.

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

All rights reserved: copyright © joni  zipp

Quotation Saturday

LIFE

Matt. 7: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Life is like playing a violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on. 
~Samuel Butler  (1835 - 1902)
 
We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.
~Sir Winston  Churchill (1874 - 1965)
 
The unexamined life is not worth living.
~Socrates (469 BC - 399 BC), in Plato, Dialogues, Apology

LOVE ~

Jude 1:21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
 
Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what it loves.
~Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)
 
To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.
~ David Viscott
 
There is no remedy for love but to love more.
 ~Henry David Thoreau  (1817 - 1862), Journal, July 25, 1839
 
1 Thes. 1:3 Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;

LIGHT ~

Rom. 13:12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
 
There are two kinds of light--the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.
~JamesThurber (1894 - 1961)
 
Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter light, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light.
~Plato (427 BC - 347 BC), The Republic
 
2 Cor. 1:17 When I therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness? or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be yea yea, and nay nay?

Poetry Sunday ~ Hosanna! Hosanna!

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

Hosanna! Hosanna!
(c) Joni Zipp

He gave life to the dead, cleansed the impure
healed the sick, became all lepers cure.
Fed the hungry, gave sight to the blind,
revealed the innocence of the childrens mind.

If you were thirsty, He gave you to drink,
Washed away sins with nary a blink;
Of his eyes we shined while light was dim
righteousness filled our cup to the brim.

Turn your cheek from the one that maims
seventy times if you burn with flames
Forgive, forget, move on I say
I’m reaching out to show you the way.

Disciples slept, while Jesus pleaded
to let him live unless he was needed.
Crying out he returned to die
while all looked on, not batting an eye.

They rejoiced and sang; praised his name
Hosanna! Hosanna! Into town he came.
Fronds of palms were laid at his feet.
All glory to Jesus our Savior we greet.

But lo and behold this man betrayed,
was scourged and beat but never swayed!
“My Father, My Father why have you forgot,
I gave them all that you said they’d have not.”

With one last breath he gave up the ghost,
shedding blood where man needed it most.
Our sins forgiven; our God came as man
In a wondrous fete generations will span.

Will we remember the sacrifice made?
Can we ever honor the price that was paid?
Do we respect all things that He taught
our souls are free for sins his death bought.

My Glorious redeemer, Savior and King,
I bow with honor my soul shall sing.

All rights reserved: copyright © Joni  Zipp

Quotation Saturday

CONTENTMENT

I endeavor to be wise when I cannot be merry, easy when I cannot be glad, content with what cannot be mended, and patient when there be no redress.
--Elizabeth Montagu

Contentment is the realization of how much I already have.
--Dave Grant

RECOGNITION

"The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread."
-- Mother Theresa

"Praise works with only three types of people; men, women, and children."
-- Anonymous

"Appreciate people.  Nothing gives more joy than appreciation."
-- Ruth Smeltzer

"When someone does something well, applaud!  You will make two people happy."
-- Samuel Goldwyn

PURPOSE

You must be single-minded. Drive for one thing on which you have decided." -- George S. Patton

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"The single common denominator of men and women who achieve great things is a sense of destiny." -- Brian Tracy

"When you have a clear purpose, you won’t have time for negativity." -- Mark Victor Hansen

CHALLENGES

Every time you face a challenge, you are being tested as to how strong your beliefs and intentions are. People who go through great hardships to achieve greatness have a kind of aura about them that says: "Don't mess with me, I know what I'm about. I have been thoroughly tested in battle." Confront your challenges with a brave face. The greater the challenge, the greater the gift of power.
--A. C. Ping

Real difficulties can be overcome, it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable.
--Theodore N. Vail

DREAM

A skillful man reads his dreams for self-knowledge, yet not the details but the quality.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
 

Our waking hours form the text of our lives, our dreams, the commentary.
--Anonymous
 

Hope is the dream of the waking man.
--French Proverb
 

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.
--Henry David Thoreau

Itchy and Scratchy

Talents are best nurtured in solitude. Character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world. ~Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

***

Character building is not something that is just a fly by night thing to do. There is some really deep thought that needs to go in the construction of a beloved character that your reader is going to latch onto and never want to let go of through many readings and many generations.

A few characters that stick out in my mind is Eleanor from The Haunting of Hill House, Gem from To Kill a Mockingbird, and most recently I think of Odd Thomas from Odd Thomas, and Max and the birdkids from Maximum Ride. Shirley Jackson, Harper Lee, Dean Koontz and James Patterson, respectively.

These characters were not just put on paper and thrown into a story. You have to have a basic idea of who that character is. After you got your premise down of the story you want to tell, you start filling it in with characters. The main character is the one you want to spend the most time with because he/she is going to not only carry the weight of the story but have the most lasting impression on the reader.

Basically you are building the person from scratch, but you might have an idea from someone you’ve met in life, maybe a person you admired and looked up to, or maybe an evil sinister man whom you loathed as child will become your antagonist. Either way the path is being laid and you need to build a strong house to get this character on board.

Does she/he have blue eyes, green eyes or purple eyes, in Odd Thomas’ case? Are they tall, short, small, big? Anything stand out to make them special? Think about that one. You’re going to want something to stand out on that character like never before written.
We have enough blond bombshells, they are more caricatures than characters. We have enough men with chiseled cheekbones and etched out abs.

We need something unique, a scar perhaps? Then you can build on it, as a scar from say a fire many years ago, an accident a few years ago, or a pimple that won’t go away from a few weeks ago? Whatever the case may be, your character needs to be unique. No cookie cutter cut-outs. Unique in the fact that he/she has not been done before. The reader wants something new!

As you can see in the TV industry, it is very hard to come up with something new. This is the reason they inundate the screens with reality tv, because they think that is what people like. So isn’t that what you like when picking up a book? A character/hero/heroine that rings true to life? Or do you read  to see the same old things over and over.

I don’t think you do. I have pretty brilliant readers and you look for something fresh every day whether it is in a blog post or a book or an online story, you’re looking for NEW and getting the same-old, same-old.  Is that how you’re going to build your character? Getting a little itchy and scratchy there are ya? You now feel the need to go and CREATE?

Don’t let me stop you! Write Right!

Sagacious Jowls

"You can be a little ungrammatical if you come from the right part of the country."
~ Robert Frost
***

I’m no grammar expert, I know my dictionary and am excellent in spelling. Sure I get a few words misspelled and I’m always kicking myself in the butt for that, but all in all I consider myself a person who spells correctly.

I also like difficult words but surely there is a place for them. When used incorrectly or in the wrong place, you can really throw your reader into a state of perplexity that he or she didn’t sign onto when they picked out your book to read.

I’m reading such a book now, fifty pages into the book and I still don’t know where it is going. The author throws words out that I can’t even repeat because while I have the intelligence to know what the words mean, it just didn’t fit in with the telling of the story. I won’t tell you the book, but I’ll tell you the author, Peter Straub.

This is a first time read of Mr. Straub, and while I ‘heard’ he was an okay writer, I didn’t hear that he was good at storytelling. You can be a good writer that throws a story together, has the conflicts in all the right places and time in the telling of a tale but this man is just not a show’er. What I’m saying is that he is telling the story. And as we’ve learned, if you read my blog, showing verses telling is a big difference.

But not only is he telling the story instead of showing, he’s using these words so out of context that it is tripping me up while I’m trying to read the story. Last night I tripped over ‘sagacious jowls’? I mean really, you can’t find another word? Why couldn’t he have used ‘sapient’ or perspicacious? (kidding) I just don’t know of any writing, unless maybe you’re of the descent of snobbery, where you would use that term sagacious.

There is a place and time for that language, like at a business meeting of lawyers and doctors where they are all sitting around with sagacious smiles, but jowls? I don’t know, that’s a tough one to call. I think writers want to reach readers, and not lose them. If the intellectual of society is sitting around reading Mr. Straubs book, then good for them, but to me, just an average reader, I do not, in no way shape or form, want to trip over words and stumble through very hard to read paragraphs.

Maybe by the end of the book, I’ll tell you what it was about. That’s if I get that far. By Saturday if I can’t figure out where this story is going or what it is about, it’s going back to the library! Then I will get the book Somewhere in Time by Richard Matheson (click to read audiobook review) at which time I will not be disappointed because Mr. Matheson knows how to carry a story, research it and make the impossible seem possible.

Crazy Characters

"However great a man's natural talent may be, the art of writing cannot be learned all at once." Jean Jacques Rousseau
***
Characterization

This week we’re going to learn about characterization. Characterization is basically getting to know your character like you would any friend that you have. Their thoughts, their likes and dislikes, maybe their skin color or eye color and lastly, a name. Yes your characters become some of your nearest and dearest friends. You spend mornings, noons and many nights with them so the least you should do is know them, intimately.

As an exercise, we ask for your character to tell us about you! What would they see your life as being? Are you a bored housewife living vicariously through your character, Lola. Or are you a busy stay at home mom who colors her world with the likes of Beth and Bob?

When you climb inside your characters head, and look out into the real world, what would they see? Is there life exciting compared to yours or are you more exciting than them. Oh goodness... you better make your character’s life more exciting than yours.

Can you imagine reading a book, and the character appears as a cardboard cutout; meaning, stiff, colorless, flat, no real connection to the reader? If that’s the case then for sure you’ve lost your reader. We have to give our readers more to sink their teeth into. They, as you well know, don’t pick up a book to be bored out of their skin. They pick it up so they can jump into a fantasy world alive with conflict, pain, struggle and hopefully a resolution.

Now I don’t pick up a book for the fantasy elements, I, personal preference here, like the reality elements. I like a character who could be me, or my sister or maybe my mother or brother. I like to see within characters elements of my real world. I like to see possible struggles that I went through and want to see how they get resolved in a book.

Keep in mind I’ve had a colorful life, maybe not to some, but daily, monthly, yearly struggles are my forte. So when I read a book I want the character to survive the unconscionable blood of the past. I want them to soar like no eagle has soared before. They need to take whatever obstacle is thrown at them and either overcome it, or die.

You’re going to lose the reader if your main character is a wimp and dies; also spells out a boring story.  And trust me, you don’t need a voluptuous maiden to be a main character either, although everyone loves a good ‘Damsel in Distress’ novel, don’t they?

Get inside your characters head, know every mole, every pimple that has surfaced, every flaw on their skin, and everything that makes him or her tick on a daily basis. By allowing the character to interview you, you in return will be learning intricate aspects of them, without even knowing it. Try it, you might like it. :)

Poetry Sunday ~ The Wonder of Wonders

Gen 9:13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
***

The Wonder of Wonders
(c) Joni Zipp
***
The wonder of wonders
of the night
the stars are still
the moon is bright.

The wonder of wonders
of the sky
if only we knew
the answers to why.

The wonder of wonders
of hidden meaning
take it all in
as one who is gleaning.

The wonder of wonders
the master has spoken
I give you the rainbow
as a token!

All rights reserved: copyright © Joni  Zipp

Quotation Saturday

HOPE ~

Charity is the power of defending that which we know to be indefensible. Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances which we know to be desperate.
--G. K. Chesterton

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work; you don't give up.
--Anne Lamott
PROCRASTINATION ~

Some people procrastinate so much that all they can do is run around like firefighters all day -- putting out fires that should not have gotten started in the first place." -- Nido Qubein

"You may delay, but time will not." -- Benjamin Franklin

"It seems to me that it's actually harder to invent excuses than it is to get the sale." -- Jeffrey Gitomer

"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday." -- Don Marquis
FOLLOW YOUR DREAM ~

Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.
--Pamela Vaull Starr
 
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
 
The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.
--Paul Valery

GROWTH ~
 
The fact is, that to do anything in the world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can.
--Robert Cushing
 
The way to gain a good reputation, is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.
--Socrates
 
Collect as precious pearls the words of the wise and virtuous.
--Abd-el-Kadar
 
If you have an hour, will you not improve that hour, instead of idling it away?
--Lord Chesterfield

Prioritize

May the sun fall upon you, may the rain drizzle your skin, whatever the weather where you are, let the joy of a new day begin! ~joni
***

It is certainly hard to sit down and write, when outside the window Spring is happening all over the place. I mean, little sprouts of green are popping up everywhere, Robins are doing some kind of waltz on the front lawn, trees are slowly being filled in with buds, evident on each and every stem. Yes, Spring is happening right outside my window!

I always sit in awe of the glory that comes alive with Spring. While winter rests in dormancy, fall has its departure of leaves and summer has its scorching heat and humidity, Spring has livelihood like no other season.

I often do my Spring cleaning to prepare not only the house but my spirit for cleanliness. It’s as if, if I have a clean house, then my soul will come alive and do a jitterbug and bring into me a buoyant springtime propulsion of zest and zeal!

But Spring is also the time I prioritize. The time I take into consideration those things that are front and center, things that are important to me and have an affect on my life. The computer is not in the forefront of my life, social forums do not hold me captive, games are there but only a shadow to the real meaning in my life.

Writing! That is standing right there in my face looking at me, begging me, pleading with me to drink from the letter pool. Sure I use the computer for writing, but it doesn’t own me. I have a notebook that I can scribble in so this technology is not going to wrap its slithering arms around me and yank me into its vortex.

While the social scene is a fun place to meet with your virtual friends, it is not the end all to all of your existence. Hey people, there is a world right outside your window, balloons written with the words 'REJOICE IN SPRING' on them are passing you by as you bind yourself to a false sense of happiness.

As priorities take the stage and the curtain rises to accolades of applause, you will see that life is not going to pass you by as you sit and enjoy your priorities dance along the stage. They are within reach as you have front row seats. They are physical needs that you need to pay attention to and allow to become more important than a virtual form of bliss and decision makers.

Don’t let life pass you by as you mechanically go through the day-to-day humdrum; same thing every day. New fun, new pages, new friends and new power. Find the power within you to embrace reality, prioritize the real world, make a new beginning of each day and maybe just maybe, Spring, will ask YOU to dance!

Windy Woes...

Psalm 31:7
I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities;
***

Ugh... here we are with another Tuesday upon us. A Tuesday where it is supposed to be Spring and it feels like winter! Yesterdays thirty-four degrees upon wake up with a 21 windchill is not my picture of spring in any sense of the word.

Had someone told me Nebraska was a wind tunnel, I think I would’ve ran the other way, found a new direction. As it is, I’m feeling like a part of a vacuuming system. The relentless, gusting, gnawing, bone-chilling vibrations of the winds really can throw off someone who just wants to play in the garden and enjoy spring.

I love Nebraska and all that the beauty it offers to ones soul, but come on, does it really need to be this windy? I lived in Baltimore for most of my life, we had a few windy days, then I lived in Texas for six years, again a few windy days, but here in the wide open plains of Nebraska, I would say that out of the two years that I’ve lived here, more than 50% of those days were spent in wind!

I can bear the back-biting, spine-tingling cold, I can deal with sun scorching heat dripping humidity, but wind? I can not take much more of this. It literally blows my mind!

Today began yet another f2k session, and as I usually post about it before it comes upon us, I didn’t this time because I’m not mentoring this session and possibly the session after that. The wind kind of has me in a state of upheaval, the season (Easter) kind of has me in a state of yearly reflection, the roller coaster weather has me in a state of perplexity, wondering is this spring, or is this winter.

As I coast through my days realizing there comes a time in ones life where we must prioritize and focus on things that really matter, I’ve decided to focus on me. Selfish of me isn’t it? Not at all, I’ve always taken care of everyone else, helped new writers come into the fold of the writing world, basically held out my hand to whomever was/is in need and sometimes I get lost on the path that I was walking down.

So as I focus on things that matter, some things have to blow in the wind, pun intended. I’m going to focus on writing, writing and more writing. And taking care of my family, so they know that THEY are the most important things in my life. My garden will be planted soon, I just know it. I’ll till and plant and watch spring come to life before my eyes. The school year will come to an end and I’ll spend my days out in the yard with my son, going to the doctors with my beau, and just enjoy all that God has put in my life for me to take care of.

The wind will subside eventually, and when it does...I’m going to relish every ounce of rain and sun that we get and allow it to not only drizzle my skin but penetrate my soul until the really important things in life are front and center for me.

Poetry Sunday~ Wellspring of the Season~

Psalm 107:20 He sent his word, and healed them, and del- ivered them from their destructions.

***

Wellspring of the Season
(c) Joni Zipp
***

Spring flourishes as buds burst through the soil
branches have nubs that appeared without toil;
long winter nights have now given swift rise
to sweeping old leaves from the cloudless skies.

Earth has shaped this beautiful display
of fragrant pleasantries and colorful array.
We take for granted the burgeoning blooms
looking for light where all darkness looms.

Hand in hand we walk through the meadow;
orange collides with buoyant yellow.
The warmth of the sun; the tickling grass
all give rise to Springtime's sheer glass.

The beauty is wrapped in a myriad of shades;
sunbeams dance off of dew-laden blades.
We inhale the life of this glorious treasure
wrapped in the love of heavenly pleasure.

Humans who falter in the deceptive lure
bother not with keeping things pure.
Guilty and gullible with nary refrain
never enjoying the soft-spoken rain.

Dance in the sun, let its fingers drizzle ~
your body is sculpted by its gentle chisel.
Allow it to shape and mold your being,
relish our God and all things you’re seeing. 

All rights reserved: copyright © Joni  Zipp

Quotation Saturday

PROCRASTINATION

Some people procrastinate so much that all they can do is run around like firefighters all day -- putting out fires that should not have gotten started in the first place."
-- Nido Qubein

"You may delay, but time will not."
-- Benjamin Franklin

"It seems to me that it's actually harder to invent excuses than it is to get the sale."
-- Jeffrey Gitomer

"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday."
-- Don Marquis

PROBLEM SOLVING

"Don't dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer."
-- Denis Waitley

"The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem."
-- Theodore Rubin

"Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don't have any problems, you don't get any seeds..."
-- Norman Vincent Peale

"To solve any problem, there are three questions to ask yourself: First, what could I do? Second, what could I read? And third, whom could I ask?"
-- Jim Rohn

IMAGINATION

The imagination exercises a powerful influence over every act of sense, thought, reason,
-- over every idea.
--Latin Proverb
 

Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.
--James Russel Lowell
 

Far away in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
--Louisa May Alcott

Imagination is more important than knowledge.
--Albert Einstein

Tomfoolery

Rom 1:32  Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
***

I think I’ll give up on my writing blog!

April Fools!

Such a silly day of pranks and tomfoolery; where on earth did this April Fools day derive its origins from?

From Wikipedia:

In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1392), the "Nun's Priest's Tale  is set Syn March bigan thritty dayes and two. Modern scholars believe that there is a copying error in the extant manuscripts and that Chaucer actually wrote, Syn March was gon. Thus the passage originally meant 32 days after March, i.e. May 2, the anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England  to Anne of Bohemia , which took place in 1381. However, readers apparently misunderstood this line to mean "32nd of March," i.e. 1st April. In Chaucer's tale, the vain cock Chauntecleer is tricked by a fox.
 

In 1509, a French poet referred to a poisson d’avril (April fool, literally "April fish"), a possible reference to the holiday.In 1539, Flemish poet Eduard de Dene wrote of a nobleman who sent his servants on foolish errands on the 1st of April. In 1686, John Aubrey  referred to the holiday as "Fooles holy day", the first British reference. On the 1st  of April, 1698, several people were tricked into going to the Tower of London  to "see the Lions washed".The name "April Fools" echoes that of the Feast of Fools , a Medieval holiday held on the 28th December.
 

In the Middle Ages, New Year's Day was celebrated on the 25th of March in most European towns. In some areas of France, New Year's was a week-long holiday ending on the 1st of April. So it is possible that April Fools originated because those who celebrated on the 1st of January made fun of those who celebrated on other dates. The use of the 1st of January as New Year's Day was common in France by the mid-sixteenth century,and this date was adopted officially in 1564 by the Edict of Roussillon.
 

In the eighteenth century, the festival was often posited as going back to the time of Noah. According to an English newspaper article published in 1789, the day had its origin when Noah sent his dove off too early, before the waters had receded; he did this on the first day of the Hebrew month that corresponds with April.
[end wiki]
 

Well now, that was an eyeful! I say that April fools day is for fools who believe everything and are willing to accept things at face value. Tricks can land you in a heap of trouble. Just read the book Needful Things by Stephen King. One trick led to another, all assuming the wrong person played the trick and eventually all of Castle Rock was blown to bits, just because of the spinning wheels of tricks.
 
So as you go about today, playing needless tricks, all in the name of ‘fun’, remember some people don’t get the humor and it could have ill effects; possibly coming back to bite you in the butt.
 

“There’s no fool like an old fool.”