Tag: prompt

#Ronovan Writes #BeWoW Weekly Blog share – Positive Quotes

be-wow-blogger

As I thought about what to write for today’s #BeWoW, I struggled a bit. What is left to be said week after week about positivity? And what purpose does this light afford us? I started to list some of my favorite positive quotes, but it somehow did not seem sufficient. I’m all for happy endings but I also do not want to bore you. Quotes are cool, but they only go so far. And since I already indulged in some “quoting” today, I didn’t want to overdo it. So I sat here and I thought and instead of being my normal speedy gonzales self, I embraced the patience and thought some more. I even let my thoughts roam to other things, did some cleaning, ran some errands and gave this post a rest for a while. And as I did so, I realized how much a day can change from one to another. I thought about how different yesterday was for me than today and how far away last week seems to be from today. I thought about how I felt in the recent past and how it affected the present future. I thought about how easy it is to feel angry or sad one moment and excited and joyful the next. How simple it is to be spun into a wide range of emotions in one moment and to be relaxed and content the next. In this I understood how important it is to find and embrace the positive moments in our life. As a result, I do have a positive quote to share, but only one. And I hope that it gives you the serenity, courage, positivity, and strength you need to continue through to the rest of the week:

“The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.”

― Bob Marley

#Ronovan #Writes #BeWoW Prompt – Family

Welcome back to another episode of Ronovan Writes Be Wonderful on Wednesday. As I thought about this prompt, I was led to an older post of mine. As I read it, I could not help but see the family connection. I decided then to incorporate portions of that post into this week’s prompt because it is fitting:

be-wow-bloggerFamily…

My nephew has my birthmark on his chest. My face has my mother’s nose, and my smile is etched with my father’s teeth. I interact with the world as if on my own. It never occurs to me that I swing my arms like my Aunt. Or that the decisions I make may have already been made before. After all, they say there is nothing new under the sun. I cannot swim. But maybe that’s because the Great Flood has traumatized me, for I can still taste salt water seas on my tongue. Have you ever thought about the make-up of a blood line? The reality that maybe you inherited these ways only to gift them to someone else one day. I smile at the thought. What would a little girl look like with my eyes, my words and my hands on her hips? How do I know my favorite tree in which to rest my exhausted spirit from the soles of the Earth did not bleed with the stench of my ancestors? And have I ever fathomed why Hurricanes take the exact same route as the slave ships? Can it be that suicides still burn like melted ash upon the ocean floor? Its smoke intermingled with the wind as if to intercourse themselves into one before marching out to the beat of Negro Spirituals I could have sworn I just heard on the radio last night. Or maybe that’s just the Harriet in me. Family. We bond deeper than flesh and thicker than blood. A connection of bodies strung together, we thread ourselves into mixed fabric. Family does not relegate itself to kin, but it surpasses genetics and is reflective in a close friend, a loyal co-worker, a longtime lover. Family is the strength of struggle, reaching down to scrape me off the floor, or build me up when need be. I could Webster dictionary Family, but it is of no use. A dictionary cannot page itself into the substance of what it means to treat others as you yourself would like to be treated, or ponder the reasons why deception never really could separate close friends. Among its many words a dictionary will never fully articulate the experience embodied simply by way of a bloodline. So I suppose I could seek to decipher the definitions behind the syllables but they will not fill me. How could Webster ever fathom the depth of someone who is willing to die for you? This is family.

Stella Revealed: Book Blurb for New Book

C3ERuFi

The Daily Post gave an exciting blog prompt yesterday on giving the book blurb to a book you want to write:

“Write the blurb for the book jacket of the book you’d write, if only you had the time and inclination.”

I wasn’t going to take part in this prompt initially, but since I have written a book (available soon), I decided this was the perfect time to give the book blurb to my upcoming book: “Beyond The Colored Line“:

“Growing up has not been easy for Stella. Just a few generations from slavery, Stella is the daughter of Judith May. Mother and daughter share the blood of a black woman and her white slave owner. Unable to cope with the teasing and bullying from both the white and black kids, Stella struggles with identity and a place to belong. She does not feel she can find her rightful place among the blacks and neither among the whites. That is except on Saturdays. Stella loves Saturdays! Where her and mother take occasional walks on the town and enjoy all of the privileges that come with a light skin tone. Years later, after a discussion with Aunt Sara persuades her to pass, Stella decides to live her life as Sidney McNair, a white woman. But living Saturdays isn’t as easy as visiting them.

How will Stella deal with the new challenges that come with her new life? Will she ever find the courage to face the truth concerning herself? How far is too far?