Tag: thoughts

Stop Being So Negative

Dear Bloggers,

You can learn a lot just by how people interact with you. You can discern if they are bitter people, upbeat people or extremely self-conscious. Believe it or not, this does not change when it comes to online writing / relationships. If every time you respond to others its in a way that is heavy, the spirit of negativity will emit from your pores faster than you can cover it up with a smiling emoji.

We all have experiences we’ve had to endure in this world and that we do endure and the abuse covers all angles. However, it is no reason to be lacking in compassion or rather consideration for the feelings of others. That said, stop being so negative in your interactions. By negative I do not mean standing firm on your opinions or just being open and honest. This isn’t about what you write on your blog; its your blog and I won’t tell you how to run your blog. I’m speaking more so along the lines of responding in general to those around you. We all have not so good days, but if every time I see your interactions you have this negative vibe then I’m just going to take you for a negative person. This, I might add, is a key destroyer of relationships. No one wants to be around people who are constantly complaining or speaking ill about everything let alone befriend them. Is there reason bitterness comes out of your mouth when you open it? Please, do not feed this to me. So I’m saying this not from a personal encounter or anything but just as a reminder that we should be more conscious of the things we say sometimes because energy invested comes back. You can at least be happy about waking up this morning.

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Now, I’m off to the kitchen. Raisin Brand Crunch is calling my name…

Go

Beautiful young woman jumping on the beach with a colored tissue

Go and bring back the depth of the sea
Go and measure the measure of wind
Go and bring back the weight of fire
Go and explain the secret to water
Go and bring back the day that is passed

Sea, wind, fire, water and the day are elements that you interact with every day and yet they are a mystery to you.

Think about this the next time you stress over things you cannot change.

Before The Week Ends

Diversify your bookshelf

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I just want to share one final thought before I snuggle in for this week and that is to remember to diversify your book shelf. This can be a project we can all do over the weekend. Look through your books, do they repeat themselves? Are there three rows of Toni Morrison on a five row book case? Do you have 300 books and 250 of them are Chit-Lit? Are there 50 Sci-Fi novels all right next to each other? If you fit this criterion, I want you to take every last one of those books off of the shelf and re-evaluate your reading life. Then go to the thrift store, independent bookstore, flea market, library, Wal-Mart or Barnes and Nobles and buy a book that has nothing to do with your interest. That’s right; pick something you can never see yourself reading. Got it? Great. Now you’re ready.

We all have those books we absolutely love, authors we cannot get enough of or just books we can never throw away. However, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about reading it is the importance of having books covering a full range of subjects. I have cookbooks, medical books, dictionaries, bibles, concordances, and textbooks from back in the day, encyclopedias, journals, literature, urban fiction, poetry, general fiction novels, how-to books and the list goes on and on and I just think you should kinda be like me in this respect.

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When you expand your readership to cover a range of subjects it broadens your perspective and opens you up to a whole world of experience right there at your fingertips. It also helps you to learn. Have you ever wondered how people can go to prison and come out scholars? It started by reading and reading and reading on a wide range of subjects. Sure I love history, specifically African American History. I also love poetry and black literature and literature in general but if these are the only kinds of books I have around my outlook is one sided. I will be limited in my way of thought and miss so much knowledge in regard to those other great topics out there and the information these authors have to offer.

Are You Just Seeing Your Writing on The Side?

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“Is your writing going to be a lover in the center of your life? The thing you pulse toward, the fever in your soul? Or is your writing life more of a casual crush, something you think about, but don’t do much about? You know how when you are in love, lying with your lover, time stops–goes so fast and doesn’t move at all? You feel mushy and goopy, and you are wet and hot and cool and loved and lovely, all at the same time?

Here’s the thing, there is one way to make time stop. And only one way: Fall in Love.

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When you have a lover or a baby, you fall out of time, and into the beloved. Love is the only time in our lives when we are out of time. To create a writing life, you will need to fall in love–deeply, seductively, passionately–with your writing life. It will become not a habit or a job, but a lover. If you keep it a second-string lover, your back-up lover, your Tuesday night sex-as-friends kind of lover, it might always be cranky with you. But if you make your writing life so lovely you can’t take your eyes off it, you will space out during meetings, and dream about it as you go through the day, just like when you’re in love. – Heather Sellers, Page After Page, Chapter 3

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Heather Sellers is an Award winning writer and professor who has taught writing workshops for twenty years, has a Ph.D. in writing and is an associate professor of English. Her book, Page after Page, is a great resource for writers looking to jump-start, begin, or keep the writing juices flowing. She presents great advice on how to dedicate yourself to writing, enjoying the process, and writing exercises to help keep you passionately, seductively, and totally in loooovveee with writing.

Know your Lane

Very True and well said.

Whit Izz's avatarWrite, Live and Love

A lot of people tend to speak on subjects in which they know nothing about. We want to peg ourselves as experts, yet haven’t done the edtensive research behind those aspects; or better yet, they just have not lived in them.  I like to believe that there is always a life twin; a person who has gone through things exactly as you have and can give you the wisdom of their experiences.

For those of us, who are looking for the answers to life’s struggles, who long to find their twin; they are out there.

And for those of you, who disguise yourselves as those who have been here before and done that more than once, but truthfully haven’t the slightest idea how to help those who long for support through their struggle; know your place in this world, know your lane. And stay there.

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That Moment

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That moment when the inspiration is so thick but the words are so weak. When time won’t give room to whisper a glint of poetry or finger your way through lines made of braille.  I want to write, but not anything. So I wait for the calming of thought processes to slow the string of melodies into a post of beauty. Nothing rushed and spilled like left over knowledge and conscientious stupidity. Not the same ole same ole thirst for the vanity of wisdom. No, not anything. Not the mouthing off of regurgitated ignorance. Surely every thought is not worthy of the blank page. The new post is after all too pure for any thought to brush upon it. Though the pull to build on the creativity that found its way inside your space must fulfill itself. I am indeed in the midst of that moment. I desire to write something, but not anything. I want to beautify the whiteness of this page into something stronger than the color of poetry. Something that seeps into your mind and rushes to the center of your soul like the longing of fire to touch wood; a stream of living water waiting to fall for the first cup it sees standing; the longing of lips desperate and trembling for the first kiss it sees wanting. Indeed, maybe I’ll just kiss my way into this post. Give you something of value to take home. Take with you my beloved. And let me give you more than just a penny for my thoughts.

Upgrade Your Value

 

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Sometimes we base our self-worth on what we see; what him and her and they perceive to be important. Played against the heartstrings of others, the media is direction to our chorus. Splattered images of what success looks like echoes off the tops of dreams we conjure under the blankets of perception. We reminisce on fantasy like the touched up portraits of celebrities. It is the pride of a man serving seven years in the military. His Purple Heart medallion waves and smiles at passerby’s before he does. We know not what beats inside his chest, just the striking forest green of his uniform. It shines like it does on the TV and in the magazines, and our jaws drop with awe. This is a man who could not have received more awards. Could not have been a better example of an outstanding citizen. But when the uniform comes off, and the glory of sacrifice cripples away into the concrete; when the intoxicating fragrance echoes off the numbing high of a man now staggering to the next corner. When the alcohol melts this Purple Heart against the insides of his soul like skin clung to flesh, what is left of the perception now upon him? What of this hero turned homeless Veteran? Does his value weaken like the washed up fade of an army uniform? Or is he now nothing more than another brother worthy of our disrespect?

Today, I encourage you to upgrade your value. Be not limited to the rotting fabric of tangible things. Be not awed by the signs of achievement and circumstance. Hurry not to praise people only when they have accomplished something society thinks is worthy of your respect. Judge instead the content of a person’s character. Judge their resolve, their kindness, and their warmth. For these, if truly possessed by them, will never rot away.