A new writer shared her Instagram name. It was nowhere close to her real names . I beckoned to her… smile in tow…”you do make it hard, don’t you? In haste she retorted “it’s so my employer can’t find me”.
I smiled.
Our Lives In Compartments
How many of us are like that? We live our lives in compartments trying to separate our true selves from what those around us see publicly.
To Hide To Be
It’s a hard choice but sometimes you have to hide in order “to be“. I pray one day that you will be able to just be. To reveal your true identity and just be the you that you want to be.
Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works. ~Virginia Woolf
A group of writers were challenged to a Write In, Write Out Session. After free writing for an hour, Antoya Lee wrote this delectable piece that shows her talent waiting to be honed. Here I share:
What is Rape? Does it Require A “No?”
~Antoya Lee
If I push my beliefs, wants, and desires on you, and I succeed in having my way, should I be held accountable for my actions? If, my persistence made me successful in having my way but brought upon you harm and danger.
Or, should I be vindicated from my exploitation of your mind and body and be freed from punishment because of my intellectual ignorance? My mind’s ability to reason and understand based on the knowledge or lack thereof, stored within my mind.
Hear, the words, that proceed as I speak. Abuse and harassment, of any type: sexual, verbal, physical, mistreatment, recklessness, carelessness, ignorance and arrogance. Have you been impacted by such activities or behaviors? Were you the offender, or of your life, a victim of such social behaviors that are communicated amongst our social environment?
Sadly, were you an offender in any group or area of your social environment, where you mistreated, misrepresented yourself or something, in order to have your way and accomplish your desires and wants. Or, to support your beliefs and needs, with your friends, with your family, and coworkers, strangers and lovers, church or other group member affiliation.
Were you ever so persistent in having your way to the detriment of another against that person’s comfort and will?
Is rape or harassment just something sexual?
Or, could it be a form of social communication, verbally and physically, expressed in any type of social situation and setting amongst people in your social circle.
Could it be social manipulation, simply to accomplish one’s own disparate deeply desired wishes?
Not just sexual, but could rape simply, but greatly be social dysfunction, after all the offenses in every area of our lives that happened upon us, or we upon them.
I forgive you. Do you forgive me? Of social rape. Trying to have my own way.
My point: Lets be mindful of how we interact and how we share our habits with each other because rape is social contamination.
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
― Maya Angelou
A public writers forum asked the question “what is the single biggest challenge you as a writer face?” Here I share responses as writers chimed in:
Writing everyday
Marketing
Not enough erasers
Find an agent
A full-time job that isn’t
Learning all the required skills – writing, editing, cover art, publishing, marketing, salesmanship, accounting …
Identifying my audience
Details
Time
Reviews
Getting books sold
Selling myself
Lethargy
Butt in chair
Discipline
Marketing costs. Dispite what some may say, it is expensive to self-publish. Editor, copy editor, cover design, copyright, ISBN numbers, authors copies, advertising, website, domain name, contests, give-aways, and on and on it goes
Self-Doubt
Stay Motivated
Writers block
The list goes on. Are you a new or published author? Is anything missing? Do share. We would love to hear.
Little 7 year old Xavier quietly whispered that he captures his dreams in the morning in a journal. Often I encourage individuals to keep a journal to capture thoughts on their dreams and goals. This will help them to work on them to achieve.
Unknown to me he has been listening and took it literally by writing his ‘dreams’ every morning.
You have to stop thinking that you’ll be stuck in your current situation forever. We feel like our hearts will never heal, or we’ll never get out of this impossible struggle. Don’t confuse a season for a lifetime. Even your trials have an expiration date. You will grow, life will change, things will work out. ~Brittney Moses
When was the last time you spent a quiet moment just doing nothing – just sitting and looking at the sea, or watching the wind blowing the tree limbs, or waves rippling on a pond, or a flickering candle? ~Ralph Maston
You know those things you have always wanted to do, you should go do them.
What is it that thing you have always wanted to do? Change job? Start a family? Enroll on that degree? Learn a new skill? Take that vacation?
Life gets hard at times. Chances are with everything happening around us at work, home, school, it can knock us off our feet. The result often is being stuck. Not moving. As in a state of shock, standing still. Below are 7 Things you can do when you are stuck.
Do something! Step out! Complete that application! Try something new!
Plan an escape rather than daydream about different scenarios. Go on a trip to relax and reboot your thoughts.
Switch up your daily activities.
Don’t envy and compare yourself to others.
Do one positive thing for yourself today.
If you want to change your life, Pray. Change your environment.
Today, step forward. Be bold. Go do that thing that you have always wanted to do. Sure you may be scared, afraid, even terrified! But still do it….even when afraid. Don’t leave your future wondering ‘what if’.
If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you will always be in the same place. ~Nora Roberts
