Sabrina J-R – Page 21

Day 1 — The Dog Made Me Angry

Today’s assignment: Write five nondescript sentences. Look at them again and re-write them to show and not tell what was happening. Go over them one last time and pump them full of interesting and descriptive words to really drive your point home!

Here I go…

The computer is slow.
It’s a sunny day.
I need contact lenses.
I drink tea.
My winter jacket is not the warmest.

As the website was loading, I was able to start the washing machine and unload the dishwasher. It was finished just after I sat down.
I awoke to bright blue skies and the warmth of the sun.
I quickly pulled my head away, avoiding contact, as my baby’s hands reached out for my glasses.
While the water started to boil, I pulled out my favourite mug and went to choose a tea bag.
I pile on extra layers before I put on my jacket. I wish I could just pull out my jacket and run out the door like they do on tv.

I pulled up my faster browser and clicked on my favourite news bookmark. “This is crazy,” I thought to myself as the page began to load. I left the loading page and ran to turn on the pre-loaded washing machine. From the laundry room, I jogged into the kitchen and unloaded half-empty dishwasher. Believing the webpage had loaded, I returned to the computer. After I sat down, it was readable.
The house felt warm, hot even though it’s still winter. I dressed thinking it was warm outside. As I opened the door to step outside, I couldn’t see. The glaring sun made me squint, my eyes only the smallest of slits. Time to find a cute pair of sunglasses for myself.
I put hung up the glass cloth, smiling at the clean view in front of my face. Nothing beats clean eyeglasses. The baby reached up to me, needing some snuggle time. She started to giggle and reach out for my face. Oh no you don’t, I thought, and jerked my head back. You’re not grabbing my glasses again today. I really need to get some contact lenses, I sighed to myself.
In the mood for a hot, soothing drink, I put some water on to boil. Grabbing my favourite tall mug, I opened the pantry and weighed my options. I still wasn’t sure which flavour to grab first. I reached for the sugar. My tea always needs to be sweetened. Now for the harder question, herbal or rooibos?
I knew it was cold outside. I had fully looked up the weather conditions before venturing outdoors. The added windchill factor on top of the cold temperature should’ve been hint enough. Yet, I figured I could get away with the shorter jacket instead of my cozy, warm long coat. I was quickly running to the store for a couple of things. I was sitting on a heated seat in my hot car. Why was I still shivering?

My First Challenge

Allume (formerly Relevant Conference) is hosting a series for the month of March. I’ll be joining in for their “31 days to a better writer” series. The main goal is that my writing should improvement over the next month (and onwards).

Today’s question: what do I write?

At the moment, it’s more real life stuff. I help with invitations, emails, church bulletin announcements. I blog on my other site about life lessons, faith and family. I also help my friends & family with whatever editing assistance they may need. I’m trying to refocus my time so that I can just write whatever God has impressed upon my heart as well.

Five Minute Friday: Ache

It seems that the more we ache in the yearning sense, it turns into an ache in the long, dull everlasting painful sense. Ache. Even the word itself sound quite uncomfortable.

Perhaps this is a good thing. If we’re aching, maybe we’ll try to solve the problem? That annoyance, though dull and oftentimes tolerable, would hopefully push us towards improvement.

We’ve learn to live with pain. Many an empire is built on teaching techniques for “coping” with the pain. There is all sort of self-abuse happening in other to quiet the steady ache. If you can’t numb the ache, then the latest suggestion is to numb yourself. Alcohol, drugs, sex, lies. Vacation, lavish shopping trips, frivolous spending, food. All those claim to help take your mind off things. But we skip the fine print–these things are only temporary and have horrendous side effects.

Maybe the ache is there for us to grow. To learn to stop relying so heavily on self and to start focusing on God. He’s really gifted at making aches go away. For good. He’s excellent at being a pain killer and making life better than tolerable. No, we’ll never fully float carefreely on clouds this side of heaven. But with Him, we’ll surely come as close as possible.

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Hmm… As I was writing, I began to second guess, then third & fourth & fifth guess myself. As I posted about earlier today, I’m trying to stop the chickeness and work at being a vessel. Try your hand. Click below to link up. Also, should you find a post or two or more that just touch you in some way, please leave a comment for that writer. It’s like a virtual hug, without encroaching on personal space.

Do I Look Like A Chicken?

I sure feel like one lately. There are many posts that get composed, then contained all inside my head. Words just flowing freely, written brilliantly, with descriptions to envelop the reader.

Yet they bottled up inside because I’m too nervous to write them down. I once worried about whether or not my dear readers would appreciate the message or my words. But I don’t write for the sole purpose of attracting readership. I love my readers and that fact that people actually do “follow” my blog. How cool is that?! Thank you!! I also know that you’re not here because I’m some super-genius writing connoisseur.

My deeper worry is that I won’t do justice to the message. There are many a thing I feel impressed to share. Ideas and lessons that I have been gifted to put into words. Maybe just one person will read it and be impacted in a positive way.

Despite worry is reality. ~~If.~~ When I don’t share what’s been impressed upon me, I’m actually stifling the message. I’m blocking somebody’s blessing. What a sobering thought. What an uncool thought! I don’t want to be a hindrance. I prefer to be a vessel.

So, here’s to March and open hearts and words. Here’s to remembering some great advice from The Message Bible:

God doesn’t want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving and sensible. 2 Timothy 1:7

Five Minute Friday: Grit

The first image that popped up in my head was this:

You’ve just created the most wondrous egg dish. Your plate looks like a masterpiece. Everything’s piping hot. Sunshine is streaming through the windows. If a professional photographer was on hand, they’d probably pay you to take your picture. You take the first bite–splendid. You take the second bite–

–CRUNCH! (because in your head, it sounds that loud)

Eggshell!

That tiny itty bitty piece of grit managed to escape your watchful eye and disrupt your food experience. How annoying. How disappointing. The atmosphere is no longer the same.

Grit is just that. Minute, miniscule and most times, seemingly invisible. Yet, should you feel it, taste it, experience it? Not so small. Grit manages to slip into things undetected. No sieve really catches grit.

Pearls come from grit. One grain of sand combines with another and another… Soon, so many grains have teamed up and are forming to become something so precious. People pay big money for pearls. The Bible tells of one who sold everything he had in order to purchase one valuable pearl.

Bad dreams, nightmares, horrendous experiences can be devastating in the moment. The scars they leave on our lives are a reminder are like grit. Yet all these pieces of grit, these remnants of things gone bad come together and something beautiful is formed from the ugly.

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Your turn. A well-known slogan says it best: “just do it!”. Click below to link up.

Yet Another Blog?

I opted to start a new blog. My current space, …And Then Some!, is more about general life, parenting, homeschooling and faith. I have some readers there and many lurkers. Yet, I was hesitant to add another branch, the writing limb, to that blog.

I subscribe to a few writing related blogs that are delivered to my inbox. The common theme of them all is to practice. The one thing I haven’t been doing is practicing. I’m not opposed to practicing, honing my craft. Rather, I have never had a dedicated place to do that.

Until now. Now I can keep rehearsing, strengthening my skills. Gone is the worry that my current readers would be affected.

The happy medium has been found.

Five Minute Friday: Delight

Delight.

One word that instantly conjures up cute little airy images has managed to perplex me when it came to today’s post. It shouldn’t right? At least in theory.

I soon realized why. To delight, to be delighted, to show delight, to take delight in anything is a choice. One that’s always for the better.

Previous five minute Friday topics have taken work, thought. They’ve requested me to dig deep and open up. To reveal some true feeling. Things like “vivid”, “colour”, “rest”, “trust”. But delight? That doesn’t require me to open up as much as it requires me to do this instead:

Let go.

In order to be free, to feel like I can just take pleasure in anything, I need to let go.

I must release all preconceived notions and just be in the moment. I must banish any complaining and just seek to compliment instead. All negatives thoughts, emotions, feelings, must flee so that positivity can be thoroughly enjoyed and relished.

To delight is a learned behaviour. I think the best teachers are children. They don’t even have to be your own. They clap for food. Their eyes light up with the arrival of a favourite loved one. They enjoy certain articles of clothing, donning them over and over to the point of wearing them out. Yet, they never complain. They enjoy the moment.

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Your turn. Lisa-Jo says it best: “We write because we want to, not because we have to. We write for fun, for joy, for discovery at how much creativity is crammed in our heads and even if we just unlock if for five minutes it can paint the world in dazzling wonder.” Pick up your brush and splash some colour on today’s page.

Five Minute Friday: Trust

Trust. Five little letters, one huge, scary and very intimidating word.

Trust is a never-ending work in progress.

We’re forever working at trusting ourselves. It’s true–some of us can’t be in the same room with even a slice of decadent chocolate cake. It wouldn’t last–we’d cave so fast! We don’t trust that we’ll succeed, that we’d do a good job with the task at hand. How do I know? All the negative self-talk says plenty. If we believed, if we trusted ourselves to do well, we wouldn’t bash the idea before it even got off the ground.

As if trusting ourselves isn’t challenge enough; we have to trust others. From the moment we wake up until we fall asleep, except if you’re a hermit, your day is spent trusting people. You’re trusting that the electricity will be available to you as you turn on your light, boot up your computer, adjust the thermostat, and so on. You’re trusting that the morning news is accurate, as well as the weather report. You’re trusting that the other drivers on the road, the other riders on the bus or train will handle their business and stay alert, avoiding any collision with you. You work, study, interact with people that you need to trust. There’s a constant second guessing going on in the back of your mind at times, right?

To top it off, God gets the brunt of our distrust. We transfer all of our negative words, our negative emotions, our uncertainties onto Him. We act like He can’t be trusted because we can’t trust the people around us.

Do we ever have it upside down, inside out and oh so backwards.

God designed trust. He cannot lie. In fact, one of the commandments straight up says no to lie. God is the only One who has ever kept all the promises He’s ever made. He is our standard, our measuring stick as to how we should trust…

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And cut! Click below to give your words, your ideas life. You can do it.

Five Minute Friday: Real

It’s a struggle to be real. In fact, we work hard at being real, yet without fully exposing ourselves completely. Being real means being transparent. No matter what time or day or night, no matter whether our paths cross at a fast-food restaurant, a 5 star dining establishment, a park, a mall a thrift shop, church or a club, I should be the same person all the time. I shouldn’t be working at figuring out which part of me needs to be on displayed based on where you are on my hierarchy of friends chain.

Still, we embrace a false sense of realism. Too much truth, too much rawness, to much reality is too heavy and just too. Like overexposure and then we shy away, scared. Afraid because they weren’t holding back at all, when polite society still recommends holding back a piece of yourself.

We applaud celebritydom. We award those who deliver the most compelling performances. Wow, their delivery was so real. Book clubs thrive on serious discussion over fictional characters. Why is their emotion so real for a part that’s fake? Invented for story-telling purposes?

Real is work. Real would be easier if everyone else around us was real. Real is.

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My 5 minutes were up, so I just ended there. Although to end abruptly still speaks volumes. Gets my mind thinking. Click below to join in on the fun. This writing exercise is a stretch for your mind, body & soul. Throw grammatical caution to the wind and just write.

Disturbance Leads to Motivation

In the paper this morning are a couple of articles regarding some parental opposition to occurrences in their local public school. One article talks about parental involvement after a grade 5 teacher posted a rainbow ally sign in his classroom, signifying that the classroom is a safe haven to all students, including those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered. The second article, written about another public school here, caught my attention with this headline: “Mom Banned After Battle With School”. It explains how a some parents have grouped together, going to the school trustees with the demand that the principal be removed. There are allegations of bullying among student, sexually inappropriate incidents among students, lack of communication between parents & teachers and more. There have been some internal discussions, but the only action taken seems to be banning a vocal parent from school grounds.

I don’t mention either scenario to give an opinion on who’s right or who’s wrong. Regardless, I found both of these articles very disturbing…and very motivating. Disturbing because unless a parent is actually there, on site during the school hours, no one can fairly assess what’s going on. People, both old and young, tend to have a funny way of relaying stories; with details twisted often in their favour, never mind how it may look or sound from another perspective. Yet, I have to wonder how these arguing adults affect the students. Will these students’ grades improve or decline because of the warring adults? Is a child motivated to pick a career based on the examples set by these adults? Do all students have proper supplies and a warm, filled tummies as a result of these scenarios?

Yet, these two scenarios are motivating to a homeschooling family. I am with my young, impressionable children during their school hours. I’m able to monitor what they’re exposed to and when, giving answers and explanations that are age-appropriate when they’re ready. There aren’t any other families waiting with baited breath, watching for the moment I mess up. No one is sitting in the shadows, with their running shoes on, ready to run to a higher authority to report my actions. There is no fighting happening on the sidelines, distracting them from learning.