The high temperature today in Texas was 40°. My 10:00 am Dentist appointment was in the forefront of my mind.
While at the Dentist, I overheard people calling in canceling, but was really glad I didn’t. I told the hygienist, “Nobody wants to leave their house today.” Tomorrow will be even more difficult to step outside. They say the low tonight is 28°.
I’m practicing what I know to stay in today. Not inside my house, but in the actual day.
Life just flows better when I’m present and do what’s right in front of me to do. It’s so easy to mind jump into tomorrow, next week, or next month, but doing that stagnates the natural flow. When I allow my mind to travel the well-worn path of future thinking, I miss out on the little things of today.
So, I stayed in today and it flowed. After the Dentist, I went to the market and picked up items to make dinner tonight and tomorrow night. That’s as far ahead as I would let myself think, and then I came back to today.
No matter what you have before you lovely, I encourage you to stick with it and stay in today.
Looking through my Reader at the list of people I follow is disturbing. There are so many writers not writing. Some have not published a post for days, weeks, even months. If you are on WordPress right now reading this, I have to ask…”Are you writing?”
I met a girlfriend for coffee this morning. 🙂
She has the potential of becoming a great writer!
She told me what her sister said about her writing. She said,”You are just doing that for attention.”
That was disturbing for me on so many levels.
We agreed that her sister tried to hurt her, and what she said is mean. I responded with, “I guess it depends whether or not you’re willing to let that stop you.” She is not writing as much as before.
I’ve read a lot of ‘rules of writing’, and had to let them go. The rules caused me to second guess my writing. Do you know the secret of being a writer?
You have to WRITE! It’s that simple.
I’ve taken many a break from posting Blogs. I even thought at one time of giving up writing. It was probably one of the saddest moments of my life, but that is what happens when your break is too long.
It feels easier to quit than to start writing again.
It doesn’t matter how many times we begin again, as long as we don’t quit altogether. I publish more now than I have in a long time, and you know what changed? I did. I stopped analyzing and I just write.
I stopped watching the stats. I stopped caring what everyone thinks. I stopped feeling like a spammer for publishing two posts in one day.
I decided to write for the pure joy of writing, still holding hope that someone would grasp something from it. When I felt an urge to write, (like now), to just let it flow, and stop letting things stand in the way. It has become a priority for me because Lord knows the only way to get better at it is by doing!
One of my all time favorite quotes.
Who says you have to have a researched topic?
Some of my favorite Blog posts are written by people struggling to write! They usually have some sort of breakthrough by the end of the post, and feel better. If nothing else, they get kudos for writing!
I begin each day inside my Reader over coffee.
Out of all the Blogs I follow, there may be half a dozen new posts each morning. If I follow you, I want to hear every word you’re thinking.
You don’t need permission to fill up my Reader.
I have plenty of coffee, and I enjoy spending my morning with you. Let me encourage you to forget what everyone else is saying, thinking or doing and just write. And then hit publish. I’ll bring the coffee.
It is cold here in Texas, which is okay because it doesn’t last long.
I believe the main thing I learned from challenging myself to write for 30 straight days is this. I am not in control. It’s not about me, and what I want to write. It’s about God, and Him placing something on my heart to share with you.
I have plenty of topics to pull from, and can make myself write something. That is not what brings me joy. For me, the joy of writing is to be inspired, and the words just flow through the fingers, to the keyboard, and appear on the screen to share.
God didn’t prompt me to challenge myself. This is something I chose to do.
I can see God still blessed it. He is good like that. Some of the Blogs were inspired by Him, and some of them I just wrote. I don’t know if you can tell the difference, but I can. Maybe it’s not so much the finished product, but the feeling I had while typing.
We will see what happens in the next two days. I have learned a lot this month from the challenge, but I’m thinking I would rather wait to be inspired.
I wrote a Blog lastnight thinking I would publish it this morning. It was everything I wanted to say at the moment. When I pulled it up today, I thought it needed some help.
Sometimes I make life more difficult than it should be.
I love being in a New Year. I look at it as 365 new opportunities. Every new day, brings new possibilities. To stretch myself, I want to write a Blog a day. Now, a lot of writers do this in January, so it’s no big deal. When you write what’s on your heart, you must believe God is going to put something there to write about each day. This morning, He gave me three!
I had the one from yesterday poised to be published, and He put two more on my heart as I was driving to Radiation. Getting ready and out the door early every morning has turned into a very sweet time for me. I almost changed my appointment time for tomorrow, so I wouldn’t be so rushed, but I didn’t want to miss out. God is using that time for His Glory.
When I was going through Chemo, it was rough being a writer. A friend asked me the other day if I wrote much during that phase. No…I did not. My mind was full of things to write, but I couldn’t get them to a page. That darling Chemo brain was a challenge for sure, but I am grateful that has passed. Now, if I can just let these Blogs flow, and stay out of the way.
Just like the Blog I wrote lastnight. I felt an urge to post it, but I have never posted two Blogs in one day. You’ve heard the expression, “Use it or lose it?” That is what happens.
If I don’t use it as soon as God puts it on my heart, I will mess with it until it loses all validity. This is my year to Speak Your Heart. I will trust God to fill it, and let it flow.
I am sitting firmly in my sweet spot. It’s mornings like this I used to look out my window and gaze at Stork as I write. My new house doesn’t have a pond, so there is no Stork.
I miss Stork, but I love our new home.
Sometimes we have to pull away from what we once loved to love again even more. Letting go of one home to move into another was bittersweet, but the rewards have been endless. Everyday I notice little things that this house has that I’ve always wanted. Just little things that are there waiting for me to use. I wanted to hang my two flower baskets up on the porch, but only saw one hanger. Looking more closely, there was a second hook already in place, patiently waiting.
My daughter and I are going to have a busy weekend! Preparing the email to send her father, letting him know his time with her will be different days, used to stress me out. I’m looking at it today as doing the next right thing. Making him aware of a change in schedule is a courtesy. Just because I couldn’t love him as a wife, doesn’t mean he’s not a good father.
Walking away from a 25 year marriage was the hardest decision I ever had to make. In a few weeks, it will have been two years since the U haul went from one home to the next. The hardest decisions are always the best.
That was the last hard decision I had to make. There have been important decisions everyday, but nothing quite so life altering. People and situations simply flow in and out of my life. Everything happens for a reason, for the greater good and God’s glory. Allow what you wish to keep.
I have learned and loved these past two years. None of it has been painful enough to scar me, but it has changed me. Being grateful or thankful is the key to my happiness. I love my life today, and my life loves me. Let it flow.
Letitgocoach 