We are all human beings

“Humans lack good mirrors. It’s so hard for anyone to show us how we look, and so hard for us to show anyone how we feel…on some fundamental level we find it difficult to understand that other people are human beings in the same way that we are. We idealize them as gods or dismiss them as animals.” - John Green, Paper Towns
 

This comes off as a strong opinion, but it does strike a chord with me.  I have found more happiness in life when I accept that within myself and within others, we are flawed.  When I cause someone else to feel bad, I know within my heart that I wasn't searching out that outcome.  I can find all the reasons in my heart why the situation happened the way it did.  If the other person still finds me at fault, it is a hard pill to swallow.  This mirror that I reflect into my heart to find all of the good areas inside of myself sometimes stops right there.  I don't reflect it back onto the person I am having an issue with, allowing myself to -- if I can't see within their heart, to at least know -- that there are a lot of good qualities inside of them too.  If I can understand and accept that I myself am human and am capable of making an error, I need to extend that same understanding to the next person.  It actually enables more peace to enter into my heart, because I am allowing myself to awknowledge others as human, just like me.  I can say that the situation itself was hurtful, but the person as a whole doesn't deserve to live life defined by that singular moment in time.

Too deep or unclear?  These are simply my thoughts, my feelings.  These are the attributes I like to think on, dwell on, in order to attempt to bring myself more inner happiness in my life.  Happiness begins with me.  It is my choice, and mine alone.  So if I can be a happier person by seeing others as humans, not as gods so grand and mighty, or animals so dirty and beneath me, then I feel like inner happiness is just a little bit easier to find.

The Next Big Thing: Blog Hop - March 13, '13

I am participating in a blog hop.  What is a blog hop, you ask?  Well, it's a way for readers to meet new authors!  Aside from me telling about what I plan to publish, you will also get links I will attach below for other authors I would like you to check out.  I would like to extend a thank you to R.E. Hargrave for inviting me to participate!

I have chosen to answer ten questions for this particular hop. 

1. What's the title of your book?  It is a short story, and it is called 'The Coin.'
2. Where did the idea come from?  I was seventeen years old when I first wrote this story, and I can tell you that it was purely inspirational.  It was nearing December, and at the time, I liked to buy figurines at a dollar store and make up short christmas stories for them to hand out as gifts to friends and family.  For this particular story, though, I had purchased no figurine or visual aid.  I was watching television when an idea popped into my head.  Sitting down at the computer, I felt words flow through me, and in a matter of hours the story was written.  Now, over ten years later, I'm finally answering the pull to share this story with a much larger audience than my family. 
3. What genre does your book fall under?  A christian-based Inspirational short story, I would say
4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?  Oh boy, I'm not really sure!  This was my least favorite question to answer because I don't have one. :-P 
5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? A young angry teenager who decides that Christ isn't real has an unforgettable vision on Christmas Eve about what it truly means to believe in the son of God, to forgive, and most of all, to love.
6. Is your book published by an independant publisher?  No, it will be self-published by yours truly in a few month's time.  Release date is yet unknown, though I am hoping to have it ready by May 2013.
7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?  That was well over ten years ago, but I do believe I wrote it between two and three hours.  When I decided to re-write it for publication purposes, I would say between three to four. It's a short story!
8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?  Hmm . . . perhaps the Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans?  In the fact that my story and his are geared for Christmas time and have an inspirational message to share about love. 
9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?  My desire to understand Christ and the atonement and our relationship with Him was an inspiration for me, but again I will state that I feel like this was a story that someone else wanted to tell through my hands.  I never sought out to write this:  it found me instead.
10. What else about your book might pique the reader's interest? I feel this story has a message most anyone can take something from and apply it to themselves in their own life.  Christ's life on earth was a very clear example about love, and that message always bears repeating in however many ways possible.  He wanted us to know that life is about learning, loving, and serving one another. 

I hope that gives you some insight into 'The Coin' and gets you excited to read it soon!  I plan on e-publishing through Amazon.com and Kindle, as well as making it available in physical form to purchase-on-demand through Createspace.  I will keep you informed as soon as possible on when to expect to see this available to buy, but I am hoping that May will be the month!

Below are other authors joining me in this blog hop.  The general assignment for this activity is to showcase five other authors, but as I am still networking and meeting new people, I was only able to find two!  Please visit their site and read their blog hop when they post next Wednesday, March 20th.  Bookmark their sites and keep tabs on them, they are fabulous people with wonderful talent!

1.  Adrian Smith
2.  Raskillian     

Be the Light: by Paul W. Meier

I was directed to this interview, and I want to share it here.  I feel like this minister has some ideas and values that are forward thinking and enlightening.  I appreciate the message he is trying to share and want to welcome you to read the interview here:  http://nickwale.org/2013/02/11/kind-of-like-jesus-paul-w-meier-reflects-on-faith-today/

Writing For Love

“Not so long ago, I was on the usual type of panel discussion at a literary festival, far from home and the people whose hands I prefer to be holding. The format was the fairly standard: four authors and a chairperson chat about something vaguely to do with the event title. Over the years, I have slid from being one of the token new writers to being one of the token scraggly old ones. The young novelist sitting beside me began a description of how he had efficiently and effectively planned his first book to be commercially successful, adaptable for movie purposes and generally a money-making machine. The plan worked. He made money. (I quietly began to dislike him.) And then he talked about writing his second novel and the way he’d written that one for his friends. He’d cared about it. At which point he cried. Right out on stage, he wept big authorial tears of sheer bloody happiness. He had accidentally done something which had made him deeply happy – he had written for love. The only thing better than sitting next to that level of joy is having it yourself. Every day. Onwards.”

- AL Kennedy
 

Writing, to me, is about love.  Loving what you're writing, and having a purpose for sharing it.  It doesn't always have to be inspirational, but if you are loving what you are doing and having fun creating characters and worlds and situations, that's the kind of happiness we all dream of finding. 

Writing is one of my loves, one of my passions.  Family is, and has been, my first passion and priority.  What is your passion?  What is your love?  I'd like to hear it :)

Tread Lightly

“It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them. I was so preposterously serious in those days…Lightly, lightly—it’s the best advice ever given me. So throw away your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly. Lightly, my darling.”

- Aldous Hixley
 

I ran across this on tumblr.  The link is here: http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/lit
I enjoy advice that helps you find ways to cope with life.  There is a lot of darkness out there, and especially within ourselves.  It's SO easy to feel the darkness. 

My short story 'The Coin' is about feeling Christ, about feeling the light.  This quote by Aldous Hixley talks about another way of feeling the light.  I don't know if you are like me, but I tend to feel very deeply, and when I feel very deeply, that means I have a higher tendency to get hurt on an emotional level, because it is those feelings that become affected. 

That's why I want to share 'The Coin' with others.  It's SO easy to feel the dark.  We walk into quicksand all too easily sometimes, getting pulled into thoughts and actions that prevent us from seeing what life is about:  learning to get back up. 

Come take a walk with me while I learn to feel a little bit lighter, do things a little bit lighter.  Let's all try to help each other avoid the quicksand that pulls us under.