Tag Archives: Knowledge

Looking Ahead

January 1, 2024 By in Lightning Juice Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Coming to you live from Realm Central ~ it’s the first day of the New Year 2024! I never make New Year’s resolutions, but for 2024, I have a goal.

Over the past year, I made the effort to set my face forward. One of the ways I achieve this is by praying that Adonai will show me His hand in every situation I encounter in daily life. This is when He teaches me many lessons, and if I’m truly paying attention, I learn something valuable as I move from moment to moment.

Contemplation of my experiences is important, but I don’t stop there, especially if the lesson was a hard-learned one. It’s too tempting to wallow and play the victim. Rather, I continue facing forward and moving ahead by applying my newfound wisdom, understanding, and knowledge toward myself by working on my soul in partnership with Adonai.

This has built amazing trust in my relationship with HaShem as I progress from faith, which is mostly an intellectual exercise, to faithfulness, which is the act of structuring my life in such a way that reflects what I believe. Some of the building blocks in my process are the expression of gratitude, paying it forward, humility, forgiveness, learning to absorb the (metaphorical) arrows released against me, returning kindness for evil, and refusing to (physically/verbally) act upon or (emotionally) react to the drama others manufacture and try to lay at my feet.

I have good days, and sometimes, I have a less than good day. Thankfully, Adonai is patient, loving, and has more faith in me than I have in myself. We’ll keep working on me and continue building on the above-mentioned foundation. The next step, i.e., my goal for 2024, is to maintain this high standard of character (as defined by HaShem) and implement it in everything I do: writing, relationships, homemaking, Torah study, prayer life, etc.

 

I’m looking forward to 2024 and the plans Adonai has for me. Admittedly, when I stop to think about it, it’s scary and exciting all at once because I know I’ll be stepping away from certain things while moving toward others. It’s a beautiful dance that aligns my will with HaShem’s, and it’s for my good but more importantly for His glory.

Here’s to authentic joy and true shalom in 2024!

The Boxes in Which We Put Ourselves

October 14, 2014 By in Writing Advice, Writing Toolbox Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

The Writer Has the Last Word

The Writer Has the Last Word

It is my very great pleasure to share an article by Mela Saylor of The Greater Canton Writers’ Guild, Inc.  The following article was featured in the September newsletter.  Information regarding the Guild can be found at:  http://cantonwritersguild.org/

Mrs. Saylor’s personal blog can be found at:  http://paintandpens.blogspot.com/

The Boxes in Which We Put Ourselves ~ Mela Saylor

First time writers are always told “write what you know” and they dive into their pool of knowledge head first, taking their first tentative strokes with their pens. But after a few years and many laps of swimming in that subject matter, writers may feel the need to expand. To be brave, writers must get out of the pool and take a dive into the ocean.

Explore new topics, learn new things. 

The world of writing is vast, and I find that exciting – and there’s no need to stay on the same topic all the time. To be honest, your readers might be bored hearing the same topic all the time. Understandably, writers may discover they have a tendency to stay within certain comfort zones. But it is always good to step out of what we so often find ourselves writing. Learn something new and play with ideas – push them around, see how far they’ll stretch. We do need to keep in mind that there is a difference between having a recurrent theme and redundancy.

Writers may wish to ask themselves what they have learned as a writer this past year – your writing needs to grow right along with you. If your writing doesn’t grow, if it stays the same, it becomes stale. Make a promise to yourself to take a chance or two with your writing style and subject matter, explore and reach out into new horizons. Starting something new – topic, idea or story line – is exciting and keeping to what you’ve done before is limiting. Take a chance. Who knows where you’ll go.