Monday, January 23, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Vulnerable Writing and Letting it in...
So I took a workshop at a writers group on Thurday night. The speaker was Author/Publisher Mark W. Dendy of Coffee Cup Press. I enjoyed many parts of his workshop but one area of his topic stood out the most. The topic of being vulnerable in your writing. I had to ask myself if I was vulnerable in my writing and the answer was clear. I couldn't have written a 75,000 word novel about love, pain, loss and triumph unless I let my feelings flow. I never set out to write a novel, nor did I ever imagine it would be published by such a wonderful publishing company. I wrote because I loved my characters. They inspired me to keep going and I guess a part of me vicariously lived through them. You see I created what I must had been lacking in my life at the time. I created people that took on their own personality and as much as I would like to pretend that they were not part of who I am, they are. Now that does not mean that Alexander, a evil vilian in my novel is part of me and that I want or have those tendencies to be like him but his nastyness definately made me angry and outraged. But here is the vulnerable part...In a month or two, many friends, family and strangers will be reading my words that I strung together into paragraphs and pages. It contains parts of me and that's just down right scary. My thoughts and emotions will be open for all to see when at this point only a select few have read them. Lets just be frank here...that is major vulnerability! Up unitl recently I was a very private person and soon many people will know how my mind works. I have made many mistakes in life, and some of my biggest in just the last few months. I have been so afraid to feel emotions that when I finally did, I hid behind my pretend world of writing and denied any of it was real. But guess what? It's all coming out people..I am writing book two of The Summerland Series and all I seem to do is pour my heart out into the pages where the feelings are controllable. Where I can control if I want to feel pain or love or anger. Maybe, just maybe writing and being vulnerable to it is the only way for me to create. But I also am learning that if I'm ever going to feel, really feel..I will have to let go of fearing love and the pain that comes with it and embrace the possibilities that what I write in my stories are right here in the real world..I just have to let it all in.
I wish all of you writers, dreamers and hopeless romantics a lifetime of good books and great love and the vulnerabilty to let it in.
Happy Monday,
Elizabeth Cheryl
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
If you could meet anyone.....
Someone asked me recently If I could meet anyone who would it be? What a vastly vague question I thought to myself. I pondered it for a moment thinking that there is no one so great that I would be excited to meet other than The Dalai Lama. I'm not sure if excited would be the word either, more like spiritually enlightened...
I decided after completing a 100 hour workshop on how to teach Yoga I would expand my mind on a few things. I had just finished reading the Gita, which was very interesting. I now wanted to learn more about The Dalai Lama and his thoughts about our world and life. I recently purchased a book called. "My Spiritual Journey" by: The Dalai Lama... After only reading the first few pages of his writings I knew this book was going to change my life. I thought I would take a few minutes to share with you a paragraph or two in hopes that it will make a difference in your day.
"We are all alike"
"No matter what part of the world we come from, fundamentally we are all the same human beings. We all seek happiness and want to avoid suffering. As human beings, we all want to be free, to have the right to decide our own destiny as individuals as well as the destiny of our people. That is human nature.
The problems that confront us today are created by man, whether they are violent conflicts, destruction of the environment, poverty, or hunger. These problems can be resolved thanks to human efforts, by understanding that we are brothers and sisters and by developing this sense of fraternity. We must cultivate a universal responsibility toward each other and extend it to the planet that we have to share.
I feel optimistic that the ancient values that have sustained mankind are reaffirming themselves today, preparing the way for a better, happier twenty-first century.
I pray for all of us, oppressor and friend, so that together we can succeed in building a better world through mutual understanding and love, and that in doing so we may reduce the pain and suffering of all sentient beings."
The Dalai Lama December 10, 1998 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, quoted in part above.
I decided after completing a 100 hour workshop on how to teach Yoga I would expand my mind on a few things. I had just finished reading the Gita, which was very interesting. I now wanted to learn more about The Dalai Lama and his thoughts about our world and life. I recently purchased a book called. "My Spiritual Journey" by: The Dalai Lama... After only reading the first few pages of his writings I knew this book was going to change my life. I thought I would take a few minutes to share with you a paragraph or two in hopes that it will make a difference in your day.
"We are all alike"
"No matter what part of the world we come from, fundamentally we are all the same human beings. We all seek happiness and want to avoid suffering. As human beings, we all want to be free, to have the right to decide our own destiny as individuals as well as the destiny of our people. That is human nature.
The problems that confront us today are created by man, whether they are violent conflicts, destruction of the environment, poverty, or hunger. These problems can be resolved thanks to human efforts, by understanding that we are brothers and sisters and by developing this sense of fraternity. We must cultivate a universal responsibility toward each other and extend it to the planet that we have to share.
I feel optimistic that the ancient values that have sustained mankind are reaffirming themselves today, preparing the way for a better, happier twenty-first century.
I pray for all of us, oppressor and friend, so that together we can succeed in building a better world through mutual understanding and love, and that in doing so we may reduce the pain and suffering of all sentient beings."
The Dalai Lama December 10, 1998 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, quoted in part above.
Have a wonderful Holiday and a loving New Year
Elizabeth Cheryl
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