Tag: Writing

Word Pictures

Green and pink paintingpng Vertical

Word Pictures March 22, 2014
By DiVoran Lites

Skylight from Couch
White clouds against blue sky
Squirrel on roof peeking down.

 Night bird

Chuck-will’s-widow, whippoorwill, cheering the night.

Cosmos

Bright yellow cosmos growing everywhere, add purples and whites.

Sandhill Cranes
Four sandhill cranes come to dance for us on Thanksgiving Day

The Darkness

In the darkest night, I sing His song to reveal His light.

Small Golden Cloud
Flitters of tiny dragonflies glinting like gilt flakes in the sunlight.

Green Peppers
Full of mood knobbly, and bulbous

 Angry Squirrel

Chatters, swishing tail at me.

 Yard

Yard with weeds, always yelling what it needs.

Octopus
Tentacles with suction cups reaching out from dark cave.

Cactus Flower
Bumble bee sleeping. Get busy bee.

 Cactus Bud

Brown bugs live, work, and sleep in cactus bud.

Rain
Clatters on porch roof like a tambourine.

 After Rain

Drop diamonds reflect shimmering flowers

Dragonfly
Backpedals in air, hovers, and then settles still, facing silence.

 Ocean

Waves shish shells to shore then take them back to sea.

Two by Two
Two green plants, two sparrows, two ants.

 Sunday Morning Sprinkler

Sprit, sprit, singing while diamonds sparkle on leaves.

Heart Healing
Cat lies on my chest, purring.

 

 

Do You Keep a Diary?

Diary
Writing Life

 

I’m reading a thick book called, A Diary of the Century by Edward Robb Ellis. He started keeping a diary in 1927 when he was seventeen and had boxes full of his writings when he died at 83. I’m just to the part where he got his first full-time job for Associated Press in New Orleans when Huey Long was trying to become the dictator of Louisiana.

Eddie speaks of The Great Depression, how the banks closed and people lost all the money they had. The stress was so bad many of them had heart attacks and died. When Eddie saw a breadline of over 200 starving men, he felt the depression was there to stay for a while.

Edward Robb Ellis’s wrote about large events of the days, and he wrote about his feelings and personal experiences, as well. To me that is a combination of a diary and journal. It is sometimes difficult to draw a line of separation between the two. We don’t need to do that if we want to combine them.

David in the Bible did the same thing. He wrote about events, he poured out his anguish, and then he prayed for help. It seems God answered the prayers as he was writing because often in the same Psalm where he’s asking for help he soon begins thanking God for His deliverance.

I write in a diary or journal almost every day. It never fails to lift my spirits. Only God can do that, of course, but writing is my best way to hear Him. Eddie said that writing a diary keeps him straight and honest with himself. I agree.

This week I’ve written about going to a sales party and seeing friends I haven’t seen for awhile. It was a joyous time. I’ve written about Bill and I having lunch with our son and walking around Lake Eola in Orlando. The swans are all in love. The turtles are swimming together. A beautiful black man in a hot pink tee shirt was walking entwined with his ladylove who looked like an exotic Indian dancer. The next day I had lunch with our daughter and we talked in mother daughter shorthand. I wrote all about that.

Today I had no appointments, but I got up grouchy. Thank the Lord there’s a way not to ruin my own day. First, I wrote about the dog next door. If he’s outside, he barks at us every time we open the door. I wrote about my headache. I even wrote about how Bill keeps washing the dishes and putting them in the drainer instead of rinsing them off and putting them in the dishwasher so I can accumulate a full load. I know, they are frivolous, silly complaints, but when I got through telling the God who loves me and who already knows everything about me, I felt relieved of a burden. I was ready to write His love pats. The process reminds me a little of David’s, but of course no one is trying to kill me, as they were him. The great thing is that God loves little old me as much as He did David and so he makes no difference in the help we need or deserve.

“Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on your altar.” Psalm 5:1-2

My journal
Journal

High Hopes

 

High Hope
Writing Life

Last week I started two new projects. One is a new novel, called, Roxy, and the other is my spring 2014 herb garden. I’ve really changed my approach to doing things. At one time, I read everything I could get on a subject and talked to people about how they did things. I tried to follow steps and instructions as closely as possible. I was anxious and uptight about how things were going to turn out and I often became stressed over them. I also felt as if someone else cared how I did it and was looking on judgmentally. That didn’t help at all.

It’s a good thing for us to have some idea what we’re doing, to read, do research, and take lessons, but at some point, we just have to launch out and see what works for us. What I’m doing now is an amalgamation of everything I ever read, thought, knew, and felt.

Last Monday I got out some notes I’d made by hand on Roxy and started putting the story on my computer. I used Victoria Lynn Schmidt’s Book in a Month, Raymond Obstfeld’s, Fiction First Aid, and Leigh Michaels’s, On Writing Romance, for prompts and inspirations, but I read only until I lost interest and then went on to something else. Also, I’m pacing myself, and it’s making my writing entertaining to me. I’m putting TLC into my characters and I can hardly wait to see what they do next. I’m taking care to see that each chapter is in decent shape before going on to the next one. The most important thing, the one that makes the difference is, I’m staying connected with my intuition. To me, that’s the same thing as being in touch with the Holy Spirit. The things He does when I attend Him are wonderful.

As for the herbs, Bill and I had strong new wood built into three raised beds for our plants. The beds have been ready for a month, they started calling to us last week and we went shopping for the plants. We bought six plants, all different. They are:

  1. Basil
  2. Tarragon
  3. Thyme
  4. Rosemary
  5. Oregano
  6. Marjoram

We read the directions and we planted them right, but with our own feelings for them, you might say loving each one and wishing it well. We plan to use them on the spot as well as to harvest and freeze-dry them at their peak. They make everything taste so much better, even when we follow our hearts in knowing what dishes to put them in.

On the way out of the store, a song played in my head…“High hopes, we have high hopes, high in the sky, apple pie hopes.” Yes. Hope is one of the most important things in the world, and we need to allow our Lord to set up things in our lives for us to hope for and to work toward. We need big things and small, spiritual and material to occupy our minds and give us the opportunity to be co-creators with our great and mighty God.

High Hope
High Hope by DiVoran Lites

 

#hope #herbgardening #writing #mondayblogs

Journaling

It is a good thing to get things off your chest, journaling or talking to a trusted friend are the best ways. However, if something is ultra private, and secret, the best thing to do is to write it out, rip it out, shred it, and dispose of it. That way you have the benefit of the writing and the insight, which will immediately or eventually come to you, and privacy. You have complete control over what goes into your journal. You may or may not have control over who reads it, or when they read it. Continue reading “Journaling”