I think you’d like this story: “Far, Far Away” by SingulariCreator on Wattpad http://w.tt/212c8m9.
This story is kinda weird and really off beat. But it is well written and I think that it will be a great novel when the author is done with it!
Actually Persuing National Novel Writing Month
Good morning.
Well, one my posts from a while back was about how I was going to try and complete the NaNoWriMo challenge. Obviously I did not. But this year, I attempted it again and I am actually following through. As of right now I have 31,000 words. And I am super proud of myself for getting this far. Now the tricky part is staying on track and actually finishing the novel and getting it published. I am astounded at how faithful I have been to the story, for once. I have had this idea built up in my mind for the past three years now I am so pleased to say that I am finally getting somewhere with it! God gave me this idea and the want to write and get it published and I hope that He will do something great with this story.
Anyways, I would just really like to encourage anyone who is taking the NaNoWriMo challenge to stick with it and finish your novel. A half finished book won’t ever get read, nor will it ever change someone else’s life. That is the most amazing thing about novels and books; they make people think and see things in ways that they never thought they would see them in. Thought provoking books (well, thought provoking anything, reall) are what we need in this day and age. In a world that seems too dark and filled with too many cruel people, we all need a little bit of inspiration to get out there and change something. (Of course, that change will never happen unless God wills it) But God might use your novel to inspire someone else to do what God needs them to do. We are all part of His bigger picture and we all have a unique purpose. And even the ideas that He has given every one of us play into that. So don’t give up! And don’t doubt yourself, either. Just write until it is finished. Than go back and edit. That is a lesson that I have really had to learn the hard way!
Stay Inspired!
Miranda
The Story of Your Life…
Hello there! I know that I have not been on my blog recently. I have been super busy between work, church, church functions, family get togethers, a family trip to Disneyworld…I haven’t had much time this past year. I would like to get back into the habbit of writing on this blog, since I do enjoy it so much. And I also want to continue blogging so that I can share my story and inspire others to think outside of the box, but most importantly to kneel before the merciful God of the universe, repent and ask him into their hearts.
That’s where I’m at this evening as I am writing this. I was alone in our apartment tonight, cleaning and listening to music. I put on The Story of Your Life (hence this posts title) by Matthew West. Let me just say that he is an incredible Christian singer/songwriter. If anyone who reads this is looking for inspiring, convicting, uplifting, hope-filled music, check him out. His words will change your life forever!
Anyways at first I was just listening, picking up trash and doing the laundry. After some work, I sat down on the couch with the booklet from the CD and I began to read the stories that inspired the songs.
Side note: The Story of Your Life is an album where all of the songs were inspired by the trials and testimonies that Matthew West recieved while staying in a backwoods cabin in Tennesse for two months. They are all real stories and they all have something to tell us and teach us.
End side note.
I had known some of them. But I was looking at the story behind the song titled Broken Girl. Matthew West said that he was shocked to have recieved so many stories about how girls had been sexually abused when they were younger. He also said that one in every four testimonies that he recieved were about this. And than he went on to say that this was the very first song that he had ever written out of anger. That was the first thing that hit me. a man, who had never met any of these girls, felt angry for what had happened to them.
Which begged one question: why?
1 Peter 4:8 ESV
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
James 5:16 ESV
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
Proverbs 27:17 ESV
Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
We are to love and build each other up, to protect each other and care for one another, both within the kingdom of God and outside it.
While anger is sin and never justified, I felt that I understood his wrath. It wasn’t a selfish, prideful anger. He was upset that these girls had their innocence and childhoods ripped from them by selfish, sinful people. Even though he never suffered through their pain, (I don’t know, maybe he did) he understood. And I understand because I know someone who suffered the same abuse…my mother. While I have never felt her pain, it made me angry to know that someone would hurt her like that. I wanted no mercy for the person who did such awful things to her. God showed me that that anger was wrong and sinful. But my point is that, even though we have never been through their exact trials, we still feel for them, because we all know what “sexual abuse” implies. It encompasses a lot. And it ultimately encompasses tons of pain and torment for the victims.
I guess what I am attempting to say, is that we get angry, or sad, or upset, when we hear about other people’s tragic pasts and struggles. But just because we haven’t been through that, doesn’t mean that we don’t understand, at least to some extent. And that certainly doesn’t mean that we can’t help them through it.
In today’s society, we are brought up, believing that experience is everything. (Actually we are raised believing that education is everything, but that is a whole other set of posts by it’s self!)
How many people have been fed these lines at least once in their lifetime?
“You don’t know anything about love unless you’ve been in a relationship”.
“You don’t understand my pain”.
“You don’t know what it is like to be me”.
And maybe I don’t know what it is like to be “you”. But I know what it is like to be me. And I know what my own pain feels like. And even though we suffer through different trials, we’re all the same deep down inside. We are broken, helpless sinners who desparately need to be saved. And I think that that is ultimately where Matthew West’s anger came from. He wanted all of those girls to know that there is hope for them, no matter how dark things may seem. And he was angry at those men for plunging those girls into lives of anguish and dispair. Because I know somebody who has been through that I understand where his anger came from. And I truly feel for each and every one of those brave women who shared their testimonies. My struggles are much different. But that doesn’t make them any easier, or any less real.
The last thing that I wanted to add was this:
We all have stories. Deep, complex stories, that have torn us up and beaten us down. There are hundreds upon hundreds of plot twists and scary moments. And things that we’ve regretted doing, or not doing. And maybe there are more calm parts to one person’s story than another’s. No matter what, we all have testimonies. It’s the Story of Your Life and it is most definitely a story worth sharing with the world!
Stay Inspired!
CraftyTravels17
Dazed and Confused…
When was the last time that you sat down and thought, actually, really thought, about what you had accomplished this year? Did it make you proud? Did you smile because you had accomplished those New Years resolutions? Or did you stare at the table, realizing that you were a lazy procrastinator? I know I did. And that hit me harder than I would have expected.
So I know that this is the new year. And that is really exciting! But why? We anticipate the coming of the new year so that we can make all these fancy resolutions only to fail them. In the past I have failed every single resolution that I have attempted. I tried to read 30 books in a year when I was 13. I failed. I promised myself that I would get more trim (not because I am overweight, I’m not, but because I wanted to look a little better in a swim suit)…failed that too. I said that I would finish one of my novels last year also. But none are finished. They are closer though.
I know that I’m not alone. There are thousands of people out there who never accomplish their resolutions. And can I tell you? I am sooo tired of lying to myself. I say that I will do something and than I don’t. How lousy is that?! Today I was thinking about that. And it made me sad to know that I haven’t actually done anything that I said I would, new years resolution wise. I feel like I have been passing through life, dazed and confused…I feel like for the past two years, maybe three, I have been mentally sedated. And realizing this has plunged me into sadness. I knew for a while but I never did anything about it. I would just roll over and let the storm, built from anger against myself, my extended family and certain circumstances pass. I had become one of those, “poor-me, but I won’t do anything about it, ” victims of their circumstances. And I’m not proud of that. I don’t want to live this way anymore. That’s NOT living, actually. Well, today I am changing myself for the better. And I hope thatn if you are with me in this, that you are motivated to change too. The New Year is about change. But how many of us actually change? I want to encourage all of my followers and future followers. Let’s make 2015 the best year we can. Let’s actually resolve to change. Let’s do things that we have always wanted to do. Let’s go on crazy adventures and make friends with the most unlikeliest of people. Let’s make this a year worth remembering. I hope that we can all stand at the end of the year, looking back through the memories. And I hope that all of us can actually say that we made the changes we promised.
Stay inspired!
Sincerely,
Miranda
Streets of Paris, uncolored
This is a work of art that I did, inspired by my time in Paris, France. I am going to color this, probably using watercolor. The picture cut part of it out but there is the Eiffel Tower in the backround. I will scan it into the computer when I get it finished and that way you can see the full image.
Stay Inspired!
Sincerely,
Miranda
Why do we stereotype, why do we judge?
This is a topic that has been on my mind for a very long time now. In a world that is supposedly promoting all of us to be unique and to follow our own paths why is it that we still judge people for not fitting into certain stereotypes? Ever since I made the bold and, you could almost call it, radical decision not to attend college, I have been judged, ridiculed and hated for it. Almost every person that I meet has told me that I am making a mistake, throwing away my life, tossing my talents down the drain. Not just myself but my best friend, my older sister, my father, my mother, just about all of my friends and A LOT of strangers that I have met and talked with. Thousands upon thousands of people have all been put down for going our own way. Even the people who don’t go their own way get ridiculed. And it has always made me think: why do we stereotype, why do we judge?
If we were living in a world that really wanted us to be independent our choices for education, religion, friends, family, careers, houses…none of that would matter.
No, the world, the government, even each other, we don’t want all of us to be our own people. The government doesn’t want us to be independent. Because, when we are independent and when we choose our own path and when we think for ourselves, we don’t need them. And the government wants us to need them. They NEED us to need them. Because they would have so much more control over us if we all needed them to run our lives.
No. They do not want us to be free, independent thinkers with our own ideas about how things should be. They want us to join the stereotypes that society has deemed acceptable. Society has rules. And all of us are supposed to follow them, no questions asked. We aren’t supposed to decide that certain things are wrong. We are just expected to choose the path that we are told to choose.
And none of us have ever wanted everyone to be completely unique. Because, when they don’t fit into the same stereotypes that we do, than we feel like we might not have as much in common and we also feel like we might be judged for choosing these people as friends.
But this is never how I have looked at this situation before. In my opinion, who they are, their gender, their race, their education, their religion,their faith, their social status, their job, their money, their car, their house, their likes, their dislikes, their fashion, their opinions, their political stance….NONE OF THAT SHOULD MATTER! we are always so quick to judge someone based on these qualities, or lack thereof. They tell us that they never went to college and we automatically assume that they are not smart. They tell us that they belong to a certain religion and immediately we think that they are closeminded people who only accept others of their same religion. If you’re a Democrat and this person is a Republican, heaven forbid that you become friends! What is wrong with our society? We do not stereotype because we want to but because we have been raised to do so. Why can’t we just stop judging the people around us? Why is it that we simply cannot accept EVERYONE for who they are? I don’t think that that is fair. Everyone deserves to be accept and included, regardless of who they are. I don’t care who you are or what you believe in. EVERYONE should feel wanted and loved. We have to quit judging people and worrying about silly stereotypes. All a stereotype is is a word that places a person in a specific category. We separate everyone, we organize them. And that’s not right. We have to stop doing this. By doing this we are building certain people, who fit into more desired categories, up, making them look better, giving them enormous egos. And we are tearing others, who don’t fit into these particular stereotypes down. And you don’t need a little green bug to tell you that this is wrong. We should all know, in our hearts, that this is not acceptable behavior.
Every single person in this world (myself heavily included) is guilty of doing this and we all need to fight to stop it. Period. There are no exceptions. There isn’t anybody who deserves to be judged or put down. Even if they have done that to others, they still do not deserve it. “Do unto others as you would have done unto you.” We all should try to live by this saying. If we all treated everyone the way that we expected to be treated than the world would be a much happier, more peaceful place. We have to stop stereotyping. Please like if you agree with me! And, together, by making an impact on this website, maybe we could make an impact in this world.
Stay inspired!
Sincerely,
Miranda
Thor vs. Alien: who will prevail?
A few weeks ago, my sisters and I went to the local Comic Con! It was so much fun and we saw some of the coolest costumes! (Like the ones in the photo above) We also saw a great Cat Woman costume, several Indiana Jones’s, like a million Malcolm Reynolds (from Firefly), an Awesome Captain America costume, some M.L.P.s (not a fan of those ponies…don’t know why any adult would dress as a kid’s character)
Anyways, we also saw lots of other costumes like Hogwarts students, a plethora of superheroes, several cool- looking Joker costumes, Storm Troopers, Darth Vader, Wolverine and Gambit (my youngest sister went as Storm so that was cool!) And a bunch of others! It was fun to be united with fellow geeks and costplayers! I myself went as Flynn Rider the first day and Emma Swan the second day. My older sister dressed up in her Steampunk regalia the first say and she wore her geek stuff the second day. Our youngest sister didn’t dress up on the first day but she went as Storm on the second day.
The Artist’s Alley was overflowing with a plethora of talented artists and costplayers. We even got to meet Tom Cook! He was a famous artist working for Hannah-Barbara back in the day. He worked on all the cool cartoons including He-Man, She-Ra, The Jetsons, Scooby-doo, Thundarr the Barbarian and a lot of others! He’s a fantastic artist and we bought a print for our dad, which Tom signed for us. It was pretty cool. The venders were awesome, too, filled with tons of geek gear, jewelry, steampunk regalia, comic books (obviously), Pops! (Lots of those!!) And a ton of stuff! If you have never been to a convention you should go. It is such a relief to know that you are not the only hard-core geek in this world. It is also a lot of fun to see how creative and unique we all are. I have been, now, to four different conventions and I have loved each one. I hope this is an inspiration to all closet-geeks or anyone who is a geek to unite with their fellow geeks! 🙂
Stay inspired!
Sincerely,
Miranda
Street Art of the Week: Part Two!
Hello everyone! I regret to say that life has exploded and I was far too busy to have any time to write on my blog! Now that I have a bit of a free moment I thought that I would post another fabulous street art to help inspire. This piece of art is one of my absolute favorites and I wanted to share it with all of you so that it could (hopefully) become one of your favorites too! So anyways, here it is.
This is awesome, isn’t it? I have no idea where this is but I hope that someday, through my travels that I will get to see this in person! I hope that you all have enjoyed this post. And I hope that you have all had a blessed and stress-free week.
Stay Inspired!
Sincerely,
Miranda
Zombie Dreams……
Zombified Rick. What he would look like if he got turned into a zombie.
The past few nights, for absolutely no apparent reason, I have had dreams about a zombie apocalypse. I was a little baffled by the first one that I had two nights ago. Than, last night I had another and one that was more freaky. I will give the basic details for both dreams. (Or what I remember, anyways!)
In the first dream, we were in an enormous grocery store. The people I remember in my dream are myself, my sisters, my parents, a couple of my
O.C.s (O.C. stands for ‘original character’ for those of you who might not know.) But that is nothing strange. They show up in my dreams all the time! There was a couple of yappy school girls and the mayor of a town that doesn’t even exist (I looked it up). And I think Rick from The Walking Dead was there too! That’s why I picked that photo for the post!
We took all of the food from all of the aisles and used it to make a barricade from the zombies. Several people got dragged away to be eaten and right before we got out of the grocery store, I woke up. This dream wasn’t bad and I laughed to see how hysterical everyone was. In this dream, we all could have used a mild sedative. Everyone was running around like chickens with their heads cut off. (If you’ve never seen this, you should. It’s both hilarious and gross!)
The next dream is more freaky but not too much so.
I remember that the sky was always set in a dark, misty blackish-orange color. I was in my house but it looked different. Things were bigger and nicer. Than, zombies came and attached us and they turned my father into a zombie. This scared me a little, I will admit. Our neighborhood was made up of a bunch of survivors and we never set fires or draw attention so that the zombies wouldn’t find us. But one night, while we were all hiding out in our houses our neighbors lit the fence on fire. My dachshund, who I have in real life, her name is Dot, noticed and began barking. I went outside and helped some of my other neighbors put it out. Than we discovered that the fire had been set on purpose to attract the zombies. And than we heard moaning outside my door and we freaked out. Than I woke up. It was such a vidid and scary dream! Both were, really, and I really hope that I don’t have another dream like these tonight!!
I was, however, thinking that it would be fun to make a continuing short story about these dreams. That would be fun! And I think I will start that now. 🙂
Stay Inspired!
Sincerely,
Miranda
Street Art of the week
Every week, I will post a public work of street art to help promote creativity! This being my first post for this, I thought that I would choose one of my absolute favorite works that I have ever seen!
This is a mural done of the Library inside Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. I have been in this library and if you love books like I do, you would have died and gone to heaven. I fell in love with that room and I didn’t want to leave. The musty smell of ink and paper that fills that room is fabulous. I was completely intoxicated by the smells, sights, sounds and feelings of being in such an amazing, massive library and the biggest one that I have ever seen. If you ever visit Dublin, Ireland, you simply must go here! It Is a phenomenal experience and one that I will never forget. I have never seen this work of art in person though and I do not know where it is. But you can access the picture off of Pinterest. Next week I will post a totally different work of art! Stay Inspired!
Sincerely, Miranda
craftytravels17 