Tag: Jimmetta Carpenter

The Questions We Ask Ourselves, and God (Part 1): Why Me?

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“I ask not for a lighter burden, but for broader shoulders.”

~ Jewish Proverb 

I have a ton of questions that I asks’ God on a regular basis.  These are questions that I probably know the answer to already but for some reason I never listen to that voice inside of myself until I go to him.  All he does is amplify that voice inside of me so that I actually start paying attention to it.  Have any of you ever found yourself asking God question after question and then wonder when you’re going to get any of the answers you’re waiting for?  I’m discovering that maybe the answers to our questions are already answered but we just aren’t paying close enough attention. 

The most common question that I find myself asking is why me?  There is so much that we go through in life and sometimes it starts to weigh you down.  Naturally the first thing you want to know is why do you have to go through this.  Why is this happening to you?  It just seems sometimes that things get really hard really fast and they take a really long time to get better.  It makes it even more difficult when the person next to you (figuratively) seems to have everything falling right into place just so neatly.  But their story is not your story.    

God puts us through things, not just for the sake of doing so, but to strengthen us.  He gives us tests so that we have testimonies to share so that we can be an example for others.  If you think about it you will realize that you already know the answer to why me.  It is because without your experiences, without those trials that you have been put through, your life story wouldn’t be the same.  You wouldn’t be the same person that you are without those moments that made you stronger.  You might not be as appreciative of your successes if you didn’t have all of the obstacles thrown in your way just to get to them.  

I’m not going to sit here and say that when I have a rough day, or a rough week, or even a rough month, that I won’t ask why me again.  However, I think that I won’t be waiting as long for the answer because I know why me.  I know that my story, my struggle, has a more profound meaning.  I know that my experiences will eventually be able to help someone else cope with their struggle and that I will be proof that for those that have been broken down, it was only so that you be built back up.  

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

Rest In Peace Whitney Houston

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I didn’t really have anything prepared for today but then I heard the terrible news that singer Whitney Houston had died.  I was shocked as most all of you were and I am deeply saddened because the world lost a wonderfully talented woman whose music touched so many lives.  

I am sitting here listening to MSNBC and hearing them question everyone as to how they think she will be remembered because regardless of her beautiful voice, she was focused on and highlighted in the media for her multiple dramas and drug use.  I can only hope that in this time of loss that people will not dwell on her flaws and praise her many successes and her wonderful talents.  

I know how I will remember her.  I will remember how melodic and angelic her voice sounded and how there will more than likely never be another voice like that one.  I remember wanting to get my voice to sound just like hers because no other voice was that beautiful.  I will remember the times that I felt heartbroken and I felt as if nothing but Whitney Houston’s songs could get me through that time.  I will remember that Whitney Houston was not perfect, but that just like anyone else who has fallen down onto hard times, she got back up and she kept on going.  

I will pray for her family and her friends and I hope that Whitney Houston can now Rest In Peace. 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

The Company You Keep Could Be Helping You Sabotage Yourself

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Number 5 on my list yesterday was ‘Keeping people around you that are not going to give you a swift kick in the ass’ and a part of that is not surrounding yourself with people who constantly try to do everything they can to bring negativity to you.  It is always good when you can separate yourself from those that do not support your goals and that do not believe in you.  But how do you separate yourself when the people or person who is against you is your family, not just family members, but your own mother.  

My mother has never been supportive of my dream of being a writer and she has been very verbal about the fact that she thinks that my pursuing that dream is a huge waste of time.  She made her point again today that I am wasting my time with this writing ‘stuff’ as she referred to it.  

Years ago that would have bothered me.  That would have eaten away at me and seeped inside of my soul with her words eventually starting to be projected in my own voice.  That would have sent me into months and months of questioning my dreams and whether I could really make them happen.  I would spend months thinking to myself that if my own mother doesn’t believe in me, then who else will. 

Like I said, that would have been me years ago.  That would have been a form of me self-sabotaging myself by way of my mother’s negativity.  Now I know that I can not completely cut my mother off (well I could but she did give birth to me so that would be wrong) but I have learned to distance myself from her.  More importantly, when she starts to talk about how my goals and dreams don’t matter and that their not worth the time and effort I am putting into them, I have to learn how to cut her off (respectfully of course) and tell her that I can’t be around the negativity.  

I know that you can’t really tune out or walk away from every negative vibe that tries to come within your orbit, but you can’t make your dream a reality if you don’t at least try.  Negative energy just breeds more negative energy so if you allow it into your inner circle then you also allow it to influence your spirit.  So if you are keeping people around you that are only bringing negative energy to you then it is time to distance yourself from them.  Stop sabotaging yourself with the company you are keeping.  Until tomorrow…Remember that your kin is not always your kind! 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

10 Things We Sometimes Do to Sabotage Ourselves

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I was thinking of all the ways and things people do to sabotage themselves.  Largely, I was thinking of all of the things that I am doing that are making me sabotage myself.  Unknowingly, this week has turned out to be one of looking inward at myself and reflecting on the things that I want and most importantly what I need to change within me to get those things that I am striving for.  I had no idea that was what this week would be for me but I am tired of feeling as if I am watching the life I want pass me by.  So I made a list of ten things that people do to hold themselves back from success. 

  1. Procrastination
  2. Making Excuses
  3. Pointing the finger at everyone else but yourself
  4. Doing a whole lot of planning without a lot of doing.
  5. Keeping people around you that are not going to give you a swift kick in the ass
  6. Not going after every possible opportunity that you can get your hands on
  7. Not taking care of yourself (both mental and physical health) before you take care of others
  8. Open their minds to change and do something new
  9. Say yes to everyone and continue to say no to yourself
  10. Over think everything instead of just doing 

Okay so that’s my list of which I am probably guilty of more than half of those things on that list.  Tomorrow I will go a little further into self-sabotage and what we can do to stop sabotaging our own destiny.  

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

Conquering Fear Doesn’t Happen Overnight

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It is typical for someone to give good advice to others without ever really taking that same advice themselves.  I’ve written a lot about not letting fear, whether it is fear of failure or fear of success, stop you from going after your dreams.  I stand by that advice but sometimes I just can’t seem to take it myself.  It isn’t that I don’t want to let the fear go, it just seems that I can’t.  I get moments where I feel fearless and ready to conquer the world.  Then something happens to set me back and I get afraid.  I find myself afraid that I won’t succeed, then afraid that I will.  

I spent a lot of time last night assessing exactly what it is that I seem to be doing wrong, or rather what is wrong with me.  Why it is that I keep missing opportunities simply by not going after them in the first place.  I look at my best friend Ms. L and watch her hustle her ass off to climb further and further up that ladder.  She’s doing what she loves to do and she is going into it all fearlessly.  Now Ms. L and I are both in pursuit of the same thing, success doing what it is we love to do.  We have different avenues of the media industry that we want to conquer but we are both passionate about creativity and writing and making a living at it.  I just can’t seem to mirror that same fierceness she has to hustle.  

I sat in my bed last night trying to figure out why.  Was it that I didn’t want it as bad anymore?  Is it that I just feel that I am not cut out to be my own businesswoman after all?  Can it just be that I am not hungry enough for it?  No, none of those things apply to me.  Then I realized that I’m still afraid.  I thought it had gone away.  I thought I had talked myself through the phase of being too afraid but somewhere along the way it crept back in.  I’m afraid of succeeding but mostly I’m afraid of failing at everything I’ve ever dreamed of.  

What I also realized in my moment of self analysis last night was that if I don’t try and give it my all then my fear will come true anyway.  I fail without even trying to succeed.  Not trying will be failing.  I wish I could say that the fear is gone now.  I wish that I could say that once it passes this time that it will never creep back in.  But I can say that I know that fear is not going to help me get what I want and what I’m destined to have; success.  For anyone out there experiencing a serious case of fear, you are not alone.  We will overcome it and climb our way up that ladder.  It just might take us a little bit longer than others.  Until tomorrow…Remember that Fear stands for False Evidence Appearing Real. 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

Seeing the Blessing in the Responsibilities that God Gives Us

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I spent a lot of time when I was little planning out my life and what I was going to do and be.  I even had time frames for certain things such as when I was going to become a New York Times staff writer and when I was going to get married and have children.  But I wasn’t always so optimistic about how my life would turn out.  

I grew up in an abusive home with a mother who was physically, mentally, and emotionally abusive and there were honestly days when I just didn’t want to wake up the next morning.  I will even admit that I tried to make it so I wouldn’t wake up multiple times and would get angry with God when it didn’t work.  I wondered why I was still here to go through the nightmare that I had to endure on a daily basis.  

Now that I am at the stage I am at in my life, which admittedly is not where I had hoped to be at this age, I can see exactly why it never worked.  God gave me a responsibility and a purpose.  The purpose was to influence and empower people with my words and the responsibility was my beautiful and wonderfully intelligent daughter who I just know is here to change the world in big ways that I can’t even begin to see yet.  

I was watching an episode of Tyler Perry’s House of Payne last week and it was something said that really struck a chord with me.  The father was telling his son (who after being shot and almost killed wished that he had just died) that God sometimes gives us responsibilities just to keep you moving.  He gives you those responsibilities along with the strength you need to achieve, and the provisions you need to conquer your problems.  But you have to keep moving and keep fighting.  

All of these responsibilities that I am stressing and worrying over and sometimes falling apart about were given to me specifically because God clearly saw something in me and believed that I could handle them.  Now, looking at things from that perspective, I feel even more special because God must see more strength in me then I can see in myself.  If God is going to put faith in me like that then how can I keep questioning him and not put faith in him and trust in his plan and his path that he has laid out for me.  

I am writing this today because I felt compelled to.  I felt as if there might be someone else out there (besides me) who continues to have questions about why certain burdens were bestowed upon them.  It is all for a reason and there is a blessing in every burden, even if you don’t see it yet.  I hope that anyone out there going through a rough time right now will trust in God and his reasoning.  Until tomorrow…Keep moving forward and keep fighting through it. 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

Letting Go of an Unwanted Label

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Ms. L did a blog series last week about the labels that we, as a society, place on ourselves.  It seemed as if almost all of them applied to me in some way, shape, or form, but the one that really screamed out to me was broke.  She and I talked in depth about this particular label because I tend to have to cry broke almost every other week (on a bad month it might be every week).  

It seems as if when the money does come in the bills and whatever my daughter needs at any given moment eats it all up.  It occurred to me when reading Ms. L’s post that if I keep putting it out there that I am broke, that quite possibly may be the reason that I remain that way.  It is said that you attract whatever energy you put out and if that is in fact true then putting out the energy of always being broke would only attract more instances of being broke.  

I joke all of the time about wishing that I was lucky enough to win the lottery but the funny thing is I would have to actually play the lottery in order to win it.  I shy away from the practice of playing the lottery only because I don’t want to end up being even more broke than I already am.  But I never consider the odds of me actually winning the lottery.  I never even put off that energy.  

If I keep holding on to that title of being broke or thinking that I am not lucky enough to achieve something having never even given it a try then it is no wonder the label of being broke is holding on to me.  From now on I am just going to say that I am temporarily out of cash (T.O.C.) because that’s all it really is.  I am not broke because in a lot of ways I am richer in certain areas that don’t even involve having money.  That is one label I am more than happy to shed.  Until tomorrow…What label would you let go of? 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

7 Things About Me You May (or May Not) Want to Know

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Okay so here are 7 things about me that I know my readers probably don’t know about me and that I don’t typically share with most people.  I warn you that I am really not that interesting so if you are expecting some juicy, earth shattering secrets, I am sorry to disappoint you.  Here goes… 

  1. When I was younger (and much better at it) I had another career path that I had always dreamed of doing in addition to writing.  I wanted and dreamed about being a singer.  I think that I would’ve been a really good one too, but that time has come and gone.  Although if someone offered me a record deal today I would totally take it in a second.  (I would write my own music of course)
  2. It has always been a secret desire of mine to take dance classes.  I’m not sure what style of dance because I’m not exactly the ballet or tap type, but maybe contemporary.
  3. I started to love to cook around the age of 12 or 13 by watching Julia Child on MPT and I would someday love to go to culinary arts school and own my own restaurant.
  4. I am about to go back to school to get my Master’s Degree in Psychology and I am actually, for the first time in life, dreading that stage of school.  I’m worried I won’t be able to keep up with the course load.
  5. I am terrified of heights and deathly afraid of being in water (not shower type of water but ocean type of water).  Oddly enough I want to travel around the world which requires flying and possibly even being on some type of boat at some point in time.
  6. I love being a mom, probably more than anything else in this world, maybe even more than being a writer (shh! Don’t tell anyone I said that).
  7. I absolutely hate most of the latest technology advances and would probably never own any of the stuff that most writers are dying to have. 

Well I think I have bared enough of myself for one day.  I’m going to go hide under the covers now, I feel exposed!  

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

I Was Honored To Be Chosen and Now I Pass On This Honor To 7 Others

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Okay so back on the 16th of January I was selected by my best friend Ms. L as a Versatile Blogger Award recipient.  I was once again selected by one of my blog’s followers, Leonie Lucas, for the Versatile blogger award.  I know it took me long enough to get around to actually accepting my award that I really do cherish and am honored to get but today I am doing just that.  So first let me just say thank you to Ms. L and Leonie Lucas again for my award.  

So as I understand, accepting the award requires me to pass the award along to seven other bloggers and to tell my readers seven little known things about myself.  So tonight I will make my seven selections and share them with you here and tomorrow I will share seven things about myself (whether you will find them interesting or not is another story).  

  1. Confessions of a Love Addict– Blog by Lindsey Tigar
  2. The Daily Cocca– Blog by Chris Cocca
  3. Nail Your Novel– Blog by Roz Morris
  4. Nissi Knows– Blog by Nissi x
  5. Screenwriting From Iowa– Blog by Scott Smith
  6. Roger Tharpe-  A Voice Crying Out Into The Wilderness – Blog by Roger Tharpe
  7. Futuristically Yours– Blog by Harold 

Tomorrow I will disclose 7 things about myself. 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

Taking Time To Tell God Thank You

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Every morning when I workout at the gym and I am running in the gym I ask God to give me the strength to finish.  To give me the strength to not quit and give up half way through when I am so close to the end.  I honestly couldn’t explain any other way I manage to finish my workouts in the mornings if it were not for the strength that God gives me.  But that’s not all that God gives me the strength for.  

There are so many things in my life that I would not have made it through if it were not for his love and his strength.  I thank him for so many things, my daughter, my words and the talent that I have, my best friend and all of my other friends who enhance my life in some way.  Mostly I thank him for never failing me and always guiding me, even when I couldn’t see where he was guiding me to.  

I don’t know what my life would be like without all of the things I have been through but I do know how lost I would be without God weaved throughout every facet of my life.  I just wanted to take the time out today to thank God for everything that he has seen me through and for never leaving my side.  Until tomorrow…Never forget that through God all things are possible.     

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress