Tag: writing

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I Guess I’m All Out of Sick Days Now

March 14, 2012March 14, 2012 jcladyluv

Oh how I have missed my blog! I know I haven’t posted since last week and it was completely unintentional. I came down with a really bad cold at the end of last week and I just wasn’t able to produce anything that I felt was worthy of being read and then my daughter had a virus over the weekend, which I in turn was inflicted with on Monday and Tuesday.

Needless to say, I have had more than enough time to realize just how important it is to have back up posts and plans of what to have ready for your blog in case of emergencies or necessary sick days that may need to be taken. In the regular work world where you go to an office from 9 to 5 Monday through Friday you get a set amount of sick days (that’s not to be confused with vacation days) and typically it’s about five. Well it’s been about that many days for me (I don’t count Sunday because I don’t blog on Sundays anyway) so I suppose that means I have completely used up my sick days for the year.

I guess that just means I really don’t have any more excuses but to buckle down and cast that self doubt I have about myself and my abilities out of my mind and do what I know needs to be done as far as my writing career. I have a lot of plans and things to work on and put in motion before this month is over and there is literally no time to waste anymore.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

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

A Moment to Pray

March 7, 2012 jcladyluv

I am still not feeling much like writing (or doing much of anything else) lately. I thought that I might be coming out of my funk this morning when I woke up but somewhere throughout the course of the day that same mood crept back in. I’m not going to lie, I gave into it today. But I really am trying here to pull myself out of whatever this feeling is that suddenly came over me. So in an effort to try and re-motivate myself I have been trying to read uplifting and motivating things and I came upon a book that I was given a few years ago called ‘Dear God, It’s Me and It’s Urgent: Prayers for every season of a woman’s life’ by Marion Stroud. I look through it from time to time and some days it helps. Tonight I was looking through it and came across this one prayer that I just wanted to share a part of.

Thank you, Lord, that you provide this belt of truth.

Please help me to discern the half truths and the lies hurled at me by the enemy.

And when they scream for entry at the doorway of my mind,

Help me to refuse, both to receive them or believe them.

Thank you for the breastplate that protects my heart and my emotions.

Keeping me from being wounded by the jibes of others,

Or being bound by the fear of the reactions of those

Whose good opinion is so important to me.

Banish compromise please Lord,

Enabling me to do what’s right-consistently.

And as I wear these running shoes of the readiness to share your love,

Keep me from being sidetracked, Lord,

or from avoiding the stony paths.

Help me to be ready to go wherever you may send me,

and prepared to set out at a moment’s notice.

The prayer goes on for another page or so but I just wanted to share the part that struck me the most. There was also a scripture in the book that accompanied the prayer.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.

– Ephesians 6:10-11, NIV

I just wanted to share this with all of you and I hope that these words help someone else beside me today.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

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

Control Issues

March 6, 2012 jcladyluv

I haven’t really been feeling myself lately and it’s started to affect my writing but I suppose the truth is that it’s only been able to affect my writing because I have subconsciously allowed it too. I got a good lecture from Ms. L. today about how I can not allow myself to get so depressed over the things that I can’t control that it takes away my power to do what it is I can control. So I have to somehow drag myself out of this funk that I seem to be in and pour my energy into doing what I know I’m supposed to be doing right now. I can’t control the things that are continuing to go wrong in my life but my writing career is something that I can control (at least the aspects of it that don’t involve investing money right now) so I have to direct my focus on that. I know what I need to do now I just have to buckle down and do it.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

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

Revisiting an Old Love

March 3, 2012March 3, 2012 jcladyluv

When I was younger and started writing all I wrote was poetry. I fell in love with what poetry did for me. It allowed me to say everything that I needed to say and express all of the pain that I felt without having to say anything to anyone in particular. I filled up reams and reams of paper with my thoughts and my feelings that I either felt could not be shared with anyone else, or no one cared enough to listen. For years, I suppose until I left a sufficient amount of emotions on the pages that I filled up, that was all that I wrote. Then I found and fell in love with telling a story in novel form and I set out to be a novelist.

In the last couple of days, as I’ve been sorting through some feelings that I don’t even really understand right now, I have somehow found poetry again. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that poetry has found me again. Now I haven’t actually formulated a whole entire poem yet but I can hear it in my head. The different lines from several different soon to be written poems continue to repeat themselves in my head over and over again but they haven’t decided to come together just yet. But I haven’t felt the vibe to write poetry in a very long time and it feels like it might be coming back to me. What’s funny is that I didn’t even realize that I had missed it.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

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

With an Unfocused Mind I Still Showed Up

March 1, 2012 jcladyluv

“Eighty percent of success is showing up.”

~Woody Allen

Today I woke up with a lot of things on my mind (more than normal) so I’ve been a little stuck today and I just couldn’t seem to concentrate on anything. But even though I my mind was too jumbled up to think straight today I knew that I wouldn’t be satisfied with going to bed without writing something. So here I am, unfocused thoughts and all, showing up to the page (or computer if you will) to essentially check in with the world and say that I will have something more meaningful (hopefully) to share tomorrow.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

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

Just Something I Wanted To Share With You

February 25, 2012February 25, 2012 jcladyluv

I don’t really have much to say today but I saw this somewhere and it was really helpful for me and I hope that it will help someone else out there as well.

In Happy Moments….Praise God

In Difficult Moments….Seek God

In Quiet Moments….Worship God

In Painful Moments….Trust God

Every Moment…..Thank God

–Author Unknown

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

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

There’s Nothing Wrong with a Little Healthy Competition

February 22, 2012 jcladyluv

“I’m not in competition with anybody but myself. My goal is to beat my last performance.”

~Celine Dion

I have never considered myself to be competitive. I was never an athlete in school. I never competed in anything academically; well not unless you count the elementary class spelling bees. I was never one to really fight for what I wanted when I was younger. I guess I just didn’t really have any fight in me then and I would just step aside if I thought someone could do something better than me. To be honest I didn’t have fight in me until the last several years.

So when someone at my gym said to me today that they knew I could do something that another person was doing (which I kept telling him I couldn’t) simply because he knew I would never let someone else outdo me, I was a little taken aback to realize that he was right. It’s funny but I didn’t even realize that somewhere along the way I had become competitive (but not in a bad way). When I see someone doing something (at least when it comes to physical activity in the gym) that I have convinced myself in my mind that I should be able to do I can’t seem to get rid of the urge to prove that I can actually do it. I think that I am mostly competitive with myself because I find myself trying to beat my own records and my own accomplishments, convinced that I can do better then what I did before.

Now if I only took that competitive spirit that I have in the gym and infused it into my writing. I mean it wouldn’t exactly be the same sort of competition because there’s no strenuous physical activity involved. But maybe if I can keep in my mind when I see someone in my inner circle doing something that I know I should be out there doing, that there’s no reason that I can’t do that. In writing perhaps I just need to stay in good competition with myself, trying on a continuous basis to outdo my own efforts.

I know that some people might think that being competitive is a bad thing, and I suppose it can be if you are not correctly directing your competitive nature to the right places in your life. You shouldn’t be in competition with the person next to you because they aren’t the ones standing in your way. You not trying to become better each time you achieve something is what stands in your way. Sometimes you have to compete with your own best efforts because it can make you a better person and better at your craft or talent. Until tomorrow…There’s nothing wrong with a little healthy competition, as long as you don’t lose sight of what you are competing for.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

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

Graduating to the Next Level

February 21, 2012 jcladyluv

“The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.”

~Emile Zola

This morning someone said to me as I was coming out of the gym, after complimenting me on my continuous efforts to get better in my physical fitness, that as long as I keep putting in the effort and hard work God was going to keep graduating me to the next level. There was something about the thought of being promoted by God to the next level of my life, or even the next level of my journey to maintain a healthier lifestyle that made me think deeply about what that meant in other areas of my life as well.

I will admit that when I started this conscious effort over two years ago to change the way I eat and my relationship with food, in addition to changing the way I think and feel about physical exercise, I became a little obsessed with it. I think that it might have come at the expense of my passion with writing every single moment I could get. I literally used to write everywhere I went, on napkins, on little bulletins or scraps of paper, I would write while I was eating, sometimes while I was lying down (supposedly trying to go to sleep). I put that much hard work and effort into it and while I had not yet saw the fruits of my labor at that time I didn’t really care, I was just consumed with the passion that I had to write.

When I wonder now why I have not yet gotten to where I feel I should be in my writing career yet, I now have to consider the fact that I simply stopped putting in the extreme hard work and efforts that I used to in order for me to graduate to that next level in my writing career. Now don’t misunderstand me, I have not stopped being passionate about my writing in any way (or I wouldn’t be able to maintain this blog). I simply seemed to have traded one obsession for another and my efforts were unbalanced. I don’t in any way regret dedicating the time and effort that I have to beginning my journey to a better and healthier, more physically fit me. I only regret not finding the balance I needed to graduate to the next level on both aspects.

When you’re younger you have these stages in life that you graduate from to move on to the next level. From elementary, middle and high school, to college and even graduate school. Typically when you’re going through the school stage of your life you get breaks in order to have time to gather yourself and prepare for what that stage entails. However, when you get into that stage where you have to really start living your life you don’t get those breaks.

There is no time to wait until you have thought about what it is going to take for you to get where you need to be, there’s just hard work and effort. Simply put if I don’t find a way to balance my efforts and my level of hard work in both areas that I am passionate about (health & fitness as well as writing) then I may not be able to simultaneously graduate to the next level on both fronts.

It’s hard to put all of my effort and time into just one thing because I am passionate about so many and in the case of my health, that is a passion that is necessary and I can’t afford to sacrifice. But writing is my first love, and like any kind of relationship, I have to put in the time, effort, pay close attention to it, continue to nurture it, and learn how to balance it with everything else that is important to me so that I can make it to the next level in my writing life. Until tomorrow…Are you putting in the time and effort so that you can graduate to the next stage of your life?

Jimmetta Carpenter

Freelance Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

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

At A Loss for Words

February 20, 2012 jcladyluv

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.”

~Robert Louis Stevenson

Tonight I am at a loss for words. I have had certain inspirations come to me and I have notes written down but they haven’t completely formulated into complete posts for me yet. But I promised that I would write and post no matter what so even though the words won’t come tonight (not completely anyway) I still had to put myself out there in some way, shape, or form.

So while I promise that tomorrow the words will be much more profound, and much more inspiring and hopefully motivational, tonight these are all the words that I have to offer. It may not be much but it’s something and it’s the effort that counts. Until tomorrow…I hope your words come easy for you but know that if they don’t just put in the effort anyway and something beautiful will come.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”