Wednesday's Ray: Itching to Write

     I have just been itching to write! I want to write something, anything so very badly, but when I pick up my pen and hover it over the blank lined paper...nothing. This feels worse than having writer's block! What does one even do in this situation?

     Well, write about it, obviously!
     So, here I am, writing about my simply terrifying dilemma. Here I am telling you. Hi! 
     As a writer of many different things, I have this itch that cannot be scratched, and there's just nothing I can do about it...aside from write about it, of course! 
    I have always thought that the eternal struggle was to get what's in your head to the paper, but I was so mislead! It's clearly wanting to write ever. So. Badly. BUT you can't seem to find anything worth writing about. (Nothing aside from the problem itself!)
   For every writer, the struggle is different. I mean, I guess some writers never have writer's block (Which is not even remotely normal, by the way), some writers have a special technique to avoid writer's block, and others--like myself--just let the block come rolling toward us because we're too lazy to avoid it. Every writer knows these things, right? How, might I ask, do those writers cure their impossible-to-scratch itch?! Is there a cure?!
   I was thinking writing prompts? I mean, writing prompts are always a good way to get your gears turning. Or, even better, I could just write about it...
   So, yes, this was my Wednesday morning rant about having the desire to write, but nothing to write about. Sorry if I bored you. 


“You see, in my view a writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is golden. In my view a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway."--Junot Diaz

Monday Sunrise: The Doctor

    Fictional character of the week: The Doctor--just The Doctor

The Eleventh (Matt Smith) and Tenth Doctor(David Tennant)

  Where he's found: Doctor Who (BBC Show) 
  
  Why I love him: Well, I love The Doctor because he's hilarious, caring, and--even though he's a Time Lord (alien)--he has human tendencies. I think I like him because he's relatable, but also because he takes everyone on super awesome, mind-blowing adventures! Like seriously, he knows what's up. He has a diverse group of companions, his trusty sonic screwdriver, he regenerates when he starts dying, and have I mentioned the TARDIS(Time And Relative Dimension In Space)? The TARDIS is his time machine, it looks like a Police call box, and it's bigger on the inside!

The TARDIS traveling through Time and Space

  Other notes: My mom described Doctor Who as "Very British", and she's very right. It's so "out there", that if you lack an imagination, or dislike sci-fi, it might not be for you. I think that there are two kinds of people on this planet. There's people who enjoy Doctor Who, and there's people who hate Doctor Who. Personally, I love it, but that doesn't mean you have to love it too. :-) 

Wednesday's Ray: A Helpless Mirage

  Hello! I'm back for now! I guess my ideas just come in random bursts of energy... I don't think this means that the writer's block has disintegrated entirely, but it has become sort of transparent...if that makes sense.

  Not too long ago, a close friend of mine was going through a really rough time. I'm not going to go into detail, but it was really rough. While it was probably really emotionally tumultuous for my friend, it was also really hard for me. I felt helpless. I mean, what could I do?
   If there's one thing in life that everyone hates, it's being helpless, but being helpless is just another one of those silly human mirages. No one is helpless. After all, the LORD is with us always, always there, always helping us out a long the way. So when exactly are we helpless?
   The truth is that we bring helplessness upon ourselves. We think, "There's nothing I can do.", but we can always pray. Prayer is what helped me through my hour of helplessness. In fact, prayer has helped me through all of my helpless hours. 
   Being helpless is turning your back on God. God promises us that he will always be ahead of us, beside us, behind us. God promises to always be there, here, everywhere. "'Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.'" Matthew 28:20 (NLT). I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty solid to me. 
   When I told myself I was helpless, that there was nothing I could do for my friend...I prayed. I prayed because that's was my weapon, that was the power I had, and it was enough. It will always be enough. 
   The next time you find yourself with all of the walls closing in, just talk to God about it. (And don't you dare try to tell me that you're bad at praying! Nobody is bad at praying...that's another mirage that you've created for yourself.) When you've been abandoned by everyone, you have yet to be abandoned by God. That's a humbling piece of knowledge, isn't it? In life we will feel helpless, but we never actually are helpless. Helplessness has, is, and always will be a giant mirage, so stop fooling yourself that it's real.


"Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference." --Max Lucado

Monday Sunrise: New Thing

     So, an idea came to when a fellow blogger friend of mine, Isabela, offered up some writing ideas to cure my writer's block. Every Monday, even if I can't find anything else to write about, I can offer up a "Fictional character of the week". Every Monday, I'll write about one of my favorite fictional characters...just for fun! So, without further ado, here we go!

This week's fictional character: Liesel Meminger
                               

Sophie Nélisse as Liesel Meminger

Where she's found: The Book Thief (book by Markus Zusak and film produced by 20th Century Fox)

Why I love her: I love all of The Book Thief's characters equally, but I'll just talk about Liesel, so that you can discover the amazing cast in its entirety for yourself. Liesel is one of my favorite fictional characters because she loves words so much. Even before she knew how words worked, they drew her in. I, myself, being of literary interest, find this to make Liesel and I sort of, well, kindred spirits or something. I love words. She loves words. It's meant to be. 
                                         

Liesel's words

Other Notes: The book is, in my personal opinion, better than the film. I did enjoy the film though, but the book and the film aren't the same piece of work. I think that's something you have to realize when you watch it. They're two different pieces of work by two different people. Also, be ready to cry. I guarentee tears if you read the book or watch the film.

Wednesday's Ray: A Poem and Such

    So, just to clarify, I'm still in a bit of a rut with my blogging ideas (If you have any ideas, please let me know!), but my life has also been really busy as of late. For example, I applied for a job Monday, and I babysat my niece and nephew for the better part of yesterday. 
    I have been trying to think of ideas on what to write, but everything I come up with seems too cliche or completely ridiculous. For now I'm just over in front of my computer staring at the screen, wishing I were able to come up with something interesting to write about. For now, I guess I shall just keep staring until something comes to me.
    I try to put into words the struggles that I'm facing right now, and right now my struggle is to find something to write. Well, that's really ironic, isn't it?
   
   I heard that April is National Poetry Month, and writing poetry is something I never tire of. So here's a poem for you!

                   
                                 --------The Curse of Higher Places--------

Higher places

are made of gold,

and all the lower spaces

are ghastly old.

We want sunny

to be our season,

but rainy 

never commits treason.

All of the lies

we wished away

were put in place

of painful things to say.

Here we are,

at higher ground.

Here we are,

through all the sound.

We can't look down

to the lower spot,

then we'll have to 

distinguish between

who we are

and who we're not.

Living lies.

That's what we are.

To get to higher ground.

We've gone that far.

"A Poem or two cannot hurt my coffee mood." ~m.b.

Saturday Sunshyne: Books Are Like People

    Yes, that was me who stayed up until 4 am to finish a book I simply could not put down. I can say now that I have  finished reading a book with so much depth that I nearly drowned. It was called The Book Thief (I know, I know, I do actually like some popular books, but there's a reason why this one, and not some of the others...), and whilst drowning in my tears, I also drowned in the beauty, and the genius of such a book. I know, I have tried to figure out what it is that drives me to books that are so very different from what everyone loves, although it took a highly popular book to answer my questions of confusion (You can find my confusion here).
      I simply prefer books with depth. I prefer a book that needs to be read rather than one that wants to be read. I prefer the book that calls to me with its desperate, sad , soulful eyes and says, "Read me." with its lonely breath. I prefer the book that screams with meaning, that wants to know me as badly as I want to know it. I prefer books with hungry souls that just want a reader to find their pages upon pages of inky darkness fulfilling. 
     In contrast, a book with no depth but a very shallow one has always repulsed me. I cannot stand and watch books that shout their greatness with self-indulged enthusiasm. I cannot begin to tell you how revolting the books with the big egos and little meanings appear to me. They are worse than books that drown me because they so desperately want to be read by just one more person. Just one more. When they cannot draw me in with their sheer greatness, they trap me. They tell me I'm not narrow-minded or foolish for picking them up and enjoying them. I will shamefully admit, I have fallen into their traps before. I have loved books with no depth. 
    The thing is though, I have realized that books are like people. Some people have depth, and some do not. I have realized that though people do not sit on a shelf in my room, I still tend to look at them like I look at books. I prefer the ones with depth, but I want to love them all wholeheartedly. Just as a book is a book, a person is a person. So, I must love them all. All of the books and all of the people. Books always have been a lot like people, don't you think? A book, like a person, is often judged on what their outside contains, and not what's inside. There's one thing that people can do, that books cannot do. Change. People can change.
    So, I have found out more than one thing about myself, I have found two. I have answered two questions, and one of them I didn't even know existed. Books are books, and people are people.


"The eyes are useless when the mind is blind."~Unknown