Tag: heart

A Thankful Nod in November

A Thankful nod in November 2018

As a grown up (on paper anyways, as I pride myself on the youthful glow I inherited from my parents) it seems that celebrating holidays takes a lot more effort than it used to. A part of that effort comes from adult responsibilities like working and paying bills when we are bombarded with ads to spend more. However, a part of the effort to celebrate holidays also comes from the fact that as an adult you have more freedom to make choices. You don’t have to have to cook Turkey on Thanksgiving if you don’t want to. You can choose to order Pizza or anything else you crave. You don’t have to be social. You can choose to go anywhere you want, and do anything you want to do, or nothing at all. You can partake of crazy holiday sales or boycott them. You can even choose to not celebrate Thanksgiving at all, especially because to some people it represents oppression and the obliteration of several cultures.

For me personally, I choose to celebrate Thanksgiving by reflecting on who and what I’m thankful for in my life. Above you will find photos of me and people that I’m blessed to have in my life.

I’m grateful for my awesome parents and beautiful sister who encourage me to follow my dreams.

I’m grateful for close friends and extended family that although I don’t see them everyday, I love them very much. I’m fortunate to have an agreement that we are just a text or phone call away, any time.

I’m grateful for my tribe of writers, fancy dancy friends and fellow actors in The Vamps Next Door. We get to be playful, creative and weird and best of all, we celebrate each other for it. I especially want to give a shout out to my unofficial mentors Blaze McRob @wyomingBob, his lovely wife Terri Del Campo @TerriDelCampo and Linda Addison @nyebird. They inspire to me keep moving and they remind me that writing is a marathon, not a sprint.

I’m grateful for new friends I met over the past year or two, some I met while travelling or being out solo. My adventures (and wine dinners) were more fun because of them.

I’m grateful for my day job and the people I have worked with throughout the years (this includes my favorite supervisor who I torture from time to time about how awesome my New Orleans Saints are, compared to his dallas cowboys are this season.) Every day is a treat, regardless of if the workload is hard or easy.

I’m grateful for internet friends. Although we haven’t met in person, they have been supportive and caring. If ever there’s a way I can support them, I’m happy to do so too. I definitely have to give a shout out to Papa Lou and The Broken Army www.thebrokenones.org. When researching different religions, beliefs and magic for my stories, I came across the handsome “alcohol fueled, southern born national treasure” Papa Lou. His insights in the world of Hoodoo and life in general are interesting and entertaining. I love his stories and his southern charm! What also keeps me tuning into his YouTube channel is his passion to help out other people, especially those in need. He doesn’t brag about it too often, (although he swears he is the King Of Christmas) but he’s made it known that he feeds homeless people in his area, and made it a mission to help out a few families for Thanksgiving and Christmas. If/when I make to to Atlanta (for more research for my next book Enlightening of the Damned) I’m gonna find him, buy him a beer (or two) and ask for more stories.

I’m grateful too, for the friends and loved ones who wouldn’t want to be mentioned on social media. I’ve told them in person and I’ll say it again; I appreciate you being in my life.

Lastly, I’m grateful to YOU, the person reading this blog right now. Thank you for letting me share silly and serious parts of my life with you. I hope you are entertained and inspired for things in your own life.

September and a mindful Harvest moon 2018

Thanks to to my  handy dandy Supernatural 2018 calendar (Hello Dean Winchester), I know there will be a full moon on September 24. According to the spiritual people on the internet, this “Harvest Moon” will be mentally challenging as it opposes the Sun. There will be a lot of “out with the old and in with the new” happening in people’s lives. We say goodbye to summer and hello to fall.

Regardless if it’s hocus pocus, tom foolery to some people or a hard truth to others, for me personally, I’ve been working harder to raise my vibrations.  The negative thoughts, those pesky mental zombies that try to get me to worry about things beyond my control, have me meditating, praying or just sitting in silence and listening to my heart beat a lot more than normal. I have been busy writing, editing and submitting my work and I do love the idea that soon we will see the fruits of our labor.  I have two great short stories that I adore, The Price of Salvation and Diane’s Flower.  I hope to self publish them soon.  Is there some truth to the positions of the sun and moon in the sky above and how they affect us?  I’d like to think so.

So far in September, there are two things I’ve found very challenging to my peace of mind. While not earth shattering, these things have been quite bothersome.  The first being the film The Nun. The movie trailers were foreboding and scary. I love horror films and I could hardly wait to be frightened by this ominous character! The creepy nun character definitely scared me with her appearances in other films in the Conjuring universe. If you’ve seen any of them you know what I mean. Holy Moly!

The actual challenge? The movie didn’t scare me. It was just okay. Without revealing too much, in the first few minutes of the film we the viewers have a great idea of who/what the Nun is. The rest of the movie had some spine-chilling and hair-raising moments but overall, this movie would not give me silly nightmares. I even saw it alone in a theater at 11:00pm!

Why am I so disappointed that it didn’t scare me? Why is there even a need to be frightened? For me the idea of something supposedly, possibly challenging my mortality in a make believe world is thrilling, especially if it’s supernatural or paranormal. I attended a writing seminar taught by Tim Waggoner : http://www.timwaggoner.com about fear in books, television and film. One of the many points that I keep in mind that he mentioned is that some of the things that scare us the most are situations where no one, for example not even your parents, can save you from” the monster”. Watch at Jaws or Poltergeist, read Cujo or The Shining and see what mean. I love it!

The Nun is creepy, but in her stand alone movie she doesn’t challenge my mortality in a make believe world.

The second thing in September that challenges me mentally is that one of my favorite holidays, Halloween, is around the corner. What on God’s green earth will I dress up as? I have a charming/saucy pirate costume (I love love love pirates). I have a sexy/spicy witch costume and last year I dressed up as an enchanting Goth Vampire ala Anne Rice Interview with a Vampire style. People that know me joke that on Halloween I simply dress in my natural form. Well now it’s 2018. Do I dress a superhero? One year I dressed as a devil in a blue dress and one year I dressed as Michonne from the Walking Dead. Both costumes were clever but not everyone understood them. I could dress as the Nun, but I bet a dollar I’d have to explain who she is, which is no fun. One should never have to explain too much who they are on Halloween. I’ll just have to see what the Universe thinks I should dress up as.

This harvest moon is got me spinning my mental wheels. I’m giving thanks for my blessings and looking forward to what I will personally Harvest in the near future.

Dear friend, is there something that is challenging you mentally silly or serious in nature? Do you have any costume recommendations for me? Feel free to hit me up on social media.   

I hope all is well with you.