~~ Isaiah 40:29 (NIV84) ~~ He gives
strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
by Carley Cooper
It’s day six of
the 15 Habits of Great Writers challenge. Just to recap for those new
to this series, so far the habits we’ve talked about are: Declare, Believe, Initiate, Practice, and Prepare.
If you’ve been
following along in this challenge series with me, you’ll know that I’ve had a
few social events in my life lately, that has been causing me anxiety. However, they are also things that have
helped bring some new light on these new habits that I need to achieve. The golf tournament fundraiser event that I
volunteered for was the one great event that I left feeling happy about; not
that anything is ever 100% great for me.
I’m not sure I’d know that if I saw it, but that’s another blog. The next social event didn’t flow so
well. I didn’t sleep the night before,
and during the event it took all my energies to keep myself together and
looking normal. After I got home, the
Bipolar meter dropped below zero and it took a while to recover. Then, another one came up, sorta last
minute. It was something that I knew
about but had opted out of for several reasons, none of which had to do with my
anxiety about socializing. Except, then
I got backed into a corner and couldn’t get out of it. I went and got through it OK, but then I came
home and again dropped into a big downward-mood episode very quickly. I spent the afternoon crying and feeling like
I was rejected by the whole planet. This
and some other stress is causing a lot of noise in my head.
Well, the one
thing I’ve learned about God is that if you’re not listening to Him, He will
find another way to get the message through to you. God wants me to learn to socialize and be
cool with it. I’m not exactly going
along with this plan tantrum free, just in case that point may have slipped
by you.
I know I should; and I want to, but my body and brain doesn’t seem to be
going along with it as much as my heart would like to.
So, tonight, after
spending the afternoon crying, there was yet another social event. I didn’t even want to acknowledge that I was
alive, let alone go to another event.
However, this one was very important.
It was another function to support the Women and Children’s Centre of Barrie; a cause that is very close to my heart
indeed. As I sit here writing this, I
just got home from their Annual General Meeting. This year, though, this meeting was more than
the standard business dinner. This one
was a celebration event for the 30th Anniversary of the shelter in
the city of Barrie. There were some incredible presentations
about how the shelter has grown and overcame some great struggles through the
decades. There were also stories shared
by past employees and those who have lived it and have been helped. These women and their babies came from
violent existences, into a world where they had nothing to call their own, and nowhere
else to go. Their stories of survival
reminded me of my own; except many of them were way worse than mine. However, it was their strength from within, and
passion for survival that inspired me and filled my heart with emotion and my
eyes with tears.
This brings me to
the next habit of great writers. Jeff Goins tells us that the
sixth practice of the top writers is to ‘Steal’. No... that’s not permission to plagiarize! As creative creatures we still need to do
just that; Create. We have to put our own
thoughts and ideas into something tangible.
Make something that didn’t exist before, whether that be a book, song, photography,
or painting your freezer to look like an old trunk (ah, yea, the freezer thing is
a story for another time.) We are told
all the time, as new writers, that If you’re just starting, it doesn’t have to
be that one great idea that’s going to solve all the world’s problems. It doesn’t necessarily even have to be
good. It just needs to be yours. But, who are we kidding?! The best of the best don’t have unique ideas
flowing from their brains all the time.
We need inspiration from somewhere.
Where do we get that? From other
people, of course!
I’ve had ideas
come from anything and everything. A
quote by someone else could be a springboard to a short story. A TV show featuring a designer creating a CD
cabinet, was the jumping off point for me to design a huge pantry cabinet that
looked like an old stone building. My love
of old chests; and a need to rid myself of a huge, boring, white box in my
kitchen was the catalyst to my freezer
ending up looking like an old trunk. My
need to show a friend how much I cared for him inspired me to write a poem for him.
Tonight, a change
in my mood from darkness to light; came from the inspiring, positive outlook of
beautiful people who have survived the odds.
I really didn’t have the inner strength I needed earlier to bring myself
up out of the pit. The enemy used my
anxiety to put negative thoughts and fears
into my mind and heart. I have to
say that I wish I had the strength to
fight it and overcome it on my own. But,
this time, I did not. Though I realize
that I also have survived the odds, I don’t mind admitting that I am stealing
their strength tonight, to be able to rise above and hear God’s voice
again.
~~ Dear God ~~ Thank You for never giving up on me, even
when I can’t hear You; or my strength isn’t sufficient to push the enemy back
down. Thank You for the people that You
have brought into my life to help inspire me when I need it. Please help me do the same for someone
else. In Jesus name, AMEN.
