I dream a world where man No other man will scorn, Where love will bless the earth And peace its paths adorn. I dream a world where all Will know sweet freedom’s way, Where greed no longer saps the soul Nor avarice blights our day. A world I dream where black or white, Whatever race you be, Will share the bounties of the earth And every man is free, Where wretchedness will hang its head And joy, like a pearl, Attends the needs of all mankind— Of such I dream, my world!
~ from the opera Troubled Island,
written by Langston Hughes
Wishing you all a MLK Day filled with peace, love, and big dreams!
"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. [...] I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality."
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day tomorrow, I'm sharing this quote from the man himself. Let's do what we can to make peace, brotherhood, and unconditional love our reality....
I love this quote from one of Dickinson's poems. Just think of all the amazing, awesome things that can fit inside our brains -- dreams, stories, memories, ideas. Our imaginations are limitless, much wider than the sky!
Imagination is a powerful and wonderful thing. A song, a landscape, a character, even a whole new world can be created; all we have to do is imagine it.
This quote makes sense to me: before we can do great things, we must first dream of them. We must imagine what we want to do and how to go about doing it. Our dreams also help motivate us into action.
I love this description of writing poetry! It makes me want to grab a pen and notebook and go sit somewhere quiet where I can try to pin down a dream with my words. Have you ever felt this way about writing poems?
Imagination is a powerful thing. It gives us wings to soar toward our dreams and make them a reality. It also makes life much more interesting! Without imagination, we would have no books (gasp!), no poems, no music, no movies, no games... who would want to live in a world like that? Not me. How will you use your imagination today?
Dreams are like the dandelion in the picture above. They start out as little seeds, but with the right "push" and nurturing, they will eventually take root and sprout, growing into something truly amazing....
My birthday is coming up this week -- I will be 45 on Thursday. (Gulp.) Imagine my delight at the beginning of this month when I turned the page in my Mary Engelbreit calendar and saw the quote above. It felt like a message meant just for me!
My writing goals and dreams have been put on hold for most of 2013 so far. Life got busier than ever for several months, and then even after things calmed down a bit, I've still been having trouble making the time to write. Part of that has to do with working on some other goals unrelated to writing; those goals take time, too. I think the rest of it has to do more with my own insecurities, though, and fear of failure.
I worked really hard on writing last year. I wrote over a hundred poems, I think, plus some short stories, and I started on a new novel. I also submitted my work to dozens of magazines, publishers, and agents -- only to be turned down by every single one. My head KNOWS that I just have to keep trying. My heart, on the other hand, is tired of being bruised and wants a little break from rejection.
I originally intended to set new writing goals in January, for the new year ahead, and then share them here. That never happened. I was beginning to give up on 2013, thinking it would be completely unproductive, even with six whole months left in which to accomplish great things. But then along came C.S. Lewis and Mary Engelbreit, to remind me that it's never too late -- not even when I'm turning 45 and the year's half over -- to set another goal.
So, here are my goals for the remainder of 2013:
Carve out time every week (if not every day!) to write
Finish my latest novel
Write at least 30 poems ~ that's only five per month
Start working on the new book I've been thinking about for several months now
Keep looking for an agent
Send out at least 2 submissions per month
Don't give up!
I hope that everyone reading this will take C. S. Lewis's quote to heart. You're never too old. (Or too young.) Set new goals. Dream new dreams. Dream BIG dreams. And then work to make them come true.
(Psst... if you haven't heard about the "Blue..." is Two! Birthday Contest yet, you can find all the details here.)
I can't believe that it's June already -- is this year flying by or what? Around our house, June means birthday time! Not only is it my birthday later this month, it is also my husband's, my mother-in-law's, and my brother-in-law's. It is also the birthday of Blue Sky, Big Dreams! I launched this blog almost two years ago, on June 17, 2011. Yes, it's true; "Blue..." is two.
Since that first day, I've shared 657 posts (including this one!) with you, my fellow BookWyrms. This blog now gets around 3000 hits per month, more than triple the amount from a year ago! (In a post from last year's birthday celebration, I wrote that I could only dream about having 1500 visitors to the blog in a single month. See... dreams really do come true!)
I still don't get very many comments here or on my Blue Sky, Big DreamsBlog Facebook page the way I would like to -- if you don't count all the spam, that is! (That's what I get for allowing anonymous comments, I guess, but I still stand by that decision.) I'm not really sure how to increase the number of real (not spam) comments, but please know that I always LOVE to hear from my readers. Feel free to comment any time!
Last year's Birthday Contest was a big success and a lot of fun! I want to celebrate this blog's second birthday with some more fun and another contest. How about you? :)
Throughout the month of June, I will be collecting the names of my blog readers and putting them in this bowl:
Like last year, some of your names are already there!*
Every Friday I will draw one name from the bowl. The lucky winner each week will receive a $10 e-gift card from Barnes & Noble (which can be used online or at an actual store). Then, on the 30th, I will draw one last name. (Edited on June 27th: When I originally posted this, I had no idea that our family will be going out of town on the 29th. I will not have internet access for a week, so have decided to change to final drawing to July 8th, when I'll be back home.) The "Blue..." is Two! Birthday Contest winner will also receive an e-gift card. In addition, he or she will receive one of my favorite books -- perfect for BookWyrms like us -- BookSpeak!: Poems About Books, written by Laura Purdie Salas and illustrated by Josee Bisaillon.
You may be wondering: How do I get my name in that bowl? It's really not too hard to enter this contest. I will write your name on a piece of paper and drop it in the bowl whenever you do any of the following:
Post a comment on the blog (Please see my note about comments here.) If you don't have a blog of your own, Blogger will let you post anonymously -- just be sure to sign your name at the end of your comment so that I'll know who to make an entry for!
"Like" a post on my blog's Facebook page
Post a comment on my blog's Facebook page (Please follow the same courtesies in the note mentioned above.)
Share a link to this blog or the blog's FB page on your own blog or on Facebook, encouraging others to check it out (Be sure to let me know you've shared it, so I can write your name down.)
Share any of the links to this blog that I post on the FB page (Again, please let me know you've done so.) I often share links to other blogs or book-related pictures that I like. Please feel free to share those, also, but doing so will not earn you an extra entry.
Also, if any of your friends/blog readers check out this blog or its FB page, and lets me know that you referred him/her to the site, I will enter both of your names twice.
*Those who are currently followers of this blog already have three entries each in my vase. The same goes for those who have already liked my FB page. I appreciate your support over the past two years VERY much!
Thank you all for visiting Blue Sky, Big Dreams and helping me celebrate its second birthday! :)
Imagine How A single Voice Echoes Across Decades Repeating Equality And justice Matter
~ J. Patrick Lewis,
from Countdown to Summer:
A Poem for Every Day of the School Year
I love this powerful acrostic poem by Lewis. Notice how the first letter of each word spells out Dr. King's famous line, "I have a dream...." Things have changed in our society since he gave that speech, but equality and justice still matter, and we still need to work to bring both of them to our world.
***
I would also like to share this book that I noticed on our library's display table the other day:
Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
written by Doreen Rappaport
and illustrated by Bryan Collier, 2001
This biographical picture book introduces Dr. King to young children, telling of his life and his dream for our nation and world. Rappaport weaves quotes ("big words") from Dr. King's speeches and writings into her text while Collier uses collage to create his striking illustrations. Whether used in a classroom or at home, this book is a great tool to help teach kids about this important, influential man.
I love this quote and believe it whole-heartedly. There are so many wonderful things inside each of us, and each of us has the power to change the world around us for the better.
I like this quote. I do feel optimistic when I write. The things I write matter to me, and I hope that someday they will matter to someone else who reads them, too.
This is another quote that I need to print out and post some place where I'll see it every day. It's important to remember that I need to keep working hard on my writing and that dreams do come true....
The idea behind this quote is easier said than done. I know. I couldn't even count all the stories and poems that I've submitted over the last several weeks. I've been writing, writing, writing every day lately. But sometimes it's hard to keep on believing, to keep on writing, and to keep on sending out submissions in the face of rejection. Sometimes I think: It would be so much easier to just give up. When that happens, I need to remind myself of this quote and others. I have to keep on writing, keep on submitting. If I don't, my dreams of being published will never come true. If I do, hopefully -- someday -- they will.
Something happened to me last Wednesday. It wasn't anything earth-shattering, really, but for me -- for my life -- it was big. What was this life-changing event? My youngest started first grade.
I have been a stay-at-home mom for almost 16 and a half years now. Pretty much every single day since my daughter was born back in 1996, I have spent my days with at least one child here at home. (And often three or more.) Yes, there have been a few exceptions along the way. I've been lucky enough to be able to get away with girlfriends occasionally, for scrapbooking weekends and other fun events. There were also four weeks back in 2005 when Emmalie and Nick were both in school and I was home alone. I'm not sure those weeks really count, though. See, I was in my ninth month of pregnancy and we'd just moved into our new house two days before school started. The entire time my kids were in school those four weeks, I was busy, busy, busy -- unpacking boxes and painting rooms, just me and my big belly.
I also had half the day to myself last year when Ben was in Kindergarten. It was virtually impossible to get much of anything done during that time, however. Two and a half hours goes by awfully quick, especially when 30 precious minutes of that time is taken up by travel, to and from school.
This year, though... this year is different. For the past week, I've had seven glorious days to myself. A whole five and a half hours every day (once you subtract that travel time). It's been heavenly. Don't get me wrong. I love spending time with my kids. Really, I do. I'd rather spend time with them than with almost anyone else in this world. But I also truly love spending time alone.
What have I been doing with all this time to myself? I could spend the day on the couch, watching chick flicks or reading good books, munching on bonbons. I could go to the theater and watch a movie there. I could hang out at the mall, people-watching or shopping, money permitting. I could scrub the house from top to bottom and organize every closet and cupboard. (I think I do need to schedule one of those days!) I could do lots of things with my time, and it would be very easy (and tempting) to waste it on something frivolous, but so far I have actually been fairly productive.
Besides finishing some household chores that really needed to be done -- and taking some time out for exercise (something else that really needs to be done) -- I've been writing. Last week I wrote several poems and spent quite a bit of time working to revise some old stories of mine. I also wrote a few cover letters, then submitted poems and stories to a number of magazines.
This week I started something new. One of my goals for 2012 was to start writing another novel for kids. I made that goal for myself back in January. Here it is, almost September, and I hadn't even written one sentence yet. I've had two or three ideas for new books rattling around in my head, and over the weekend, I finally decided which one I would tackle first.
Many years ago I came up with a character, a young teenage girl named Tasha. I wrote down a page-long description of her, a paper I still have. Ever since then, Tasha has been in my head, waiting. She's been pretty patient, but every once in awhile, I can hear her asking, "When are you going to tell my story?" I've always thought she deserved to have her story written down. The problem has been that, while I had a compelling character, I hadn't thought of an actual story plot yet. Last weekend I decided I would just start writing about her, and that maybe if I listened carefully, Tasha would tell me what happens.
On Monday morning, while I was power-walking, she started talking. The story ideas kept coming and coming. I couldn't wait to get home and start writing! I've been writing and writing all week, wishing that I had even more time to get all the words down. So far, I've written almost 9000 words, which translates roughly to 32 pages of a novel. And I still have a lot more of Tasha's story to tell.
Ideas, characters, plots -- they all come from somewhere. They don't magically appear out of thin air. (At least, not for me. Maybe other writers have a different experience.) The origins of Tasha and her story go back a long way -- all the way back to when I was ten. One day that summer before 5th grade, I picked out some books at a garage sale and my mom bought them for me. One of them was Ready-made Family by Frances Salomon Murphy, 1953:
I had to get this image from Amazon because I couldn't find my copy. It's around here somewhere... and looks just like this one.
This middle-grade novel is about 12-year-old Hedwig Kowalski and her two younger siblings. After being moved around from relative to relative, and then living in the state home, the three are taken to live with foster parents, the Kennedys. The transition is not an easy one, and Hedy worries that her brother's unruly behavior is going to ruin this chance for the Kowalskis to finally have a home of their own. Though it was written in the 1950's, and some of the details of the story are dated, the themes and the emotions Murphy writes about ring just as true today.
The book had a profound effect on me. It was the first time I'd ever heard about foster children and social workers. It opened my eyes to the fact that there was a whole world of people out there with life experiences vastly different from my own. I realized then just how lucky I was to have a loving family with a home, where all my basic needs (and more!) were met. I knew after reading that book that I wanted to help kids like Hedy, that I wanted to be a social worker when I grew up.
After that, I read just about every book about foster kids, social workers, child abuse, and other related topics that I could get my hands on. All through the rest of elementary school and then junior high and high school, my dream of becoming a social worker continued. I majored in social work in college, and then, finally, became an actual social worker. Though I wasn't a foster care case manager as I'd once thought I might be, I did help severely emotionally disturbed kids (some of whom were in foster care) for six years. And all because of a book I read when I was ten.
My character Tasha comes from those experiences of mine. She is a foster child and has had a rough life. My heart aches for her. I want to help that scared little girl in my head by writing her story, and maybe, if it ever gets published, it could help a real-life foster child, too.
Yesterday I was in the car, listening to a CD of my favorite band, The Airborne Toxic Event. The beautiful, haunting song "A Letter to Georgia" came on, and as I sang along, I realized that it reminded me of Tasha. Even though the song was written about an adult, the lyrics can also apply to a child, frightened and alone in the world. If I ever get Tasha's story published, I plan to ask the band's permission to print the lyrics in the front of the book. (Hey, when you're dreaming big, you might as well dream really big!) Here's the song, if you'd like to hear it:
So, that's what I've been up to the past week. It's exciting -- and a little scary -- but I'm very happy to be "on the write track". :)
