First's

I met this guy.

 (Here's how.)

And via Twitter he messaged that he checked out my blog.

My first thoughts: "Yay... " and then immediately I thought "OH NO!!!"

I self-consciously click on my blog to read over my recent post: I'm (horrifically) reminded I had just rambled on about how "being on my period SUCKED" and all this other female-chick stuff.

Dang.  Why couldn't I have written about something deep and interesting?!?

It'd be like if Paula Dean popped over for dinner, and you happened to be having Hamburger Helper that night.  No bueno.   Here's this awesome writer, who writes about writing, and he checked out  my blog, and I only had Hamburger Helper up.

Bummer.

Then I pulled myself together, gave myself a lecture about being "me" regardless of who sees "me", period-hating'-smack-talk and all.

So, a ton of affirmation flew into my lap when writer-blogger-dude asked me to do a guest post.
And then all that self-consciousness came back as I started wringing my hands and pacing around like a nerd- telling myself that there was NO way I was even a little bit good enough to do a GUEST POST for awesome-writer-blogger-dude.

(Repeat giving myself-a-talking-to routine.)

I eventually relaxed enough to quit trying to figure out how to not suck, and what I'd write about, and decided that- like everything else I write- my inspiration would just need to happen organically.  Interestingly, that conclusion is what lead me to write this.

My title was "Genius Perspective" and (ironically) he subtitled it "Finish What You Start".

I am the ULTIMATE idea person, but totally lack the follow through for all of my brilliant plans.  The subtitle, at first- made me feel like a hypocrite, cause I rarely finish what I start.

And then- it revved me up to have another talking-to with myself.
"It's out there now, Amber.  Other people know what you started.  You're gonna have to finish it."

Very excited to follow through.

Here's the link.

http://goinswriter.com/finish-what-you-start/

Be sure to follow Jeff Goins on Twitter, and subscribe to his blog.

Experience

I love reading about what others that are on the same path that I am on have experienced.
(For this post- said path is referring to my Christian walk- though it is quite imperfect and stumbling.)

It's my opinion that not all authors have 'the answer' to the life struggles we all face;
However,  I see myself as  somewhat of a 'wisdom gleaner', so if somebody wrote a book on a subject relevant to what's going on in my life; I read it, and analyze it, and pick it apart, and take from it what applies to my life.... after I've made sure it checks in A-okay with my spirit... AND the Bible.

(unless I'm reading a book about how to grow the perfect tomato plant; no bible referencing or spirit-checking needed there)

One of my favorite "if you're a woman and you're married" books is called:
"For Women Only" (what you need to know about the inner lives of men)

Shaunti Feldhahn did an OUTSTANDING job researching for a fiction novel she was writing, and ended up with so much profound information that her research turned into NOT ONLY an incredible novel, but also a brand new concept for a whole other book.

In Shaunti's  book (For Women Only) she blew my brain up when she explained that

  "men would rather feel 'alone and unloved' rather than 'inadequate and disrespected'."

Furthermore!!!  She touched on the fact that some men noted a challenge in choosing between the 2 choices, because both  (unloved and disrespected) appeared to be "the same option".

     This brings me to my point.

I don't know what I'm doing as a writer.
I have no credentials.
I didn't go to college.
I've never taken a writing class.

I started blogging because I wanted needed to write.  I needed to process.  I needed to get my impassioned thoughts out in front of me so I could backspace and delete and reorganize them to the degree that they made sense.

 Passion is what makes what I do fulfilling.  When I become passionate, I write well.  When I "try" to write, I write horribly.  I need to be thinking about or reflecting on something to get what I want to say onto a screen and have it make sense.


Somebody once said this:

"You don't have to write about something that you learned from an experience.... just write about the experience."

I had no clue what he was talking about.  He said something in English, but it went into my brain as Greek.

Experiencing and learning are the same thing.... right?  When you experience something, you also learn something, don't you?  

I do.
Do you?
Is it just me?

Shaunti experienced the grueling task of research   upon research   upon research as she wrote her novel.

From her experience- she gained so much wisdom that it poured a new passion in her to write another book.
From her experience, I was able to glean from her wisdom.
From my experience reading (and learning from) her book, I'm now able to teach my daughters....
And they'll teach their children...

Experience is to LEARNING as being Disrespectful is to being Unloving.

New Discovery

My husband left his Facebook open.

I have to admit that my curiosity gets the best of me when he does this.  I can't help but to dig into his News Feed and do a bit of  "people watching" via Social Media.  

This chick friend he has posted a link to a website about "writing" and I was like "oh-my-gosh" that's so cool- I gotta check that out.

And I did. And I'm excited.  Because I found THIS GUY!!!!
(in case you're not a link clicker- check out his site at www.goinswriter.com)


He's awesome.  He's talented.  He's SO-IN-MY-HEAD and I don't even know him.

This tells me something I thought I already knew.

Writer's (or so I'd like to think I will be one day)- have a certain drive that cannot be put into neutral.

We. Must. Write.
As he short-and-sweet put it on one of his post, it's not out of obligation that we write, it's out of need.

I feel like this discovery was a total God-Send.  It's like God was pointing me in a purposeful direction to find this writer-dude so that I could realize that "It's Not Just Me".

AND!!!!!!

This dude is not just a writer; he's a marketer. He's a dreamer. He's a creator.  He's.... Well?
Read his "about me".
http://goinswriter.com/about-me

I'm frazzled.  I'm elated.  I'm..... what? I don't know.  SOMETHING.

He's written book reviews. And has opinions that he's not afraid to share. And he uses his talents and his abilities to Do-What-He-Loves-To-Do.

I seem like a crazed pop culture stalker, but I'm not.  (Really.)

I'm just a little bit freaking out.  I have zero near the talent this dude seems to have.  I don't know how he got started, but I do know that accidents and coincidence are merely words in a dictionary and do not apply to this life that I am living.  God uses all sorts of creative methods to speak to us, and He just totally blew me away by speaking to me through Jeff Goins. (whoever he is).

I don't have to hone in on JUST ONE interest or passion.  I have many passions:

Marketing. (love it!) Writing (need it!) Music (thank GOD for it)

I don't know where I'm going from here.  I just know that God just put down another smooth-stepping-stone in my path for me to stand on.

Solo. Tasting the Fruit of Stillness.

Usually- it's beyond rare for me to have the house to myself.  Typically- to get my "solo" time, I do a weirdo maneuver and rent myself a sweet hotel (via Priceline's crazy cheap-ness) for a weekend.  Rare occurance in an of it's self for that to happen.  And then when I do, I totally veg out watching lame-o TV shows, and exploring whichever town Priceline had available to me for $35 and a 3 1/2 star hotel room.

 

I was s'pose to take today and make it a "clean it all up" day.  The house should be sparkling by now.
 I did as much as I could do, and then I bailed.  I've been sick for a few days, so I just chilled.
 'Cause it was an option.

In the 5 hours of solo time I had here at home, the fact that I didn't have to  listen out for anybody calling my name meant that my earbuds stayed in my ears, plugged into my iPhone, for the whole entire time.  I can't listen to music on 'low'.  So the volume was turned up.  Just the way  I like it.
Huh?  What'd you say?  Ya.  That's what I'm gonna be saying for a few days.
Hoping I didn't do any permanent damage.  I need "special" noise canceling ear phone thingy's so that I'm not deaf in a few years.

I've said it and said it, and I can't say it enough-

"Blogging is my therapy!"  

There are times that I emotionally write 'cause I don't know how to get 'out' what I'm feeling.  I don't know how to express what's going on when I get all jumbled up.  So- I write it out, and in the coolest way, God just speaks to me, and ministers to me as I type.  Like? I'm typing it, but He's telling it to me.  It's "for me" but it's "by me".

 And I get all weepy and moved, and it's absolutely incredible.  There are times I write- and it's pure and unfiltered emotion, and nobody needs to be reading all that, so I draft it- or delete it, or whatever

There are times I write, and it flows so quickly out of me, and then I "reread" it, and I'm like

"Whoa!  I just wrote that?!?!"  

Ok.  So that's what happened in the previous blog.  I had these "thoughts" and I couldn't process what was going on in my head.  I had the opportunity, so I grabbed it up, and I began writing.  20 minutes later, I'm rereading what I had just written, and I'm blown away.

I just said to myself

 "Um? Did you just get ministered to... by your own blog??"

Yup.  I did.

And that's how I know it's not me that does this writing thing.  It's the Lord.
Ok.  Sometimes, it's me babbling.  Sometimes I'm talking about stuff that really affects me, or interest me, or whatever.   But if you read any of these and you're like "HOLY MOLY that was so awesome" that's when you know (and I know) it was totally the Lord using my fingers to do the typing as He was speaking straight to my heart.

And the fact that the Lord just used me to minister to me.  So weird.  And Delicious!
I got still for a little bit- and He was like "OPPORTUNITY!"  And He totally used that time to speak to me.