August 5: Writing Prompt #217-Ballerina, Fireman, Astronaut, Moviestar

When you were 10, what did you want to be when you grew up? What are you now? Are the two connected?

When I was 10, I wanted to sing and dance (like Madonna or Michael Jackson). I used to spend hours in my room writing songs, choreographing dances, and practicing songs that I would be singing in church for the special music.  I never got tired of it. I performed a dance to Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” in third grade in front of my elementary school for our talent show, choreographed and danced solo in a Benetton fashion show at the mall, was the captain of my middle school dance team, sang many a solo for our choir group and for Sunday services at my church, took piano for 7 years, and wrote several songs that I never actually shared with anyone.  Even today, I love to sing and dance. I sing in the car (particularly loud and passionately when I am alone OR in the shower where there’s nice acoustics. J  I changed the words to the song, “You Belong to Me” and sang it to my husband acapella at our wedding reception, and I love to watch “The Voice” and “American Idol” and dream about what it would be like to do that. In know, I’m admitting some embarrassing facts right now, but that’s okay.  What I do now is manager a day care facility.  It’s not really connected at all to music except for the fact that whenever I walk into a classroom (particularly the 3-4 years old), I get requests to play music because I love to dance and sing with the kids, and they know it, even without me telling them.  Now it’s your turn…what did you want to be when you were 10? 

August 4: Writing Prompt #216-Back to the Future

Anachronism (noun): an error in chronology; a person or thing that’s chronologically out of place. Write a story in which a person or thing is out of place, or recount a time when you felt out of place.

The last few years on Kwajalein, I felt out of place. And even today, when thinking about what it would be like to go back, there’s an uncomfortableness, which makes me sad.  I remember when my parents got divorced, and my mom started looking around for a new church because the church we had grown up going to as a family didn’t really know what to do with my mom, a divorced mother of 3.  At this time, there were no “groups” that had been formed for such a “phenomenon” in the church. She did discover other churches of the same denomination as ours that had a larger population and had groups for divorced men and women, etc…but in the end, she found the most comfort in a non-denominational church with an extremely diverse congregation. I felt a similar disconnectedness after my divorce on Kwajalein. I no longer had a group, a place, a niche.  And I never really got it back, not fully, not like before. There were new friends made, a new marriage, my job, and all the children’s events, clubs, etc…to keep me busy, but I always felt a distance from the rest of the population, always a catch in my spirit.  Maybe it was just me being paranoid or extra sensitive, but I could never shake it.  Life had changed so drastically…I had changed so drastically. I don’t know if the islands would ever be the same for me.  I loved my time there more than I could ever explain, but there’s also such a heaviness that weighs on my heart when I think about it because I lost a lot of my innocence there, my naiveté, if you will. I grew up there by walking through the fire.  I think that’s one of the reasons why I enjoyed working with the Marshallese and visiting Ebeye while there because it took away the heaviness; it gave me a greater purpose, a joy that often escaped me during those early years after my marriage ended.  I never felt out of place there, only within my own tight knit American community, unfortunately.  Kwajalein will always have a hold on me as it does most everyone who has ever resided there, but for everything, every place even, there is a season, and that season of my life is over, at least for awhile.  And that’s okay, I’m perfectly comfortable where I am right now, more comfortable than I’ve been anywhere in a long time.  J

August 3: Writing Prompt #215-Green-Eyed Monster

Write an anonymous letter to someone you’re jealous of.

Oh, perfect mom, who not only raises three plus children who are mannerly, cute, and responsible, but also still has time to work and work out to keep that very slim, attractive body of a 24 year old without kids.  Oh perfect wife, whose marriage is a match made in heaven and never seems to falter even just a tiny bit.  Oh perfect career woman, achieving honors in her work and being best at what she does within her profession.  Oh perfect hostess, always able to put on a fabulous party, no matter what is falling down around her as she prepares for guests.  Oh perfect daughter, always making her parents proud. Oh perfect friend, staying close with her “sisters” throughout the years and always remembering to keep in touch and make time for special get-togethers no matter where everyone is hiding. O perfect volunteer, always making time for others before herself. 

I try so hard to be like you, but I always fail in one area or another, sometimes really big! I struggle, I falter, I weep and complain, I say the wrong things and make bad choices and pay for my mistakes.  I am never the perfect anything, and if you haven’t guessed, the “perfect” person above is not any one particular woman. It’s a combination of women I know who have succeeded with great grace in one or more areas of their lives, and I admire them for it.  I am jealous only in the sense that I do not feel I have mastered ANY of it yet, and probably never will, but that won’t stop me from trying! J Not what you would expect, but sometimes the green-eyed monster is the perfect motivator to get you started back up in the right direction and toward your goals.

August 2: Writing Prompt #214-Origin Story

Why did you start your blog? Is that still why you blog, or has your site gone in a different direction than you’d planned?

For this prompt, I am going to reference you back to the following posts:

February 12: Writing Prompt #43-All About You (Explain why you chose your blog’s title and what it means to you.)

April 17: Writing Prompt #107-Million-Dollar Question (Why do you blog?)

May 1: Writing Prompt #121-Personal Space (To what extent is your blog a place for your own self expression and creativity vs. a site designed to attract readers? How do you balance that? If sticking to certain topics and types of posts meant your readership would triple, would you do it?)

May 21: Writing Prompt #141-Goals (When you started your blog, did you set any goals? Have you achieved them? Have they changed at all?)

I think you’ll find the information contained in these 4 past prompt responses MORE than answers the questions from today’s prompt.  Feel free to review them all and let me know if you have any more questions or if you think I left anything out. J   

August 1: Writing Prompt #213-A House Divided

Pick a divisive issue currently in the news. Write a two-part post in which you take on two personas and approach the topic from both sides. Bonus points for a creative format (roundtable discussion, debate transcript, etc.).

Well, when I think of a house divided (besides for in terms of sports team rivals in the same household-i.e. Alabama and Auburn, etc…), it reminds me of the verse from the Bible which says, “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” Mark 3:25. It also reminds me of this verse, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” 2 Corinthians 6:14.

Now, there are plenty of ways the people and churches of this world have decided to interpret the Bible and these verses in particular, but here’s my experience. When I was married the first time, I thought my husband would help me to become stronger in my faith because he was brought up in a very similar way. We were both from Alabama and grew up in small town Protestant churches. We had the same botton line beliefs and both grew up for a large part within our church youth groups, etc…We spent as much time in our churches as we did as home or at school. Well, the exact opposite happened, I was left to my own devices and to depend solely on God for my spiritual growth, not my husband.  I was weak, in more ways than one, and I thought marriage to him would make me strong.  I was wrong.  Now, this is not to say that it was not known by God what would happen. He knew, and He planned it for my good, to teach me through it, and boy did He.  I learned that I should never depend on anyone or anything else BUT God to lead me in my faith.  My first marriage did not turn out the way I expected it to NOR the way I hoped and prayed it would, but I can credit those years with being the ones during which I grew the most in my faith and became dependent on God instead of others.  I now know that it’s not about what others can do for me, but it’s about what God WILL DO when I learn to give everything up to Him to control. 

The second time around I was wiser about whom I chose to marry. The first thing in my mind was not if he was raised in a similar spiritual vein. It was to find a friend, someone I had something in common with, someone who made me laugh, and after I while I realized, someone who would respect me and my faith and love me as I am, no more and no less.  And that’s why it works. I don’t think we can ever fully know the mind of God, and I think of His Word in the Bible as a guide for life, knowing there is so much more to God than what is written there.  He knows how and what we need, and often the way He takes up there to receive it is very different from what we expected, but that’s where we need to just roll with it and enjoy the ride!

P.S. Obviously, I did not do a two-part post as the prompt suggested because that wasn’t quite my style, so I branched out on my own based on the house divided topic.  Hope you don’t mind…