Wise words to ponder

Today’s assignment, write a letter to your 14 year old self, seemed easy, but on second thoughts I am not so sure. It certainly seemed the easiest option. There were so many choices: some that I thought I could do, and others that I thought I wouldn’t know where to start. Sometimes I think when there are too many choices, it’s very difficult to decide which option to go for. Better, when it’s either this or that really.

Dear Marie

Yes, you, come on now, try not to let things get you down too much. I promise life will get better. I know that you’ve had it really rough and I know that you wish your first suicide attempt at age 11 had worked, but it didn’t and that’s because you are here for a reason. I know that you can’t see that now, because all around you is chaos, but you are a divine spirit and you need to know that.

Try not to internalise the pain. I know that you feel that you have no-one to confide in, but you do. Speak to your grandfather. I know he is no longer here. I know he died in 1959, but his spirit is with you. Speak your pain and he will hear and he will try to smooth the path for you and make life a little easier. I know you’re thinking, “rubbish!” But seriously, he came to help you that painful night when you were 11. It was him you saw, when he hovvered over you. It was not a figment of your imagination. He came to make sure those pills did not work.

You’re destined for great things Marie. Look at Oprah Winfrey, Maya Angelou – they suffered too but look how they have turned their lives around. They have have used their abusive pasts to build a solid framework in which to change their lives for the better. OK, so you’re never going to be Oprah or Maya with their very public profile, but you will be Marie blogging on WordPress, “sharing, hoping to inspire and motivate” others.

I know you think I’m crazy, and that this will never happen. Yes at 14, with a mother who clearly finds you an irritation and a father who gets a kick out of battering you, sending you to school with bruises on your face and body, with the explanation “If they ask you what has happened to you, tell them that you fell over some wire in the backyard”, makes the above paragraph seem like the ramblings of a mad woman, but honestly, you will survive.

People that you don’t know now, will be reading your poetry and will write to you telling you how much they love what you have written. People all over the world in France, Austria, USA, Australia will be commenting on your poetry.

There will be something called the Internet which will allow you to connect with others in a way that you can’t now. The world will be a smaller place in terms of contact and there will be vast opportunities for you to grasp and take advantage of.

I love you Marie and I want to take care of you in the only way I can. This is why I am writing to you, aged 14. I want to give you hope. I want to let you know that I am there for you.

Yours sincerely

(A much older)Marie xx

Day 4: Blogging101- write about your dream reader

08 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by mariewilliams53 in Blogging101

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

blogging university, blogging101, blogging101 day4, dream reader, guilty pleasure

My Dream Reader

I don’t think it’s possible to have a dream reader personally. So instead of trying to think of what that person would be like, I have decided to abandon this task. Instead I’ll talk about a blogger who has become my guilty pleasure. This person has only come to my attention just before Christmas and I was absolutely blown away by his (damn, I didn’t mean to give away the person’s gender because I didn’t want him to guess who he was)writing. His style resonates with me because it is original and I just completely understand the messages he tries to put across in the most articulate and eloquent manner.

I would love to be able to write like him. I almost feel as if he is my mirror image, because the things he says sound like things that I would say, although I really do not have his talent at all. Firstly, I only speak English and this person is definitely bi-lingual if not multi-lingual. I greatly admire anyone who can write in English as well as another language and still be so fluent in both languages. When I read what he writes in his mother-tongue, I do not understand it, but his poetry speaks to me emotionally and the strange thing about it is that for me, this is all that’s necessary. What the words actually mean, become secondary, because for me the pleasure of his writing his visual and touches the soul.

When I first discovered him, I practically spent the whole afternoon reading all his poetry and just imagining what he must be like. To be able to write so sensitively, he must be a very sensitive person, very emotional and very connected with who he is as an individual and must also must have a generous soul in order to share his thoughts and feelings in this way.

Ok, so that’s this task done! I haven’t answered the question put, but I guess I’ve turned it around and I’ve become the dream reader. In conclusion, a dream reader for me has to be someone sensitive, generous of spirit, fluent, eloquent and articulate. Someone with whom there is a connection. I by no means encompass all those attributes myself, but my guilty pleasure does and I’m glad he’s out there!

By the way if you are wondering what that picture has to do with my dream reader thoughts – it has nothing. The second part of the task was to incorporate something new into my post and I wasn’t able to put a picture into it before – so with WordPress’s simple instructions I tried it and it worked. Yippee!! I know those of you who are seasoned bloggers and doing something like this must be like water off a duck’s back will probably not be at all impressed, but I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself for having achieved this.

Goodnight!

Day 3 Blogging101: follow 5 blogs and 5 new topics

07 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by mariewilliams53 in Blogging101

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

blogging university, blogging101, ComeFlywithme, day3, new follows, new topics

I found today really demanding because I’ve never been told to do this as part of an assignment before. It’s all very well reading stuff that catches your eye and motivates you to read more, it’s quite another thing actually seeking out blogs and reading the content when you’d really rather not. This is really clumsily put so I hope I’m not offending any bloggers out there! It’s taken me the best part of this afternoon to accomplish what I set out to do today – I thought I’d only spend an hour on this task and it’s taken me over 3 hours. Perhaps I’ve done it too thoroughly – perhaps I should’ve only skimmed the articles, but hey ho it’s too late now to take that approach.

So here’s how I got on today:

My 5 new topics are: 1. Transgender issues in “It’s not about you” – secretmom2013
2. Fashion – How to be a Ladyperson in the Holidays: 10 important tips – When I Blink
3. Poetry – An Open Letter of Love to Black Students – Black Space
4. Photography – The Stray Cats of Korea: a photo essay – The Goat that Wrote
5. Writing – What happens when you go Viral – lilyellyn

My 5 Follows are:

1. http://When I Blink.wordpress.com
2. http://Black Space.wordpress.com
3. http://lilyellyn.wordpress.com
4. http://Miriam Jacobs Poetry.wordpress.com

I’ve just noticed I did not make a note of the site for the 5th one but the title of the piece was “We talked to our Kids about Souls” and can be found in freshly pressed on the Reader. And now I’ve checked I’m not sure that I’ve made correct site details about the 5 follows. This is sloppy I know, and I’m not really like this, but I’m getting tired now. All of these sites can be found on the Reader, in freshly pressed, so do have a look if you are interested please.

Although I’ve found this task demanding and tiring, I’m really pleased to have discovered these new sites and topics. I also got the opportunity to make new contacts on blogging101 with other bloggers on this course and I loved your posts, which gave me ideas on how to set mine out – thanks!