“An accomplished writer, leaves their reader believing that they have actually experienced what they have written” ~M
GIF found at: http://www.crushable.com
Tag: creative writing
Disillusioned
Have you ever been disillusioned? What I mean is… have you ever allowed yourself to be fooled by something or someone and then later realized that you were deceived?
Take for instance this photo below. I took this the other day while my husband was driving us home. I’m a hopeless romantic and so I couldn’t help but dig out my camera for a shot of this lovely sight. 
After a few days, I decided to go back and look at the pictures that I had taken. That’s when I noticed something that briefly shocked and amazed me. I was certain that I was seeing something of a supernatural nature in this photo. In my mind there was no other explanation for it, and I was really quite excited about it.
After further inspection of the photo though, I realized how disillusioned I really was. Take a hard look at this picture. What do you see? Look carefully and tell me what the image on the bottom left side looks like to you. Do you see a divine creature standing there in the doorway of the building? I sure as heck did! But now look closer… can you tell what it really is? I won’t give the answer away just yet. I’d like for all of you to figure it out on your own if you can, but this is what made me think about the topic of disillusionment. Do you see how easily we can be convinced of something, when we are seeking to find that which really isn’t there at all?
Which leads me to this… have you ever been deceived, mistreated, or rejected by someone? I think I can safely say that all of us have faced this kind of treatment a few million times in our lives. The thing I’ve been wondering is… are we really being deceived, mistreated, or rejected, or is our own warped perception causing us to think this is happening to us. Are we really so disillusioned by our own feelings and emotions that we convince ourselves of being victimized?
I am the kind of person who overthinks everything. I over analyze every single word a person says. Someone can look at me the wrong way and I’m convinced that they must surely hate me. Usually from that moment forward, I tend to steer clear of that person and I don’t usually give them a second chance. I’m so self-absorbed I know… I always think that everything is about me! When really… that poor person was probably just having a bad day and they didn’t even realize they were looking at me strangely. Do we wrap ourselves up so tightly in our own self-consciousness, that we miss the truth about what is really happening around us?
Now don’t get me wrong, I know there are plenty of manipulators out there. I have been played many a time by people that I thought were my friends and turned out to be just masquerading as friends. I tend to be the kind of person that trusts blindly in most situations, because I fail to see how there could be even the slightest bit of evil in a person’s heart and this gets me every time! I don’t want to see the bad in people! I see myself as a nice person who only wants to show compassion to others and I expect others to play nicely with me. I am always left in shock when this type of behavior isn’t returned. My expectations of people are so high, that it leaves me feeling frustrated when they don’t live up to my standards of how I think a person should treat me.
I am at the point now, where I am realizing that I cannot keep living life by trusting blindly and expecting people to treat me the same way that I treat them. It just isn’t realistic nowadays and I’m wondering if it ever has been. But why has it taken me so long to realize this? Am I just so lonely from having hardly any friends in my life for so long, that I am willing to look past the obvious deceitful manner of some? How have I come this far in my life… almost 44 years now, and yet I still allow people to toy with my feelings, blindsiding me every chance they get.
I found a verse that spoke to me yesterday as I was reading from a nightly devotional with my daughter. The verse is Proverbs 4:23, which says… “Guard your heart more than anything else, because the source of your life flows from it.” I don’t remember ever having read this verse before and I know I surely must have. For some reason, instead of just reading the words this time though, they actually sank in and grabbed me by the seat of my pants. It was as if God had just spoken the words audibly to me. I realized right then and there that I have not been guarding my heart at all. I am so quick to just leave it open for the whole world to step upon and use me for their own selfish reasons.
In our desperate attempts for love and to fulfill the loneliness in our lives, I think we allow ourselves to leave our hearts wide open. When we do this, we are allowing the world to fill the void and we aren’t allowing the Spirit to take his proper place and fulfill that emptiness in our hearts. Can any of you relate to this? I think I have learned another valuable lesson the hard way. Oh when will I ever grow up!
Here’s the picture from above in larger form. Have you figured out what it is yet? I’m betting you can tell what it is now. I’ll wait for somebody to take a guess in the comments section, before I give the answer away. 
Just like our perspective of people, I think we have to look at the bigger picture to really gain a clear understanding of who each person is and whether or not they are trying to take advantage of us in some way. Maybe the answers to all of these questions will be more obvious to others who don’t go around blindly trusting like I do. 😉 ~M
Photo of girl found at: gbi.photoshelter.com
Dear friends, I really need your help!
I just want to say a huge thank you to all of my WordPress friends, old and new. In the last month, I have gained 500 new followers and it has been really fun engaging with all of you. I have noticed that many of my new followers have started reading my Genesis series.
For those of you that missed the last update, I was originally going to begin removing my old posts from the series so that I could begin the editing process for my book. Many of you probably don’t know it, but I am hoping to eventually publish these short stories as an anthology of biblical perspectives from my personal point of view.
On my blog, you will find just a portion of what I have actually written for this series. I now realize, that all of you may be able to help me through this editing process, simply by giving me feedback on these old posts of mine before I actually send everything in to be officially edited. I may actually be posting some of my newer stories as well.
With that said, I will be going back through and editing the Genesis series to the best of my ability and then begin re-posting these stories, in order to get some feedback from all of you. I would really appreciate your comments, both good and bad. I need you to be completely honest with me, so that I can go forward and make this series the best that it can be.
Please keep in mind though, that this series is going to be published as historical fiction, since I am writing these stories from my own perspective. I don’t want any of you to think for a moment that I am trying to rewrite the Bible and change the original words, because this is not my intent at all. I am simply retelling the story of Genesis, as if I am there witnessing it first hand for myself. I am trying my best to stick to the facts of the original stories; yet from time to time, I have added my own thoughts and perspectives, because the Bible doesn’t always give us the full picture of what is going on. So when you’re reading along, please keep all of this in mind.
I’d like to thank all of you in advance for any help that you are willing to offer. If you have any suggestions that you want to share with me privately, please feel free to send me an email at: jeansforjesus@gmail.com.
Thanks so much! ~Michelle 😉
Photo found at: mezzotessitura.deviantart.com
My Life as a Fairytale
Here’s another one of my short stories from my Writing Fiction class. Enjoy!
Here I stand alone again. The battle is finally over and the only thing that remains is the thin fine foggy mist that hides the ugliness beneath. Each soldier fought brave and hard as each one drew his sword in valiant effort. The hopes and dreams of a thousand men were all too soon drawn to a close and the blood stained hills are now all that remain. I am deeply saddened and wish that I could have done something to stop the fight.
It feels as if centuries have passed and yet I still remain in a statue like state. I’m always watching, waiting, and listening; never speaking, never moving, and never really living. Planted with roots so deep, that it almost feels like I have always been like this. The life I once knew seems like a dream now; a past distant memory that is almost forgotten. It’s in times like these that I begin to realize how truly lonely I am. I have always hoped that one day I would be discovered; that one day my own thoughts and dreams would become a reality and that this evil curse would be broken and I would be free to live again.
Looking out at the devastation before me, I am reminded of just how cruel this world really is. I was hopeful in the beginning. The world around me was absolutely beautiful. Lush green rolling hills surrounded me and felt cool against my rough exterior. Flowers of every color of the rainbow dotted the landscape for as far as I could see. Birds sang their cheerful little songs and animals frolicked and played from sunrise to sunset. The glory of the earth was immensely apparent and the splendor of it all would have taken my breath away; if I still had breath that is. Now looking around, the scene has dramatically changed. The hills are black with smoke and scattered bodies’ litter my once scenic view. The flowers that once graced this land with their fragrant beauty have all but vanished and the animals and birds have fled without a trace. I am mortified at the thought of having to spend eternity looking upon a scene such as this. All hope in my mind has been replaced with grief and sadness and deep longing for the life I once knew. What exactly was that life? I can barely remember… and yet I do see a faint distant memory, one that I must hold onto or I fear that I shall lose myself completely. I must hold on…. I must, I must, I must! I try to envision what my life would have been like if I had survived that fateful day. My only memory is a very sad one…
The day started out quite uneventful. I was keeping myself busy with mundane everyday chores. My mother and father left the cottage early that morning. It was harvest time and work started at the brink of dawn and ended just after dusk. So it was quite unusual to look through the tiny kitchen window and see my mother running toward the cottage at mid-day. I remember the look of horror on her face as she ran in desperation towards the shelter of our cozy little home. Her hair had fallen from its tightly formed bun and was flowing loosely down around her shoulders. I noticed that her face was covered in dirt stained tears. I was about to open the door and run to meet her, when suddenly a flash of light stopped me dead in my tracks. In an instant, my mother lay lifeless before me as if turned to stone. I remember thinking that I should hide or try to get out of the cottage through one of the windows in the back of the house. I knew I didn’t have long and yet I seemed to be frozen to the floor. And then, it came upon me. The bright light hit me with such force that I was knocked backward and my breath was instantly taken from my body. Suddenly, I was in complete and utter blackness, I heard not a sound, I felt nothing, and I seemed to be in oblivion. When I finally awakened, I was here in my statue like state. The earth held me in a firm tight grip and I could no longer move or breathe. I can still see, hear and feel, but nobody sees me for who I really am.
I dream of a day when I will be normal again, a day when I can laugh and play as I once used to. If that day does come, I know I will never take for granted how precious life is and I will cherish every moment as if it were my last. I think about my parents as I stand here day after day and wonder what became of them. Were they transformed like me? My heart aches to know how their story ended. But that was once upon a time, and now… because I have no other choice, I must live this new life that I have been given. It may seem a sad state to live in, but it’s the life that I have been condemned to live and fate dealt me an evil hand with which I cannot escape.
Did you figure out what I am?
Alphabet Challenge
Amazingly, we survived without a scratch. Bigger problems were sure to come our way, but we knew at this very moment that we had at least survived this first strike. Chris and I had been anticipating this for a very long time. Destruction was occurring everywhere and so we were fairly sure that our time would come. Everyone was scared to death and even worse, nobody really knew the reason why all of this was happening. For a while, Chris and I thought we might be spared the horrific events which had been occurring all over the world. Grateful as we were, we eventually realized that even we could not escape the power of a force such as this. Had we realized in the beginning just how grave the situation would be, I am sure that we would have come up with a better plan. I always knew life was going to be short, but after this, I wasn’t even sure that we were going to be able to live through another day. Just before dawn, we felt the earth tremble. King strikers, (aka Stealth Bombers) were rocketing through our airspace as if they were determined to destroy everything in their path. Lightweight aircraft followed close behind, monitoring ground movement and searching for signs of life. Much to our surprise, we were not seen, and we were able to find shelter in old abandoned warehouse on the far side of town. Nobody had expected such a turn of events. Over the course of a year, the world had changed from one of beauty and hope to ugliness and chaos. People were literally running for their lives, not knowing if they would even survive another day. Questions continued to arise as to how this whole turn of events started in the first place. Remnants of cars and old battered building materials littered the streets. Sadly, there were no signs of life in the area that we had taken shelter in. Torn by the urge to run for our lives, or instead sit and hold tight in hopes that we might be rescued, we sat holding on tightly to one another in an embrace so strong that neither one of us could hardly breathe. Unlike the rest of the world, we had been lucky, the bombing strikes had never come this far until today. Violent shivers shook me to my bones and my teeth would not stop chattering. Without a word, both of us looked at each other and knew that today, could surely be our last one together. Xenia, was the name of the bomber that had destroyed most of the nearby towns. Yesterday we had heard a potential rumor that the Xenia had been spotted flying in our direction. Zapped of our hope, we knew the end was near.
Putting My Feet in the Dirt 