by Tish MacWebber | Mar 30, 2018 | Treasure Seeker Tuesdays
After attempting to write this Treasure Seeker Tuesday once already this week, and being 700 words into it, my fingers took it out. I had it saved and typed it right out of existence. Sometimes, things don’t work out the way you plan them to. This was a perfect chance for a rewrite. It’s too bad my eyes were the only ones that saw my first crack at this story. It was pretty good. Now I have the challenge to make it better. When opportunity knocks, you should really answer that door.
Part of being an adult is knowing when to admit when you are wrong, and more importantly, apologizing. I was recently invited to be a featured creative in a brand new E-Zine, called Creatives Rising. In my excitement to help spread the good news, I approached it incorrectly. It was a bit awkward, and I had to delete the initial post to write it again. That wasn’t the hardest part. I then had to apologize.
The publishers were very gracious. I was honest and upfront about not trying to do the wrong thing. They understood that I wanted to learn how to do things properly, and provided instructions on how to correct the posts. It crossed my mind to just bail, but that would not have been a way to learn how to work with people. I held my breath and when the dust settled, I submitted my article.
Then I had to wait. Patience is tough when you try something new and get off to a bumpy start. It is even harder to wait when it is something that is really important to you. I worked hard on that article. I put a lot of thought into writing generally, but when you are writing for someone else, it feels like it is really important, and you want to put your best effort into it. I was given the Topic Creative Highlight and the subject was Peace. It was a challenge, but I worked on it, then sent it in. I didn’t know how it was going to be received, or what to expect, really. This was my first time submitting an article for an E-Zine, and I was really nervous. I didn’t know if what I wrote would be up to the standards that were expected.
Miscommunications and misunderstandings happen to everyone. The trick is to learn and grow from the experience, instead of letting it hold you back. I learned this a long time ago, back when I started dating my husband. He would say things, I would not understand what he meant, I would get upset and cry. Then we would talk, and he would explain what he meant. Back then I think we might have spoken different languages, even though we are both very fluent in English. He is bilingual, with French also, but I am not. We also had a bumpy start. I have to tell you, I have no regrets, our communication with each other has grown and matured with our relationship. I do not back down from him, I question him if I don’t understand what he means. We have been together 25 years and married for almost 8 of them. We had a lot of time to learn about each other, and practice our communication skills.
See what I did there? I made you wait too.
When I got the draft back, there were suggested edits, and they wanted to drop a paragraph. I thought it was reasonable, so I revised the draft and sent it back in. With one sentence needing finalization after the second round, the article was complete. Then I waited with everyone for the launch of the Creatives Rising E-Zine Spring 2018 Issue. It’s an online publication FOR Creatives, BY Creatives in affiliation with @CreativesRising and @CreativeEnergyGoddess
#CreativesRising2018 #CRZine #amwriting #HappyWriting
I am very proud to be a Featured Creative in this publication and am so honoured that I was invited to participate. It is available through an online subscription. The file is large, and your computer will advise you of this. It is so worth downloading, and not just because of the article I wrote for it.
How to Avoid Creative Barriers: Peace out! …is the name of my article.
You can subscribe here:
If you do subscribe, let me know in the comments, so that I can thank you. I would also be interested in reading any thoughts you have on my article and the whole Creatives Rising E-Zine. I am really glad that I pushed my own boundaries to take a step forward in my own writing goals. I plan to keep writing. Who knows what opportunity is going to come knocking next? I am ready.
#TreasureSeekerTuesday (On a Friday morning…because of circumstances and a finger trip)
by Tish MacWebber | Nov 14, 2017 | Treasure Seeker Tuesdays
Confused yet? I was. On Remembrance Day, 2017, I spent a few hours contemplating things. The people that are currently serving their countries, the people who are now at home as veterans, and the people that did not get to go home. I thought about innocent victims of war, both people, and animals. I thought about heroes, and my own grandfather, who is no longer alive but lives on in my heart and fond memories. He came home a veteran and lived for many years with his family. Not everyone was as lucky as he was. I thought about people that I know, including one of my cousins, currently serving our country and a colleague that often shares memories with me on breaks at our day job.
When my internal alarm clock, also known as my bladder, woke me up on Sunday morning, I knew that I was going to have to find my pen and notebook. Inspiration found me in the early morning on November 12th, and I know better than to let it be without writing it down. My early morning thoughts can be lost if I trust them to my memory alone.
I found my book and pen and started writing. The final result of my early morning scribbles are polished to share with the world, now, but it took me a few days to figure out how to get my message out in the right format.
I looked online to see how to submit it to local and online papers. That is harder than I thought it would be, and one had the restriction of no political letters. I asked for advice, and everyone said to put it on my blog. I wasn’t sure. To be honest, I didn’t even know if I should sign it before putting it out in the world, because as sad as it may be to read, and therefore write this, my message may not be taken as seriously when I sign my name at the bottom. I hate to admit it but being a woman with a message that needs to be delivered may not get the attention it deserves because a woman wrote it. I see it in publishing, and many female authors have pseudonyms or pen names to have a fair chance of publishing success. Others choose to use an initial instead of their whole name, and there are plenty of examples of this in the publishing industry.
My point here is not that I am fighting for equality. That is for another day, along with environmental issues, violence, abuse to oneself or others and a variety of things that are wrong in the world that we live in today. My letter was written to achieve a request for World Peace.
Do I believe it could happen? Yes, with prayer, guidance and humility. Humanity has the greatest potential to make changes that affect all of these things. Cynics will laugh and say it is not going to happen. I refuse to sit back and watch the world end without trying to do something to make it better.
Enter my blog. I am making my own world a little better every time I write. Especially when I have a plan, and surprisingly, even when I don’t. Sometimes I don’t have any ideas before I sit down to write, but I sit down anyway. I have three regular categories I am writing in every week, now, and I don’t want to let myself or my followers down. I just write. I make it important because it is important to me to keep building this blog up to be at its fullest potential and then break the next milestone with something even better. It lights me up, gives me something to look forward to, and makes me feel proud to hit that publish button.
World Peace is achievable, and it is an attainable goal. It wouldn’t be an easy thing to get the whole world to agree to stop fighting in wars, I am not kidding myself about that. It would be an extremely complicated thing to do, not that it would have to be that way. The reason it would be so complicated is that so many people would be involved in making it happen. They all have demands, rights, and opinions. It is hard for me to even imagine some of my friends at the same party together, but if I could make them all get along, I would love that. Essentially, that is the end goal. We don’t all have to like everyone all of the time, but we all would be better off if we could just all get along with each other.
World Peace is something that I pray for every day. It is something that matters to me and is close to my heart. I am asking you to read my letter below, and if it makes sense to you as something that more people need to see, then do not keep it to yourself. Share it wherever you can, as many times as you like. I believe that if people just read this, and stop for a minute to think about it, changes could happen. This blog has grown to be so much bigger and better because I am constantly working to make it that way. Think of what we could do if we work together on a project like this. We can take this letter, and make sure it goes where it needs to be. I know this in my heart, and I am trusting that after you read my letter, you will feel the same. I have to get this message out, I am counting on all of you to help me do that.
If you would like to share just the letter in a separate PDF file, it is here:
An Open Letter to the Leaders of the World
Thank you for reading, and for sharing if you choose to do so.
#TreasureSeekerTuesday
Treasure Seeker Tuesday: Photo by Tish MacWebber; Photo Edited by Noa Price
