Once again it’s on because it’s Wednesday (actually Thursday now, because I ran late) and that means it’s time for my roundup where I highlight 5 posts from social media that caught my eye! Lately, I’ve been trying to come up with themes for each roundup, but that doesn’t always play out. I did have somewhat of a theme for this week, and then I came across this one particular post that really stopped me in my tracks and made me think. I was so moved by what it had to offer that I actually decided that it would be the only post that I featured today. I thought it’s message was strong enough to stand alone. But then eventually I kept scrolling and was like, wait, there’s a few more I want to add here, so you’re gonna get your five after all. A random five, but five nonetheless.
Here we go…
So simple this one little sentence is, but when I tell you it snatched my soul. In this age of endless social media and 24-hour television, and just so many ways to distract oneself from silence, I’ve almost forgotten how to be quiet. It’s one thing to be alone, it’s another to be quiet. So much so I don’t like the quiet that I keep a fan on year around, even when it’s cold I just turn on the heater and throw an extra cover on. It’s easier for me to go to sleep if I leave the TV on – that type of thing. Noise has become comforting. Unless of course you’re a neighbor who’s playing loud music that I’m not into, then that shit is annoying.
Back in the day when I was in college, I joined a Christian club that introduced me to something called Quiet Time. That was simply taking 30 minutes to an hour out of your day, blocking everything else out and spending time with the Lord. I did that pretty regularly and eventually worked my way up to fasting and praying where I went a whole 24 hours without TV (unless it was Christian TV) without music (unless it was Gospel music), studying the Bible and praying – there was no social media back then so I didn’t have to worry about cutting that out. While it didn’t happen overnight—sometimes I would make it eight hours or 12 hours, or 20 hours – eventually I could fast and pray the entire 24 hours. At one point I think I even did it for a whole weekend. I mean I drank water, but I didn’t eat. Yet now, with so many things to distract me, I can barely cut out media from midnight to 5pm (my new fasting and praying standard) let alone a whole 24 hours. When I look back on my Bible studies from then, they just seem to be so much richer, in-depth, full of wisdom than the ones I do now.
I was even more diligent in my study of the Bible back then, partly because I knew if I didn’t dive deep, I wouldn’t get the message. I would read the same verse over and over again until something came to me. Like there was no other readily available outlet. Now if I don’t get something I just google what someone else has already done, or go to YouTube and see if there’s a sermon on it and watch that.
Not just studying the Bible, but life in general is rewarded by spending time in the quiet. Ideas come out of silence, wisdom comes, strategy, fortitude. When I first began writing my novel, or novella because it’s small, over 20 years ago, I was on a Greyhound bus going from LA, Louisiana to LA, Los Angeles riding in silence. At one point, I looked out the window on either side of the bus and saw nothingness as far as the eye could see. And I wondered if I could pull something out of that nothing and I started writing what at the time I thought would be a short story, simply to see if I could. I pretty much had no rhyme or reason. I was just making it up as I went. All I knew is how I wanted it to end, but no idea how I would get there. Yet what it turned out to be in my opinion, is so beautiful and magical I know the hand of God is all over it. And the only way I was able to do that was being open to what the silence could offer me.
So anyway, this post was just a little reminder to me that I need to value silence and glean from it what it has to offer.
I just thought this headline was so funny. It doesn’t even seem real. It reminds me of the time, about a year or so ago, when I discovered a rat in my apartment. We put out traps and my mom caught it, only to discover that there were more. I was so disgusted I was ready to move, that is until I saw the rent at other places. Then I was like, maybe a rat or three ain’t so bad after all. Just kidding, but we’ve been here a minute so the rent is decent, you know for California rents. The landlord ended up tenting the place and we haven’t seen a rat since. Anyway, I thought this was so funny because those rats were fast as smart as fuck. I wonder what they would have been like if they were high? What’s more, how does the NOPD even know they are high?
Have I mentioned that I love whales?
And another one.
I just loved this answer. Most people I saw commented on the put where she said something about God not putting it on your heart if you couldn’t accomplish it. But it was the beginning that stood out for me when she said you would be selling yourself short if you make it about the awards.
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