2020 Reads : Pebble$

    

This year I wanted to block my reading. Block read by authors, reading authors I had heard about and maybe knew about too, but hadn't yet delved into reading their body of work. YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY IS YOUR BEST FRIEND IN THIS MISSION. With the way that the year panned out, I didn't quite achieve this except managing to block read one author - Maya Angelou. When I found out that libraries were closed, a little part of me felt out of place. The library was supposed to be my haven, a place where the librarians would know me by name, know my holding list by the choices in the book pile.

1. Native Son  :  Richard Wright

2. The Justice Women  :  Stephen Wade

3. Ayoade On Ayoade - A Cinematic Odyssey  :  Richard Ayoade

4. In Loving Memory - A Collection Of Memorial Services, Funerals And Just Getting By  :  Sally Emerson

5. Life Beyond Measure - Letters To My Great-Granddaughter  :  Sidney Poitier

6. Byron In Love  :  Edna O'Brien

7. Sebastian's Roller Skates  :  Joan de Déu Prats  (read by Caitlin Wachs)

8.  The Poisonwood Bible  :  Barbara Kingsolver

9. Perfect, Just Like You!  :  K. A. Wright  (read by Tabitha Brown)

10. Giraffe Problems  :  Jory John  (read by Michelle Obama)

11. The Bear Ate Your Sandwich  :  Julia Sarcone-Roach  (read by Michelle & Barack Obama)

12. My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother  :  Patricia Polacco  (read by Melissa Gilbert)

13. It's In You - A Book For Big Dreamers  :  Sharifa Anozie  (read by Tabitha Brown)

14. The Magna Charta Of Woman  :  Jessie Penn-Lewis

15. Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow - My Life  :  Sophia Loren

MAYA ANGELOU
16. Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now  :  Maya Angelou

17. Even The Stars Look Lonesome  :  Maya Angelou

18. Letter To My Daughter  :  Maya Angelou

19. A Song Flung Up To Heaven  :  Maya Angelou


20. Romeow & Drooliet  :  Nina Laden  (read by Haylie Duff)

21. The Rainbow Fish  :  Marcus Pfister  (read by Ernest Borgnine)

22. When Pigasso Met Mootisse  :  Nina Laden  (read by Eric Close)

Copyright © 2020 PebblesWroteIt

Speak To Me But Know It's Him

My journey through life is not as a perfect child BUT as a learning child. The things that proceed out of my mouth or through a tweet, even this blog are not the product of me but of a father who continually feeds my spirit and hunger to be greater, to be more useful to my generation and my world.

I am being shaped daily, to discover my eventual form as purpose has set this course of my life which extends with each new day. I am first an open heart, open ears, and enriched mind before any opinion, advice or words proceed out of my mouth. This is something I continually remind myself of, when I am given the privilege to see the deepest parts of a person through emotions laid out and their truths finally spoken.

As I remember this and work on being a better listener, my response to your problems, challenges, and questions is years of asking for the tools that are necessary for me to truly be of use to the world around me. All I have known, challenged, understood, and grown with is a God who has made absolute sense out of nonsense. A friend who has acted as a guide, who has continually pushed me in the direction where the lessons I needed were located.

My path has crossed with those who have added quality to my experience both good and bad, people who have in one way or another equipped me with learning and facing the diversity that exists within my community. My community remains the same but is ever-changing.

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Yo! Poet-Writer girl behind the screen, please break that down.

What do you mean the 'same but ever-changing' ?

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The purpose and the work that I must contribute to in my community remains the same. I will always have my part to play with the gifts I have been given to use, BUT the demographic, the people that make up that community will change with each stage and each need that arises in that community.

You are my community, an audience who read my work for an experience. Some of you have read all of my blog posts while some of you met me 2 or 3 posts ago or even TODAY. You are the ones I speak for, continually write to, and keep writing for. Leaving a comment under this post today, requesting that I address a topic or write a poem on a topic, would present a need. A need that I would need to address with whatever tools I have available and provide some solutions.

Through this desire and drive to attend to you as my community, I can share an encouraging message and even make you laugh. I am only doing the work that a guided child would do.

People may seek help from you or me as His child and sometimes we will have to relate how we feel about that to them. You let them know that the void they seek to fill, the answers they are searching for, need to be solved by going to God himself so they can gain that strength for themselves.

When you rely too heavily on people and forget who really deserves all the kudos, you often realize the hard way that reliance on another person doesn't bring total reassurance.

Build relationships YES,

Learn from others YES,

Connect with others in your times of need YES 

Connect with others in your times of strength YES 

But do not make them your whole support system, instead make yourself part of that system.

REMEMBER YOU CAN SPEAK TO ME BUT KNOW IT'S HIM THAT IS ALWAYS READY TO SPEAK. I AM A LIGHT IN THIS WORLD, AND IF YOU NEED THAT PATH LIT BETTER I AM READY TO HELP, LET HIM BE THE SALT TO HEAL  &  PURIFY YOU.

Copyright © 2020 PebblesWroteIt

Between Bowling Pins

Blog post formerly titled "In The Kiddie Pool" until I left it too long and forgot where it was supposed to go. Why is Pebble$ being honest with you? because most writers would be ashamed to tell you this and having a title without the concept is real. Having a concept without a title is also a real writer's problem. Nobody tells you that writing it down and making it plain means that your draft will contain some good pieces that will help you form the new thing that WASN'T the original thing. Because it is ok to not have the full picture; because being a writer is a beautiful journey that sometimes looks like chaos but comes together when you have patience.

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The new title will make sense as we progress just stay with me. The pins will line up and you too will be that bowling ball.

So picture yourself in a bowling alley from this point forward. Are you there? Good, all the props you need to imagine what I am saying are in that bowling alley.

When you go bowling you don't pick up all the balls and just roll them down the alley assigning each ball to a pin. That's not how the game works it takes one ball at a time hoping that you knock the pins out with that one ball. You don't just throw the ball either right? You try to get some direction, a focus point and power in that final release from your arm.

There are several bowling balls but only one ball will knock the pins down at a time.

As a Christian there can be many of us in one building but one is chosen to shake the whole building not even a department.

All the balls can be present but only one, will be the final one held in the hand of the winner.

If I told you that one pin placed where the balling ball would be on the ground could knock out the other pins aligned at the back of the alley, you would think that I was crazy right?

But if that one pin was thrown with Serena speed, strength & precision, it's possible.

back to the bowling ball in place of that pin

That bowling ball holds power. The bowling ball represents the power & increased surface area that leads to impact when we have God with us.

God changes our lone pin, that lone pin crazy enough to think it can hit all those pins at the back of the alley. He changes that lone pin to a bowling ball when he has our back. All of a sudden crazy isn't so crazy any more when power and precision are added.

When you are convinced that you have 'thee*  bowling bowl',  you realize that not all balls are needed for each pin at the back of the alley.
*not a typo, I meant what I wrote

but rather one is enough when trying to knock all of them out.

You can be the one he uses as an individual to reach the many. He can use you to be more effective than 5-10 people put together. You can be the ball between pins, that knows what being a pin is like - knowing where the days drag, when failures hurt and when a new year or season doesn't seem like anything worth getting hyped over.

Can you see the reality of yourself as that pin? No? 

You can't see it, because you won't see it.  Whatever may come your way in life is overcome when you believe that your part of the work is not more than you can bear. When you stop seeing yourself as only that 'bowling pin' and remember that you have access to thee bowling ball you can move into this reality.

Seeing is believing doesn't work here. Seeing the trial as bigger than yourself won't help you here. Allowing yourself to be swallowed by life, ends with the carcass of your confidence being spat out around here. It's better to let yourself  be used for good around here. It is better to step out alone and hold onto yours when everybody wants to deny what got them here. 

It is better to work on the department than be overwhelmed by the whole building. You can't imagine how the word gets round when you appreciate your pin state and maximize every inch of who you are. Please be encouraged that you wouldn't be here if you didn't have anything to give to the community around you.

Being that crazy pin isn't the end to your impact, stretch out and grab hold of the power and precision in close access. Let the bowling ball transform you.

                                                                     Copyright © 2020 PebblesWroteIt

Delayed, But Never Too Late

This quarter's guest blog post comes from HoneyLuxe, who speaks on  BE PATIENT & DO SOMETHING  with a post that encourages you to step back from what you haven't achieved and look forward to what this new season of life holds for you. If you will maximize the new decade you must understand that some things have a right time, a specific time  -  prepare yourself in the meantime.

I remember being in my teens and envisioning what my life would be like in ten years time. I was certain I would be

married, living in a fancy mansion with my amazing career and raising at least two children by the time I was twenty five. Crazy right?

Well, that definitely has not happened yet and I can only laugh about it now! I was so sure that all will work out accordingly within the time I predicted because, well why not? Fast forward to now. I know that it is only Christ who can dictate

how my life will pan out! One of my favourite scriptures is Jeremiah 29:11. He knows the true meaning to my life

and it is not for me to attempt to decide it for myself.

When you hear purpose, what comes to your mind? A gift that you may have? Maybe a goal you have been trying to accomplish? Or is it about a strong passion you have for something?

There are so many def..

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Courtesy of © 2019 Honey Luxe