a website & community for women who write & blog
Inspiration is everywhere. Through the years I’ve learned that some of the things that we see as distractions from the creative process can actually be the fuel we need for our next for blog post, article, or essay or even our first or next book.
That’s why I love sharing with you what I’m currently watching, writing, reading, listening to, loving, feeling, and planning. Here’s the latest edition of Currently!
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“Javacia — the girl with the long, pretty hair.”
That’s how people have described me for most of my life. As I got older and started making a name for myself as a writer, blogger, business owner, and teacher, I thought this would change. And in some ways, it did. In some circles, I’m “the blogger girl.” Some people actually call me “See Jane Write.” And to my former students, I will always be “Mrs. Bowser.”
But for most people, I just went from being “the girl with the long, pretty hair” to “the lady with the long, pretty hair.”
I know I should have been flattered. Someone saying my hair is pretty is a compliment. But I was tired of people paying more attention to my hair than to me.
On May 7, I started chemotherapy for breast cancer and by the end of the month I’d lost my “long, pretty hair.” But even in its absence, my hair continues to steal the show.
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I was a freshman in college when I first started keeping a prayer journal. Merging my love for writing with my love for God was exactly what I needed to take my faith to another level. My prayer journal became a collection of love letters to God. My prayers became poetry and suddenly God was everything and everywhere. God was a post-workout smoothie. God was the sun kissing my brown skin when I would lie on the quad reading. Once on New Year’s Eve, I felt God with me on the dance floor of a night club.
Prayer has not made me immune to crises of faith. These crises usually happen when so-called Christians are being racist, sexist, homophobic, or xenophobic in Jesus’ name. I stop going to church and I start questioning everything – until I remember the God I fell in love with so many years ago.
But this time things are different.
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Originally published May 31, 2020
Could the Enneagram help you be a better writer?
I started asking myself this question earlier this year as I began to delve into this ancient personality typing system that has seen a resurgence of popularity and been thrust in the mainstream in the past few years.
The Enneagram teaches that there are nine different personality styles in the world. Each type has a distinct worldview and underlying motivation that affects how that type thinks, feels, and behaves.
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Many health care professionals, from medical doctors to psychotherapists, recommend writing as a way for patients to heal ailments of both mind and body. So, when I learned that See Jane Write Collective member Dr. Millie Jackson led “Writing for Wellness” workshops I was eager for her to host one for the Janes.
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