Even though I didn’t sit to write until about two hours ago, I’ve been thinking about my script all day. My brain felt fried and unmotivated. I was in the middle of a wedding scene yesterday and I couldn’t find the witty to the story. It’s supposed to be a comedy after all. I
was too tired to be sarcastic and I have no experience writing comedy. So I’m a blind woman trying to describe color, a newbie to comedy, a newbie to scripts. After shopping for some home improvements, I came home and watched “The Wedding Planner”. Jennifer Lopez is not one of my favorites actress. I do like Matthew McConaughey , but if you need some inspiration on wedding scenes, you can’t go wrong with this movie. I tried to watch Made of Honor as well, but the version I found was in Chinese and my language abilities are limited in that area. After the movie, I took a nap and when I woke up, my muse was back and I was able to make it to fourteen pages. There’s hope…!
Tag: inspirational
Day 2 Script Frenzy 9/100
Not my best quality writing. I was trying to get water out of rocks. Although these types of challenges are fun, some days are a drag. I’m not supposed to feel like this until week two. It’s too early for the writer’s fatigue. It’s time to hit the sack to renew the brain cells and try again tomorrow.
Day 1 Script Frenzy Day 6/100
First day of the frenzy; not really sure of what I’m doing, but here we go. I plan to get some type of format at the library this weekend, because I’m writing, but I’m not even sure that what I’m doing is right. For those who don’t know what I’m doing, this is a competition of writing a script with a minimum of 100 pages starting April1rst and submitting the script no later than April 30th.
Today’s countdown 6/100 94 to go!
Eggs and Bunnies by the Cross
As a Christian I want to celebrate things that are related to Christ and I’ve been on the search for the truth regarding our most common holidays. Easter is around the corner and all I’ve seen is colored eggs and rabbits. I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, but my sixth grade teacher taught me in biology that rabbits had bunnies and hens laid eggs, so that combination alone makes no sense to me.
On the other hand, from my years in church and annual “Good Friday” movies, I never saw rabbits, bunnies, hens or eggs related to the cross of Jesus Christ. Where did this come from? I’ve asked around and nobody seems to have an answer. After much searching, my good friend Google finally led me to my answer, several articles and web pages about the traditions of Easter.
In reality we are supposed to be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the thing that distinguishes Christians from other religions and sects, it’s the fact that our Lord is alive, and not only alive, but conquered death on our behalf. Somehow in the early days of Christianity, the celebration of the Resurrection coincided with a Pagan holiday dedicated to the goddess of offspring and springtime named Eastre. The story says that earlier Christians wanted to celebrate their festivities, but it would have been dangerous and Christianity was sometimes seem as criminal, therefore they decided to modify their celebration for their own safety and to attract non believers.
Why eggs and bunnies?
Both have been perceived as symbols of new life and fertility. This is also associated with the 
blooming of flowers in the spring time. There was an abundance of eggs during this time as eggs were not part of their diets during the Lenten season. The eggs were boiled for preservation purposes.
Colored Eggs
This tradition was created as another way to celebrate. Early Christians would exchange colored eggs, kind of like Christmas and the gifts exchange. Eggs were boiled in flowers to obtain their color, that’s why when people paint eggs in modern society, they tend to use pastels.
Now, here’s the thing; at least in the United States of America it is no longer particularly dangerous to practice our Christian beliefs and to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, so I’m thinking, ‘Let’s drop the bunnies and eggs.”. I know that all big business will take offense to this particular mindset because of what holidays mean to the economy, but it’s the truth. Some people may think, “But it’s for the children”. How about if we teach the children that we have a bigger gift than the chocolate eggs and the Eater baskets? We have eternal life!
We want the future generations to live in the truth and the light. I think its time to live in that truth by knowing what our traditions really mean. Now trust me, I’m not against chocolate. I give you permission to eat all the peeps and chocolate eggs you want, but let’s make sure we are clear in our hearts about what our true celebration is this coming Sunday; the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
Resources utilized
http://wilstar.com/holidays/easter.htm
Do not wish to be anything but what you are
and try to be that perfectly.
-St. Francis de Sales-
Inspiraciones Caribenas
One more week to go! Remember that March 30th is your last day to submit your entries for our TRM en espanol contest.
Nos queda una semana para cerrar el concurso para el lanzamiento the TRM en espanol. El 30 de marzo es la fecha limite
Good luck to all. Buena suerte a todos los participantes
The Good Wife-Heart
I’ve been watching this show off and on since it started. The show centers around a woman trying to rebuild her life after severe and complicated marital issues, but this week’s episode brought an interesting angle that is rarely portrayed on television, how important is salvation in your life?
The husband in the story is a politician and wants to hire a pastor to improve his political image. He cheated on his wife and participated in some shady activities and found himself in jail, a series of events that not only placed his career in jeopardy, but also his family. The pastor refuses to play the political game and offers the man true salvation. In this episode, the husband starts getting interested in prayer, working with the pastor towards truly making a change. The episode ends with him inviting his wife to church, and it remains to be seen if he actually means it or if it’s just another scheme.
I found it very interesting, because unless you are watching a proclaimed Christian program like “Touched by an Angel” or “Little House on the Prairie”, it is rare to see a national network actually embracing Jesus as Lord and Savior as the way to change your life. Kudos CBS!
Watch it online:
Traditions
Traditions are those beliefs and/or customs that have been passed down from generation to 
generation. One of the best examples is our celebration of Christmas. We celebrate Christmas on December 25th, as the day that Jesus was born, but historically it has been agreed that he was born closer to the month of April. You can hear people say that you can’t celebrate Christmas without a tree or decorations; the truth is those are merely distractions, there were no trees or decorations at the manger when Jesus was born.
Traditions have colored the way we do things and have distracted us from the real meaning. In terms of holidays, I boycotted traditional Christmas last year and don’t get me started on Easter. All my readers have five minutes to explain to me the relationship between eggs, bunnies and the resurrection… Go ahead, I can wait!
There are people who have chosen careers because it’s a tradition in their family for everyone to be a doctor, a teacher, a lawyer, or a policeman. Some people go to a certain college because that’s where their family members went, not because it has the best program for their interests.
God made us unique. He took his time to form each and every one of us, and every one of us has 
a different purpose in the body of Christ. Following traditions, in my humble opinion, are not either good or bad, unless of course the tradition harms the person or others; but it’s not necessary in the implementation of God’s plan for us. We need to ask ourselves what opportunities we have wasted because that’s not what we usually do, the way we usually do it, or the way the people around us did it?
How about when our blessing comes in a different package than what we are used to or expecting, and because we’re not familiar with it we pass it right by? Can you believe that the greatest lesson of marital love I learned from a homeless man? I was part of a ministry that was feeding the homeless. This man came to our line and grabbed his portion of food; something in him caught my attention. All the others sat in front of where we were and ate, he ran with his food to hide. Another person from the ministry and I followed him at a distance, his wife was under some boxes sleeping, probably after heavy drug use. She was very weak, he told her that he had brought her something and lifts her head up with his arms and started feeding her his food. We told them that we had enough for him to eat too. He thanked us but told us that he had come to the line just to make sure that she would get something to eat. When I think about how a husband should love his wife, I think of them. It was not wrapped up in the prettiest package, but it blessed me. How many lessons or blessings have we missed because of our pre-conceived notions and traditions?
Evidence of Real Love
Evidence of Real Love
I was able to witness and experience one of the most beautiful days in the life of my dear friends Richard and Carrie Rice. They have been married for three and half years and have a great testimony to share on how God has not only developed their relationship, but how they have grown in their faith and in their obedience to God.
When they originally got married they felt that it was God’s time to do it and without bells and whistles, they got united in the commitment of marriage. God has been growing and using them as they have been obedient to his will. Carrie, even though happy with her groom, felt that she had missed on having a celebration of that special day.
This year, she submitted a letter to the local Christian radio station “The Fish”. They were running a Valentine’s contest where they 
would choose 50 couples and do a wedding for them to renew their vows. This radio station does this contest every year and Carrie had submitted a letter of participation each time. This year she won. She was very excited. God had provided the wedding of her dreams. This wedding was not only going to provide her with a ceremony, but a wedding cake, flowers, catered lunch, pictures, video and gifts. This time more than the commitment to each other, they were celebrating their covenant with God and with each other.
The event was cancelled in February due to inclement weather and the activity was performed today. Carrie and Richard had thought of the traditional wedding attires when they originally won, but then they realized that it’s not a white ball wedding dress and a tuxedo that mak
es them tick. It’s not a tiara, a veil and a tie that made them fall in love. So they decided that they wanted to get married in their tennis shoes and “skinny jeans” like Richard said.
They were the only couple in jeans, so they did get various looks from the other participants. Even there were comments in the bathroom about how “diverse” the chosen attires had been, not knowing that Carrie was in the stall. She came out and laughed about it and said, “Yes that would be me!” Beyond their looks they were very well noticed amongst the crowd. They received compliments for showing passion in the way they kissed and looked at each other during the ceremony. To them it was not about looking pretty, it was about their true love for each other.
During the ceremony, Carrie surprised Richard with his wedding ring. His ring had broken some time ago. She had it fixed to give it to him today. He was blown out of the water, but was also a little disappointed that he didn’t have a gift for her. Brandon Heath was singing 
and Richard felt in his heart a prayer. He prayed that God would bless his wife with the grand prize, so that this day would be even more special than it already had been for her. At the end of the event, the hostess presented the grand prize, a $2,000 diamond necklace. “And the winner of our grand prize is” as the hostess and Richard said at the same time “Carrie Rice”. At the table there was confusion for a second, none of us could believe that Carrie had been the winner. There were screams and praises from Richard’s mouth. Hours after the event had ended we were all still in awe on how God had answer his prayer, blessed his wife and made this day perfect. They were able to share their story with some of the people present, including Brandon Heath, who was very impressed.
Of course winning the prize it’s awesome, and the answered prayer it’s a testimony of God’s love, but what is greater for me is the evidence of true love without the masks of society and how he wants us to be real. He wants us to be us, and as we obey and become real with ourselves, our connection with our Creator will definitely be closer.
New TRM en Espanol and writing contest!
The Rising Muse announces their new page: The Rising Muse en Español. This page will be launched on April 1st 2010 with the winner of our Spanish writing competition with the theme, “Inspiraciones Caribeñas”. For those interested in competing submit your essays, poetry and short stories to therisignmuse@gmail.com until March 26th, 2010 at midnight. The winner will be featured as our very first post and will be interviewed for the blog.
We are also extending an invitation to all our inspirational writers who want to join our community to let us know on how to get your work publish through our blog. Good luck to all writers and let’s get inspired together.
The Rising Muse anuncia su nueva página : The Rising Muse en Español. Esta página comenzara el primero de abril del 2010 con el ganador de nuestra competencia de escritores en español con el tema, “ Inspiraciones Caribeñas”. Todos los interesados en competir envíen sus ensayos, poemas e historias al correo electrónico therisingmuse@gmail.com . Tienen hasta la media noche del 26 de marzo del 2010 para someter sus escritos. El ganador será publicado en la primera entrada de nuestro blog, además de ser entrevistado para que nuestra audiencia le conozca.
Aprovecho la oportunidad para invitar a todos aquellos escritores motivacionales que se quieren unir a nuestra comunidad y que desean que sus trabajos se publiquen en nuestro blog, a que se comuniquen con nosotros para hacerlo posible. Buena suerte a los competidores y recuerden que la inspiración no tiene limites de lenguaje.
Naty Matos 