Where Genres Collide Traci Dowe YA Author

Washing Your Life of the Bad

Traci Kenworth

Don’t we all wish we could do so? Wash the bad from our lives? Get rid of all the old regrets, all the baggage we carry in our days? There is a way. It comes with acceptance. It comes with forgiveness. For ourselves. For others. We’re human and we all make mistakes. Of course, though forgiveness helps with some more serious topics such as abuse of any kind, murder, or so on, I don’t recommend returning to a relationship with that person/s at any time.

Usually, by the time something like that’s happened, it’s too late. And dangerous still. I’m just suggesting getting rid of the horribleness associated with those crimes. It takes time. God knows, I’ve had my share of nightmares about such things. Slowly, over time, you do start to heal. The wound doesn’t always close all the way, but it helps to get to a point where you can wash that bad from your life and learn to live again, free of the past or at least, at terms with the past.

In my life, I’ve always considered a personal relationship with Jesus rather than religion in itself. That might sound odd. It might not be your spice. What I mean by personal relationship is one of looking at him as more of a friend/guide through life rather than someone who condemns. He’s their to instruct you in what happens from here, how to let go, how to improve your life. A lot of people don’t get that idea, I know.

To each, their own. I’m not going to argue one way or another. Simply explain how I deal with things. Without Jesus, my life would be dimmer and less healing. He lifts my spirit in days when I feel I couldn’t take another step and helps me to carry on. If Buddha or the teachings of Gandhi do that for you, that’s fine. We all rely on what we can in these times.

Anyway, it’s hard at first, letting go. You wanta scream. Shout. Punish those who wronged you. But the truth is, very often we don’t get that release from the person or persons at hand. Instead, we have to make a conscious effort to let go ourselves. Releasing that negative/that black spot so to speak takes effort. Some days you’ll do fine and then the pain will hit you again. You’ll go through the emotions time and again.

There’s nothing to stop the repeat. Or lessen the strength at first. But eventually, it does get smaller. One day, you’ll notice that it’s hardly a scratch anymore. Be careful though. Because scratches can open again. It doesn’t take much effort for that. Forgiving is a continuous thing. It’s work. To be honest, sometimes, it feels like too much but if you can reach that drop off, you’ll be so much better.

I won’t lie: the pain almost did eat me alive at times. Clawing my way back from nightmares do that. But I’m stronger. The kids are stronger. Every day, they thank me for getting them out of that situation, that space where time seemed to forget that we mattered. That we had a future to carve out. A past to extinguish. You don’t come back from something like that unchanged. Our lives are so different and fulfilling now.

Yes, washing the bad out of life is difficult but so much worth it. It’d be nice to skip the darkness, the period of “mourning” so to speak and just get to the healing. But unfortunately, life doesn’t work like that. Instead, we pluck at the bleakness day after day until it is simply gone. We become new people, just learning about ourselves and our new roles in life. Everything does have a season. Let this be yours. Good luck to you and God bless! Have a great week.

Happenings:

I’m a bit late with this blog this month due to testing positive for covid. My head’s been splitting with headaches and the aches and pains of the fluish symptoms are horrendous. I even have had shortness of breath and a burning in my chest feeling that my inhaler and Symbicort have held at bay. I tested on Fri. and called my dr.’s office but they didn’t get back to me until Mon. which made it a day too late for the meds so I just have to go through it alternating Tylenol and Ibuprofen. Thankfully, I had the three shots due to the risks. Hope you’re all staying healthy out there.

Here are some links around the internet you might like:

1. Writers Helping Writers: https://writershelpingwriters.net/2022/10/writers-fight-club-story-contest-winners/ Thank you for celebrating the release of the SILVER Edition of The Conflict Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Obstacles, Adversaries, and Inner Struggles. Angela and Becca create amazing books—and find fun, generous ways to celebrate. The Writer’s Fight Club Story Contest has been incredible. We enjoyed your entries and hope they’ll be published one day! Thank you for sharing your creativity, talent…and amazing conflicts. Two of our Resident Writing Coaches donated edit prizes and judged the second-round entries. I can’t wait for the talented winners to see their prizes below! If you didn’t win and are looking for an editor—check these coaches out to see if they’re a good match for you (you can see full bios for all our amazing Resident Writing Coaches here.)
2. Robbie’s Inspiration: https://robbiesinspiration.wordpress.com/2022/10/07/robbies-inspiration-a-visit-to-the-circus-via-cake-and-a-guacamole-salad-cakeart-fondantart/ On 25 September we had a family gathering to celebrate my parents’ 48th wedding anniversary. It was a lunch event and everybody contributed to the fare. I made a circus cake display and a guacamole salad. I worked on the fondant figures for the cake for about three months as they are quite time-consuming and detailed to make. I made a clown, two acrobats, two empowered circus bears, a strong man, and a ringmaster. The cake comprised three layers of my giant round cakes baked in my biggest wedding cake tin. I made a double-mix orange sponge, a triple-mix chocolate milk sponge, and a triple-mix vanilla milk sponge. All the cakes were very delicious and I took some of the leftovers to the office for my colleagues and our building management team. Always lovely displays of cakes.
3. Syl’s 65 blog: https://syl65.wordpress.com/2022/10/08/sketch-comedy-dave-allen-train/ Sylvester knows good comedy when he sees it!
4. Smorgasboard Magazine https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/2022/10/08/smorgasbord-short-stories-milestones-along-the-way-ireland-waterford-the-american-connection-by-geoff-cronin-2/ Following on from The Colour of Life, my father-in-law Geoff Cronin wrote two more books with stories of life in Waterford and Dublin from the 1930s. He collected the stories on his travels, swapping them with others in return for his own and then treating us to the results of the exchange. Geoff also added some jokes overheard just for the Craic…Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing selected stories from Milestones Along the Way. The American Connection My great uncle Richard Condon who was my grandfather’s brother-in-law lived in Chicago for most of his life and was reported to be worth at least three million dollars. In 1930, my father was his sole heir and was to inherit the fortune. However, my father received a telegram about that time to say that his uncle, Richard Condon, had just got married. The man was near eighty years old at that time and my father said “he’s got married now with one leg in the grave and the other on a bar of soap!” Apparently, he had been involved in a car accident and was seriously injured. A long period of recovery ensued and he was nursed back to reasonably good health by a lady nurse called Jessie Barr? And this was his new bride. She was a Scots Presbyterian, twenty-nine years old, and weighed about twenty stone. Quite a handful!
5. Sue Vincent’s Daily Echo https://scvincent.com/2022/10/07/through-new-eyes/ A weekend exploring the landscape in my local area draws to a close in a few minutes. My friend is in bed, I sit here glowing pink because I caught the sun today. It was glorious weather and we have spent the day on the Chiltern hills. I miss this lovely lady’s outlook on life!
6. Friday JohnKu https://johnwhowell.com/2022/10/07/friday-johnku-aka-tgif-fri-yay-good-news-25/
7. Ohio Dog in Shelter Over 2,555 Days Finally Finds His Forever Home: ‘Flip Is a Very Loving Dog’
8. Flip’s new pet parent told PEOPLE the rescue dog is adjusting well to home life and recently enjoyed his first nap in a big bed. Who doesn’t love it when an animal finds their forever home! Awesome!
9. RosieAmber https://rosieamber.wordpress.com/2022/10/08/%f0%9f%8d%82whats-flowering-in-my-garden-for-this-weeks-sixonsaturday-post-gardeninglife-gardeningtwitter/ I had great plans to bring you photos of a trip to Longstock Park Water Gardens in Hampshire, however, Covid has circled back to my household and the friend I was going with agreed it was best to postpone our trip. So I have had to scramble around my garden in search of six items for this week’s post instead. The first photo is of a lone Linum (Bright Eyes) flower. This is from a packet of seeds that I bought very late in the season. I sprinkled a few seeds out in the flower bed to see if they would still germinate. The rest I will sow next Spring.
10. Chris the Story Reading Ape https://thestoryreadingapeblog.com/2022/10/08/5-ways-to-use-community-marketing-for-your-book-by-amanda-miller/ Locally and globally, in your community and around the world, it’s possible to create connections and memorable experiences with readers by using fun and interesting ways for them to interact with your book. This only requires a few copies of your book to give away. If the cat scratches the cover, don’t throw it away—use it for one of these nifty, inexpensive opportunities to get others involved in the marketing. I think any of these ways would be valuable and on the personal level for any author out there. They sound like such fun!
11. Word Craft Poetry https://wordcraftpoetry.com/2022/10/07/working-up-a-sweat-with-poetic-forms/ How long does it take you to write a poem that you’re truly proud of? For me, it usually takes a fair amount of time; and this has led me to a recent realization that I’d like to share. My friends and readers know that I am constantly experimenting with sundry forms of poetry and rarely write free verse. This is not to say that I never employ free verse. I do- but not nearly as often as most poets I follow on WordPress on Twitter. Free verse really does seem to be king.
12. Cold Hand Boyack https://coldhandboyack.wordpress.com/2022/10/06/guest-author-c-s-boyack-new-release/ Joan Hall Hey, Readers. Everyone knows how much I enjoy good music – especially classic rock. Today’s guest author, C. S. Boyack does as well. He’s no stranger to this site, having been a guest several times. It’s always a pleasure to host him. Craig is not only a friend but also a contributor at Story Empire. These books remind me of the Scooby Doo gang! Fun!
13. Writers in the Storm https://writersinthestormblog.com/2022/10/storytelling-and-psychology-the-yin-and-yang-of-storytelling/ Writers need to know psychology for four main reasons: They need to know how readers think and feel and use that knowledge to engage them. They need to understand the psychology of experiencing so they can create story experiences that have a real-to-life feel. They need to design characters with plausible traits, flaws, talents, motivations, etc. They need to know themselves — why they write, what they really want to write about, and how to get out of their own way. This article explains how to create story experiences that feel real to life.
14. Marcia Meara Writes https://marciamearawrites.com/2022/10/07/thankyou/ Just a quick note to say thanks to this week’s guests, Jackie Lambert and Kassandra Lamb. I’m sorry I was unable to respond to all the lovely comments, but we have been busy every day cleaning up debris from Hurricane Ian. It’s been a long, hard week, but we’ve made substantial progress, and really appreciate your understanding and support. I’m hoping I’ll have more time to be here next week, even though I have no more guests scheduled through year’s end. But I do still have a few little surprises tucked in here and there through Christmas, along with my regular #GrannySays and #ThorsDaySmile posts. I’m hoping by slowing down a bit over the next couple of months I can finally kick Long COVID and return to both blogging and writing at my usual pace. We’ll see how that goes. Meanwhile, I’m so grateful for each and every one of you who has sent me well wishes, and who’ve been so wonderful about commenting on our guest posts. You guys ROCK!!!