Light, Love, Hope

This week has been quite musical for me! On Tuesday, April 29th, my school held a talent show which was in support of Free The Children and Winnipeg Harvest ,which is a non-profit organization with the goal of distributing food to the hungry.  They offer training opportunities to help people step out of poverty.

The event was a success! We had a full house and we raised about $15,000, which I think is still pretty good for a high school show. There were quite a few good acts ranging from comedy to music. I chose to take the stage to sing All Too Well by one of my favorite artists Taylor Swift.  Based on the reaction I got, I’d say the crowd liked it!

Performing is one of my favorite things to do. Whether it’s playing a guitar recital or a school talent show or at church with the band, whatever the case may be I always feel at home onstage. Even though I get insanely nervous before going on, when I’m actually doing it, I’ve never felt more relaxed.

The music program at the school I go to offers an extra-curricular activity called Chamber Choir. It is an auditioned group made up of about 14 girls, myself included, meeting twice a week. We’ve been working on a song called This Is Me for the last few months, and we had absolutely no idea what it could be about until my choir director, Mrs. Ens, told us that Poet Shamin Brown was coming in to talk to us the next class. That same day Mrs. Ens had told us a little bit of a background of the song, which I will tell you now.

Shamin is a survivor of human trafficking. When she was a sophomore in high school, she kept a straight A average with a passion for sports. By the next year, all that changed. Shamin became a crack addict, and the drugs took over her life. She began selling herself on the streets just to feed her addictions. Shamin has written a book called I’m An Addict which tells her story in shocking detail. When I went up to buy her book, I told her about this website, and what it’s all about and she took the liberty of writing this in my copy:

Jackie, I pray that God uses your blog to set the captives free. Remember, don’t judge – LOVE. Love heals all.

If you meet and talk to her on the street, you never would’ve guessed that she was once a sex worker. She’s so full of life and charisma, that when you hear her story for yourself, you’d never be able to tell. When she told us the meaning behind This Is Me, it completely changed our perspective on what it was that we were singing.

On Wednesday, April 30th, our chamber choir was invited to sing at what was not only her book launch, but also the song premier (which I didn’t realize)! Before we sung, the composer Timothy Corlis stopped to talk to all of the choir girls thanking us for singing his song. During, he was visibly impressed. I caught him tearing up a little, so I took that as a good sign! After he came around to each of us saying how impressed he was. That same night we sung another song called You Are More, which I played guitar for, as well as sung a solo! Both songs we were asked to sing had Shamin tearing up, which is incredibly flattering because that shows that the music had touched that person’s heart.

To bring my musical week to an incredible end, I was given the chance to get into a professional recording studio to talk to a music producer named Jason about writing and potentially recording my first album!! During that chat, Jason had me play one of my songs for him, and he told me to come back to the studio in like a week or two to begin writing and recording. This is a huge deal for me because for as long as I can remember, I’ve dreamt about being a singer and this could be my chance! I’ve taken his advice to heart and I’ve been writing and writing all weekend, and I can see that my songs are improving. I just hope he thinks so, too. As of right now, the song I’m most proud of is called Fresh Start. I wrote that song about my mother and how I only want to make her proud, but it’s time for me to follow my heart regardless of what she has to say. It’s about how I’m growing up and how it’s time for me to spread my wings and fly.

~Jackie

I am fond of saying I “lived life backwards” simply because I had my son at age 25, then went to college at age 28 and after rearing my son to adulthood (and with two children of his own!), I married the kindest, sweetest man I know at the age of 52.  It truly does not matter the order in which your life runs, it only matters that one stay present and willing to grow along their own personal journey.  I write today with hope that someone may read these words and find themselves willing to open up for perhaps the first time.  The time for hiding is over.

What I failed to mention in the first installment is there is an inherent sadness that comes from seeing the glass half-empty; of living life from a negative place constantly worrying when the next “thing” will come along that throws everything out of whack…again.  I am sorry to say I lived with just that attitude.  Thankfully, I have discovered along my life’s journey that our vision can always be adjusted and we can change and become the people we were meant to be – optimistic, satisfied, fulfilled – and the shine on the glass becomes more apparent and the beginnings of a glass half-full view of life becomes clearer and clearer.
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I’m sure I don’t need to remind you, but here … today … I feel lead to do so.

Life is precious and fragile … just like the ones that you have with you on this path.

These dear ones and their lives can be changed in the matter of mere minutes, seconds even. 

Every life is precious … every single one.

And everyone matters … even when you feel like you don’t.

Just, please, be careful what you wish for.

Your best-laid, well-meaning plans can easily go astray.

Your desires can get the best of you in the moment, and everything else will come crashing down around your feet … so be careful what you wish for.

Be careful what you ask of others … and what you expect them to do to fulfill you or your requests in return.  It has the potential to enhance or destroy.

Make wise choices, yet realize that ultimately, you are not in control.  Not one of us truly ever is.  Sure, we try to be, and thus, a lot of our anger comes from the inability to control another human being.

And yet … why should we ever desire to do so?

God has equipped us all with free will.

Choose wisely.

We didn’t have much as a family while I was growing up. When my parents divorced things got worse. We were poor. I went to work to help out when I was fourteen. I didn’t see the money from any of my paychecks until I turned sixteen when thing got a bit better. There is one incident that has stuck in my mind through all these years. This “RAK” or “random act of kindness” influenced me to become a better person and to try to return in kind what we received one evening.

It was during Christmas time when I was fifteen. It was the Saturday before the second Sunday of Advent. My mom, sister and I had accepted the task of created banner to be hung in church each Sunday during Advent that year. We were sitting around the dining room table reading through Bible passages to get ideas for the banner. I can still see everything in my mind that night. The Christmas lights were lit. We had a fire going in the fireplace to help chase the chill away in the house since we kept the temperature below what most consider comfortable during the cold winters here in Illinois to save on the heating bill. There were classic Christmas songs playing on the stereo; Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and so on.

Mom had explained to us while we worked that there was not enough money to “have” a Christmas that year. There would just be enough for a small Christmas dinner and to pay the bills. My sister and I knew things weren’t good financially with mom. Neither one of us said anything or complained about the situation. We just sat as a family and continued to work on coming up with a wonderful banner to celebrate the coming of Christ’s birth.

Out of the blue, there was a knock on the front door. We weren’t expecting anyone. As we all had our hands full, it took mom a minute to stop cutting felt and get to the door. When she opened the door, there was no one there. In that short two minutes to get to the door, who ever had knocked had disappeared. Just as she was about to close the front door, mom noticed an envelope stuck in the screen door. She brought the envelope in and opened it. She started to have tears stream down her face. In the envelope was three hundred dollars. There was no note. There was nothing to give us a clue as to who this angel of Christmas was. Because of this “angel” we had a very special Christmas. We never found who was responsible for this wonderful gift.

This person had a tremendous effect on my life. Since that cold December evening, I told myself that I wanted and I would become just like that person. I would randomly give of myself without expectation or the need for recognition.

I have done this to my best ability over the years and I will continue to do thing like this until my time here is done. Random acts of kindness don’t have to be about giving large sums of money. It could be just a simple compliment you give someone or lending them a hand to help them out. It is about doing a little something for someone to bring a smile to their face. Many of the thing I do I never get to see the reaction of the receiving person. I don’t need that to happen. It is satisfying for me to know that I have done a little something that sparked a little joy in someone’s life.

I would like to challenge everyone reading this to do one RAK in the next few days. A few simple things I have done are:

At times, I drop the change I get back at the Supermarket in the parking lot. I think of the wonder and joy a child would get finding a nickel, dime or quarter.

I love to shop for cards. So when I know that no one is looking, I will slip a dollar bill in a card and place it back in the rack.

Even something simple as holding a door open for someone can make their day.

Sharing love and kindness toward others is what Jesus taught over and over. Yet, in our modern times we get so wrapped up in just trying to survive that at times we tend to forget that. So think about sharing a little of God’s love and kindness through a random act of kindness and you will also share in the joy of the gift that you gave.

~ The Quiet Computer Guy

Just recently, my friend, Susan, told us all about her beautiful trip to Europe.  She shared pictures, quotes, and how God was speaking to her throughout her entire time there and even when she returned home.   (If you missed it, please see Susan’s post here on The Trip That Was Never Supposed To Happen.)

I hope Susan won’t mind, but there is a part in her post that truly reached out and touched my heart.  I’ve thought of this quote since she shared it.  She probably never even realized that we had something else in common:  the interest and love of Anne Frank’s writings.

Susan shared:

I have to agree with Anne as she writes on March 15, 1944:    “Yet, what’s nicest of all is that at least I can still write down my thoughts and feelings, otherwise I’d just totally suffocate.”

That’s what this website is all about.  I have encouraged several to write … to share their beautiful words with the world.  While our situations pale in comparison with what Anne went through, there is still such power in the written word.

Think of how you feel when you’re listening to a song, and that song moves something inside of you.  Then, you search for the lyrics to make sure you had them all just right and to see the ones you may have missed as you were captured completely, entranced with the song.  How powerful were those words when you heard them and then when you saw them in print?

Now, think of the actual written words whether it’s in the form of a poem, a letter, or a card you receive in the mail.  Someone took the time to actually write their thoughts down, pouring them out on paper, to give to you.

That is powerful!

In the day we’re living in today with all of the technology that surrounds us, the written word has just about gotten lost.  Everyone emails, sends text messages, or they bypass that completely and go to video chats like Skype, Facetime, and Google “meet ups”.  Yes, it is wonderful to see someone, to look into their eyes, even if only with the aid of technology.

BUT … 

After that moment is lost, there’s nothing to hold on to.

With the written word, you can hold it in your hands.  You can feel the wrinkle of the paper, the very paper that they held in their hand.  The paper that they placed delicately on the desk as they reached for their pen to share their heart with you.

I can imagine them sitting there in deep thought with this ever so serious look on their face.  Gripping the pen tightly, they begin to pour out the contents of their heart onto that paper.

For some, it flows beautifully like a river.

For others, it is a painful task to put their thoughts into words as there just aren’t enough words in the human language to describe how they’re feeling.  They labor over their hand written letter to you or their poetry that is offered to your heart straight from the very soul of their being.

The written word IS powerful.

Recently I was given a piece of paper with words reflecting the very heart of the giver.  Those words spoke life over me and love into me.

Oh the power of the written word and a few strokes of the pen.

Keep writing, dear one.  Keep writing and sharing yourself with the world.