Ouch, I've been tagged!

I’m not a fan of memes but tried it a few times and discovered a strange kind of freedom that came with sharing snippets of myself. Still I don't respond to every tag that comes my way. This time my friend Jan Lundy over at Awake is Good tagged me. I had so much fun reading her responses that I thought I'd give it a try.

7 things you may not know about me:

1. From the moment I envisioned my dream to be a writer, whenever my mother scolded me i would respond with a letter explaining and apologizing for whatever I had done. Only when I became an adult did she tell me that she enjoyed reading my letters because in them she could trace my maturity.

2. My father died on October 25th 2007 and even now the pain is so fresh, so raw and so deep, that I still can’t talk about it or him without emotional blood flooding my heart.

3. I am an avid collector of kitchen gadgets, pens, teapots, journals and baskets.

4. I dream of the day when I could live alone, completely alone. As a teenager I used to insist that I will not get married until I had a chance to live by myself. It didn’t happen and the dream is still alive.

5. I am a silent rebel. My husband was the first person to see it, say it and feel the effects of my silent rebellion.

6. I was a real push over until I reached my mid-thirties. That’s when I began drilling in my own head that when I reach forty I will no longer take crap from anybody. The drilling worked too. Silent rebellion coupled with taking-no-crap helped me to stand, fight and defeat efforts by family members and friends to make me conform to their version of who I should be, control and limit me and stifle my dreams.

7. I want to be a speaker. Sure I’m scared like hell even to admit it. But I read a post recently at Good Life Zen that inspired me to speak it out loud. This meme gives me the chance to own it and share it.

Who did I tag?

Sita Henderson at Sita’s Sanctum
Joanne deMaio at Whole Latte Life
Terri Tiffany at Terri Tifanny Inspirational Writer
Hope Wilbanks at Hope Writes
Magnolia Miller at Magnolia Diaries Vol II
Brenda Friedrich at Enroute 365
MaryAnn Diorio at The Write power

The rules…

1. Link to your original tagger and list these rules in your post.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself in the post.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names and links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged.

Change has come

My weekly column Wright Words of Wisdom, featured in their Sunday edition will have its last run on Sunday 1st February.Below is a copy of the emailI I sent to those readers who have contacted me since the column debuted in September 2006.

The Trinidad Guardian "streamlining their cadre of freelance writers" - their words. They have terminated the services of several of their freelancers, and I am on that list.

Although I was half expecting it, now that it has actually happened, I still feel a bit lost. The column was so many things to me. It marked my transition from fulltime employment to fulltime writing - a long-held dream. It confirmed my purpose and my message. Although I have been writing for publication since 1998, the rhythm of writing an article every week helped me develop my writing style and fine-tune my voice.

To a certain extent, the column defined me. It was the focus of my day after I my morning devotions (Bible reading, prayer, meditation and journaling) and taking care of my daily chores. Even more important, at the center of all that were the readers who emailed me every week with thanks, with their own stories, with encouragement to keep writing and sometimes even with requests for a copy of my book.

For the last two years, I’ve been thinking of upgrading my skills and my writing qualifications. The Writer’s Bureau had been sending me a prospectus for their writing courses for several years. I was interested but never made a decision. When the prospectus for their journalism course came three weeks ago, I decided that it was time to move. I took my own advice in an article I wrote recently, and enrolled. These are hard economic times and the perfect time for upgrades even as the global economy is spiraling downward.

While I still have miscellaneous assignments for online publications, they don’t require the kind of daily discipline the weekly column demanded. So I have ample time to devote to the comprehensive 28-module course and I am aiming to complete it in three years instead of four. That’s my main priority after which comes that book. I plan to work on it in earnest. My blogs need attention – more regular postings. I will keep writing and submitting my work for publication both online and in print. Then I have two other activities that are more than mere interests. They are passions I have only recently renewed – photography and art.

In my articles I often encourage readers to have a support system as they contemplate, plan and embark on their own journeys. I have mine – a cheering section that won’t let me forget who is steering my life, who I am, what I have already accomplished, what I can do and what I am passionate about. With that kind of support there is no time to second guess myself, procrastinate or give in to fear. I look forward to stretching myself and expanding my boarders.

So I move on – not forgetting but fondly remembering the stage of my life that has just passed and all the people who have shared it with me and helped to make it enjoyable, successful and above all, memorable.

Thank you for the encouragement you’ve been to me. I hope to see your name in my Hotmail Inbox and in the comment section on my blogs: Perspectives on Life, Cheryl Wright Writes and Quiet Time with God.

God bless you.

Have you been considering or facing changes with regardto your writing? Come on now, you know you're not alone. Bring your stories into the comment section and let's support and encourage one another.

New Year wishes

Happy New Year.

May blessings follow you. May your heart sing louder. May your life be full. May your writing soar and your writing dreams come true.