The Power of Easter

Aiya,

It is the 29th of March here in Australia. And that means that all of the people are frantically buying all of the food they will be needing before the shops close tomorrow for Good Friday. The front page of the newspaper is of on of the school’s Easter Hat Parades and the teachers have been giving out chocolate Easter eggs. I’ve sat next to a kindergarten kid on the bus who was happily telling me all about how the Easter Bunny was going to come to his house on Sunday and his dad had set a rabbit trap to try and catch him.

Admittedly, I felt a tad sorry for the poor bunny seeing that those traps are pretty brutal…

But yes. I felt like telling you guys a bit about Easter seeing that our lives tend to keep on moving and being pretty chaotic around this time.

Last weekend, my parents and some of our friends ran a retreat that focused on reflection and just spending time with God before Easter. We’ve started up a Retreat Center and are hoping that more and more people will be able to develop a personal relationship with God.

But this particular retreat was focused on just stopping. Just stopping and leaving our busy life and spending time with God. Not listening to talks, but just reading God’s Word and listening to Him.

Journaling.

Drawing.

Praying.

Singing.

It wasn’t about analysing the stories that we have read countless times and feel like we can recite. It was about looking into what God was saying and just stopping to appreciate how enormous He is. To catch a glimpse of his love in our world which is generally pretty dark.

Back around December I did a post on the meaning of Christmas. At Christmas time we think about the Light of the God coming into the Darkness of the World. Over Jesus’s life, there was light in the world. There was healing there was love. When Jesus died, the world fell into literal darkness. Can I just say that that would freak me out. Just being in the area and suddenly it goes dark.

For a long time.

And for a fair reason. The Son of God was dead. Not unconscious, but dead and with His Father turning away from Him. Jesus who had been with God forever was now forsaken. His weight suspended on nails that pierced through his nerve-filled hands and feet. The weight of all of humanity’s sin pushing down on Him.

And the agony of God turning away from Him.

So often, I find that we dismiss this. We know how horrible it is and how much it is meant to affect us, but we’ve just heard it so many times that it has become pretty normal. We understand and we may wince when we hear the story, but do you feel that ache inside of you that is both horrified and saying, ‘Thank you Jesus. Thank you’?

Sit back and reflect on His sacrifice this Easter. Place yourself at the foot of His cross, listening to His last cry. Allow yourself to feel the agony of the loss of Jesus and feel the terror of the darkness that we are in without Him.

Let yourself not rush through this Easter, just trying to get through the day. Instead sit back and think about Him and talk to Him. Jesus loves you, and He has died and been raised to show the Father’s Glory that we may have life.

Don’t forget the amazing meaning of Easter this year, after all, we have more than one day to think about it.

Here is a song to think about as you go on with your life this Easter.

Enjoy Easter and think and reflect upon it this year!

How to Procrastinate from Plotting

Aiya!

Yes, you read that title right. I have been procrastinating from plotting for Camp NaNoWriMo. Why? No clue. But today I plan to try my absolute hardest at helping you procrastinate like a professional during this time that you should prooooobably plotting for Camp.

You are probably feeling pretty overwhelmed by this insanely crazy task, but I promise you, I can teach you how to procrastinate with a few simple steps and tricks. Thank me later. For now I must write this post for you!

As I have said, there are a few simple steps to being able to master this brilliant technique, and I will list them here for you…complete with instructions. Well, enough rambling from me…Onward to the Six Steps to Procrastination.

1. Starting Another WIP.

Yep. I know. Pretty insane huh? But trust me, it is doable.
Imagine this: When you sit down to do that plotting you’ve been meaning to finish off, you just happen to see that document with only 2000 precious words on it, sitting there, so lonely. So, you go over and write on it. Little by little, that tiny document has…Uh…8000 words. *coughs awkwardly* ANYWAYS. This is an ideal way to put off doing that scheduled in plotting.

*drops in a snippet*

***

“Hi Leo.” I sucked in a shuddering breath and craned my neck to look up at him as his eyebrows shot into his bleach white hair.

“Who mugged you and left you to die?” I grimaced at his slightly narrowed eyes and he dropped the book that rested loosely in his hand down on a small table and waved me inside.

I rubbed a hand over my neck. “Random bus driver.” I let my school books fall next to the novel. “According to Ethan, I was hit by a bus.”

Leo turned to stare at me again, his eyes trailing up and down my body. After a few moments he nodded and started walking away toward the kitchen, “That’s basically what it looks like. Minus the whole side-effect of being dead.”

I staggered after him into the room, and dimly noticed that is was lit only by the thin bit of light that trickled through the blinds above the perfectly clean and gleaming sink. Ignoring me, he stooped down to pull a small pot out of a cupboard, then poured milk into it—setting it down on the gas-top stove. I rolled my stiff shoulders slightly and stumbled towards a couch.

“If you get blood on my furniture…not even being immortal is going to save you.” My limbs stiffened Leo’s words and I straightened slowly, every muscle protesting at the movement.

“Sure thing.” I replied, my voice thick, and leant my good shoulder against the wall. “I’d never get blood on your stuff.” Some friend you are. 

Leo snorted slightly as he dropped half a block of dark chocolate into the pot. “Yeah right.”

***

2. Creating a Playlist for New WIP

One rule for this: It has to be epic. So, you can’t just toss in a few songs that you think are good, you need to go all out and put in only the best. You need to listen to at least 4 hours worth of music to find the ones that suit your distracting WIP the best. Then you need to order them so that they will flow on from one another.

Trust me. This will take up a lot of time, and then you can have a cool soundtrack while you are doing all of these other forms of procrastination. *nods wisely* This is very important.

3. Creating Character Collages for New WIP. 

Yup. Collages are procrastination’s best friend. Such a close friend that even random people on the bus seem to recognise it when you’re sitting there, happily making collages of these awesome characters. And it is so much fuuuuun. You end up with a pile of pretty collages at the end to look at and feel all of them happy feels about for your precious characters. *hugs all of the character collages*

4. School Work…Writing Ideally

If you are a sensible writer, and happen to be in year 11 or 12 at school, you almost certainly have one or two writing projects to be doing.

Do them.

Then you can use the excuse when Camp NaNo comes around that you were frantically doing school work, even if in reality you were just writing 8 different short stories and then choosing between them as to which one to submit as your final task. So there you go!

5. Repeat 2 & 3 but for Your Actual WIP for Camp

Time to make more playlists and aesthetic collages, but this time for your actual WIP that you’re meant to be plotting! This is pretty close to actually doing your WIP, so, this may help ease you of that guilty concious thing that comes from deliberately avoiding something you planned to have done.

6. Master the Perfect Chai Recipe 

You heard me. You are going to become the best at making chai tea. By the end of March, you should have worked out the exact amount of each spice you need to add the the Twinings tea to make it absolutely spectacular. You may even find that you have spent an hour of your Saturday carefully measuring out spices and taking notes.

Let me encourage you in this…You will succeed. It may take 48 hours of your life, but if you keep persisting—not only have you successfully procrastinated—but you have also made the best chai you will ever have.



Well, that’s all I’ve got to say on the art of procrastination, and I shall now leave you with your prompt and be on my way.

Anyone else hyped for Camp? Do you have any favorite forms of procrastination? And do you have any tips for getting that cup of chai just right? Tell me!

Music is Magic

Aiya!


*coughs* Sooooo, my blog post was never published last week, and I’m afraid that I have to confess that they could be very sporadic from now on due to school, and life in general. But anyways, I should move onto actually giving you a post!

Music is epic. How is it that sounds can have emotions and tell a story? How is it that so many different countries have their own types of music and find them beautiful, but they’re all so different? I honestly don’t get it. I spend waaaay too long contemplating this along with many other things. But this much I do know: 

Music is Magical. 

Not magical as in it literally performs magic, but magical as in it can do things that our minds cannot explain or understand. We can say we understand them, but really, we don’t. (Apologies if I am wrong somehow here…but I am pretty sure I’m not.) 

Sounds that create emotions? Yes, it is to do with chemicals, but that’s more of a definition as to what emotions are, not how they are made. When we listen to music, it can change our emotions. Hence we call sad music, ‘sad.’ At least, I assume the music isn’t really upset or anything. xD

A few friends and I have been doing something called a ‘music exchange.’ Basically, it’s where someone sends an email saying ‘shout out’ and we all reply with a link of whatever music we were listening to at the time of the email. It’s been really interesting to listen to new music, and if you have good and clean friends, should be safe. So, that’s something that I will suggest for all of you guys, just randomly. 

Anyways, I loooove listening to music, particularly when writing. It just makes everything become very epic, and even easier to visualise. My latest obsession has come along with my latest obsession in reading which is… *drumroll please* The Way of Kings! Yes. The book has a soundtrack. 'Kaladin' by The Black Piper. SO MUCH EPICNESS! 

It’s very epic and fits the book perfectly. I absolutely love it to pieces and it fits, not only with the book, but just with general epicness for reading anything, and writing anything. (Provided that it’s epic!) Here’s a link to one of their epic songs, and you should seriously go and look at the rest. 

And not only that, but this piece is your prompt. Write something that is inspired by this epic piece.

Well, that’s me over and out, so now you go! Write! Have you got any interesting pieces or themes that you write to? Any other music-y stuff? And how epic is the Kaladin Soundtrack?