Tag: community

Posted on by Fern Brady - No Comments on Valentine’s Day Week

Valentine’s Day Week

Of course you knew I would find some heart picture with dragons in it, right?

Well this is the week we celebrate Valentine’s Day. It is a lovely holiday mostly geared towards those in romantic relationships. Though there are many stories of where the holiday came from, most agree that it was the catholic church’s attempt to replace a roman goddess of fertility celebration with something a bit more chaste.

Whatever the origins, it can be a hard time for those who are without a significant other. There are many people who spend this evening alone, and just as many reasons. Some are widowed, some divorced. Some single still looking. Seeing all the fuss about romance can be difficult when you do not have a romantic partner.

However, that doesn’t have to be the case. This is a holiday for celebrating love and love comes in many different ways. Familial love, Friendship love, love for your fellow humans, as well as self-love. I’v often thought that it would be good for us to focus more broadly (see how I worked part of the name for our blog into this;) on love in general rather than romance in particular in this month. It could be great time to promote doing acts of kindness and spending time with those you love.

Family love is just as important to celebrate on V’Day!

One way to celebrate Valentine’s Day is to go and hang out with friends who are as equally unattached as you. It could be great time to have singles events where you get to meet people, or to just go have dinner with friends. If you are part of a professional community, you could host an event where those who don’t have other plans could come out and enjoy the camaraderie of the community.

You could also hang out with your family and celebrate the love you share with them. Sure, there are other holidays specifically geared towards the celebration of family (Thanksgiving for example), but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t spend V’Day with loved ones too. And don’t forget your pets are loved and they are really the ones that return that love most unconditionally of all.

But beyond all this, if you don’t have a special someone, remember that YOU are a special someone. You can celebrate yourself. Don’t wait for someone else to send you flowers; buy your own. Want candy? Shop. Sure it is nice to get these from a partner, but you can celebrate yourself. Plus it is not a bad time to reflect on the qualities you hope to find in a good partner and assess your journey of self development, though be careful here that you don’t get into a depression.

If you do have a someone to celebrate with, enjoy and be happy. But don’t forget to send some notes of love to friends you know may be alone. When we were in school, we bought Valentine cards for everyone in our class — remember? Might be good to return to this idea of sending friends a little something when we know they are alone.

Posted on by Fern Brady - No Comments on I am a Writer

I am a Writer

Before I was a writer, I was a writer. I wrote as a child, making up all kinds of stories and performing plays for my family. I even charged my mom 10 cents for the popcorn she prepared for us.

Later, I became a journalist, and worked in public relations. I wrote news articles about the cultural events in Houston. I provided a calendar for the Daily Bulletin of what was playing in the theaters, exhibited in the museums, and festivals that were coming up. Because I needed a job that paid enough to cover my bills, I became a teacher of reading and writing. Wrote with my students and modeled writing for them.

But I never thought of myself as a writer. It was something I did as part of being a kid playing, a journalist reporting, a person promoting some event, or a teacher guiding learning. It was never something I consider an essential element of who I was.

The day I realized that being a writer was my core identity was when I met and connected with the people of the Houston Writers Guild. I began the journey of discovering and connecting to who I’ve always been. I went to conferences and networked with people who were passionate about writing. I learned about the industry and about the varied paths a person might take to getting work published.

And then, one day, I understood that I was not only a writer at the very core of my identity — that my voice and the stories that sought to come forth from me were in fact who I am — but that I wanted to be a working writer.

You see, a working writer is a writer that is actively engaged with writing, seeking to bring forth into the world the projects that need birthing. So, I stepped out of teaching and focused on writing as a profession. Got side tracked with publishing other authors, but that was a critical part to understand the journey for my own publication process, and it is a very rewarding part of my life in many ways.

This year, it’s time to put my writing front and center; to prioritize working on my projects and getting my books out into the world. Today, I can, with the full confidence of knowing what I was born to do and the security of understanding who I am, move my life in a balanced way towards fulfilling my purpose as a working writer.

Towards that goal, I have spent the first two weekends in January doing an intensive retreat to kick off my writing year. I’m also ready to enjoy and learn at the Houston Writers Guild’s Love Your Writing Seminar. It will take place on Saturday, February 18. Check it out if you are a writer. It’s a great place to get started on the 2023 road to birthing a legacy in words. www.houstonwritersguild.org