Monthly Archives: September 2015

Spring 2015 Writing Retreat

Believe it or not, I held off writing this blog because I had writer’s block. I wanted to talk about how much fun I had, how productive we all were, how despite some trials we all got along great. I wanted to discuss how I didn’t use my phone for the entire weekend (Bucket List Goal!). I wanted to describe the new writing process I learned, and how I couldn’t wait to put it to practice.

Yet, every time I sat down to write this blog, I had serious writer’s block. Just the absolute worst. Nothing I was going to say was going to do justice to having to eat my dinner with a dog toy. Nothing I could write was going to eloquently put into words the experience of waking up to a full house of fellow writers, and cooking breakfast together. There was no amount of writing that would describe the onslaught of laughter that arose during our story telling game, the recordings still sitting unplayed on my phone.

It is a shock to me how easy it is to be overwhelmed by the busyness of life, that something this simple evades me. Here we are, though, a few weeks away to the next Fall Writing Retreat – and I cannot wait! Hopefully this time it doesn’t take me a year to write about it…

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Tags: every writers struggle, nano, nanowrimo, national novel writing month, northwest florida, november, spring 2015, the struggle, writers block, writing retreat

It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s America, offended!

Sep 20

Posted by ashleekarin

The thing about feelings is they are very biased. I could say “Hi” to one person, and in the same tone say “Hi” to someone else. Depending on their feelings, how their day is going, and their perception of me – one could be offended and the other over joyous to see me.

I believe that teacher genuinely thought that clock was a bomb. However, I think they thought that because of racial stereotypes developed by our country. That does not invalidate the fear.

Ever see a dog cower away from all men because his experience with one man was abusive? The dog is judging all men by his experience with a few.

We live in a world where you can’t carry a bottle of shampoo from one state to another on a plane. Fingernail file is treated as a weapon, now. We have armed security standing guard at schools. You can’t even carry a backpack because we are made to be afraid. You walk through metal detectors just to get to your class. Half way across the world, parents strap bombs to their children, and send them out to die; and this is plastered all over our media.

So why are we questioning something she’s been conditioned to fear?

In a civilized society, racial stereotypes would probably develop less often. In a cultured society, they probably wouldn’t develop at all.

The only thing that will change this is personal relationships and celebration of culture. Turn off the tv. Travel. Meet people. Stop being offended.