You Have a Superpower

In a lot of those annoying quizzes that spam my Facebook feed, there's this question that goes: 'which of the following superpowers would you want to have?' Then it has things like flight, invisibility, telepathy, etc. etc. There's one power, however, that they miss.

It's a super power we all have, yet very few people realize it. We use our power every day- often without realizing it. It affects everyone around you, and everyone around you has it. We have access to this power almost all of the time. People everywhere are constantly using it, to bring life, and to bring death. And you and I are no exceptions. What is this superpower, this ability we all have, yet no one seems to know about?

Words.

I know what you're thinking. 'Words aren't a super power. They're just, you know, words.'

But they aren't just words. Proverbs 18:21 says 'the tongue has the power of life and death.' Your words have the ability to give people life and to bring people death. As Adrian Monk would say, 'it's a gift... And a curse.' There are tons of Bible verses talking about the power of words, and I could quote all of them. Here's another:

Proverbs 12:18 - Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the words of the wise bring healing.

We speak hundreds of words every. Single. Day. Every time we open our mouths to say something, we have the power to change people lives. So many people waste this power, talking trash about others, whether it be their friends, their enemies, that celebrity everyone hates so much. Anyone and everyone. So many people waste this power by holding it back, by not speaking up when they need to defend someone else, God, or themselves. Don't be one of those people.

Today I want to show you the two main ways you can use your words.

1. To Bring Death

I once read a book about a girl who heard everything any person anywhere in the world said about her. Praise, criticism, gossip. Everything. (The book is called Claim to Fame, and it's by Margaret Peterson Haddix.) Imagine what that would be like, if you heard everything someone said about you. You'd know if that cute boy at debate club likes you, what the 'cool kids' think about you, and what those blank-faced judges thought of your speech. Now let's switch things around.

Imagine if that girl you called fat in private heard what you said. Imagine if that celebrity heard you call them ugly. Imagine if that one debate team heard you make fun of their case.

Imagine if people heard every word you spoke about them.

 People have hurt you with their words, haven't they? They've said mean, spiteful things, they've gossiped about you, spread rumors about you, and killed you a little inside every time.

And you've hurt people with your words too, right? You've said mean, spiteful things, you gossiped and spread rumors. And each time, you killed them a little inside. We can make excuses for the words we say: I was mad. It was in private. Their case really is crazy. We can make excuses, but they will never excuse the deadly words we speak.

That's a little extreme, right? But it's true all the same. The words we say to someone - anyone - can affect them for years and years- trust me, I know.

We can choose to use our mouths to bring death, no matter who we are or who they are. And this, far too often, is what we (and what I) choose to do. We can be insult someone, criticize something we shouldn't criticize (like their natural hair or eye color.) We can gossip about about them, spread rumors, and say those bitter things. Or we can choose our words in the other way.

2. To Bring Life

Last year, after weeks of building up the courage to do so, I sent an email to a girl named Chandler. I had been reading her hilarious blog, and she had just written a post about not giving up, a thing I am somewhat of an expert on. I had wanted to talk to her before, because I love the blog. I got to watch two of her finals speeches at NITOC (although I hadn't spoken to her. I swear I'm not a stalker), but I couldn't work up the courage to go up to her and fangirl about A. her speeches, and B. her blog.

But I wrote an email to her about a month later, talking about my experience with failure and giving up and not giving up. It was a weird thing for me to do. I'm not really one to comment on blog posts, or email strangers about their amazing writing. It feels awkward, but I wish I would do it more. But I emailed Chandler. And she emailed me back.

I saved the email she wrote back in a Word doc. And I saved the file in Dropbox, because I didn't want to lose the kind words she said to me. (And it's a good thing too, because my laptop is busted. RIP: My Poorly Functioning Laptop.) Here's one of the things she said to me in the email (well, a paragraph of things she said to me):

     "You and I know something your judges don't know. You, Hadley Jones, are a fighter. You're dedicated. You know failure isn't the end. I have no doubts you'll come back next year swinging and ready to hit hard. I don't means in terms of competitive success, because I have no idea what the future holds in that regard. Like I said, I can see speech means a lot to you, and that's why you have to be careful not to let subjective placings define you. Instead, let the fact that you are willing to present your ideas to a panel of strangers and not be intimidated define you. I know you will succeed."

Chandler used her words to speak life to me. Almost a year later, those words still mean so much to me.

You can choose to use your words like Chandler did. I guarantee it'll pay off. It may not benefit you, but to those you speak life to, it's priceless. Don't waste your words on insults and slander. Don't stay quiet when you need to speak love into someone's life. Use this invaluable superpower for good, not evil.

Vote affirmative, but more importantly, speak love and speak life. (And go read the book Speak Love, by Annie F. Downs. It's fantabulous and goes much deeper into this subject.)

My Dream House is a Hobbit-Hole.

A long time ago I said that I would write more about imagination. That was like, more than a month ago. It was only the second post of this blog. Along with promises of more imagination posts, it included a very lovely story about cupcakes. Anyways, I shall now write about imagination.

I watched all three of the Lord of the Rings movies back in December/Janurary (not positive which month it was). If you have not seen these movies, I highly suggest that you do. No, I demand that you do. These movies are utterly fantastic. So, after you read this post, go watch the Lord of the Rings. Warning: They are each like, three hours long. But it's worth it. Anyways. I watched them again these last couple of weeks. And - guess what - they were just as amazing as last time! So I thought to myself, 'if the movies are so good, and the book is always better than the movie I should read the books.'

The reason I hadn't done this previously is because those books are a tad bit frightening. And I'm not talking about the orcs and Gollum. These books were written in the 30's/40's. And that was like, 70 years ago. That was quite a long time ago. And on top of that, these weren't exactly written for fourteen-year-old. And I thought that they'd be slow and boring and difficult to understand. But I took up the noble task of reading those legendary books.

I was surprised, to say the least. For the record: hobbits are awesome. My dream house is a hobbit-hole. Yeah. Seriously. Those things are awesome. It's a house... that's underground. And it has a round door. And it's awesome. But you already knew that.

So what does this have to do with imagination? Well, duh!! They're books! More importantly, they're works of fiction! Not only fiction, fantasy fiction. And not only all that other stuff, they're set in a whole other world! You cannot read this books without imagination. It's just weird words that mean nothing too you. of course, without imagination, that's all anything is. You need imagination to hear the characters voices, you need imagination to see the landscape. You need imagination to believe that any of it can be real. I can't imagine what life would be like without imagination. (That was a pun or a joke or something, BT-Dubz.)

Many people, especially in this day and age, start to loose a bit of their imagination as they age. But for readers - and writers even more so - the imagination only increases. Maybe you aren't always going on imaginary adventures in your backyard (or maybe you are, because imaginary adventures are awesome) but you never stop believing in the magic of books. Not the bibbi-di-bobbi-di-boo kind of magic, but the kind of magic that let's you escape into a world different from your own - or maybe not so different. The kind of 'magic' that attaches you to characters like Frodo and Sam, and all those other awesome (or not so awesome) people in LotR. And all those other awesome people in other good books.

I honestly feel bad for people who don't like to read. They're missing out. Other worlds, other people, other sights, other sounds, other... everything! And those people who only read one book or one series, like the Hunger Games or Twilight. They find one series they like, and if they read anything else they're all like, 'it's not as good!' in an annoying, nasally voice. Just because it's not as good as say, the Lord of the Rings, doesn't mean that it's a bad book/series! Silly people. *Tsk tsk*

On movies: I have nothing against them. Really, I don't. I just think that books generally provide more entertainment. Let me show you what I mean: Let's say you see a movie at the cinema. (Sorry, I just feel like being un-American and saying things like 'cinema.') Let's say the ticket is... Eight dollars. Let's say the movie is a around two hours long. And just to make it more realistic for you, let's say this movie is the Hunger Games. And let's say that you're an HG fangirl, you're probably going to watch it more than once.Now at a book-store, the Hunger Games is about $16.00 or less. If you save the money from seeing the movie multiple times, you can buy the book. Which, for the record, is much better than the movie. The movie is like, two hours, right? How long will it take you to read the book? It took me around eight hours, but that's because I was in the car on the way from my house to Memphis, Tennessee, which is about nine hours from where I live. I had nothing to do, so I read the Hunger Games. But if you weren't attempting to entertain yourself on the way to a whole other state, it would probably take you a few days. A few days vs. two hours. Which provides more entertainment? Hmm.... I WONDER. Oh, and movies don't make you use as much of your imagination. Yeah... So...

In conclusion: imagination is awesome. Books are awesome. The Lord of the Rings is Awesome. Books are better than movies. I want to live at Bag-End. I want to be a hobbit when I grow up so I can do so. Go read the Lord of the Rings. And watch the movies. Use your *cue rainbow* imagination. And vote affirmative. Thank you and goodnight/morning/evening/afternoon.

These guys are awesome. And you know it. ;)

Cupcakes and Writing and Reading and Why Such Things Are Amazing

Once upon a time, there was a magical land where cupcakes were buildings and the people were various types of chocolate candy. Then Hadley came along and ate all the buildings and the people, and it was a very tasty meal. ☺

Wasn't that a fun story? It has all the necessary components. Cupcakes, chocolate people and a strong female lead. This is why I'm a writer, folks. To see the things of my imagination really come to life. Well, not really come to life. But can't you just picture that in your imagination?

Okay, so that wasn't such a great story. I promise that I usually have some better stuff in my head. Well, sometimes. A lot of it is cupcakes. But even more of it is kitkats and impromptu speeches. And my persuasive. And how much I cried in the last movie I watched. And a bunch of other stuff. But besides all that, there's the part of my that really loves writing.

I didn't always love writing, you know. In fact, I hated it. Like, really hated it. Even more than I hated impromptu. Then I read a book called Warriors: Into the Wild. And I really liked it. Up to that point I had only kind of liked reading. But once I started that series I really loved reading. And then I wrote a fanfiction for it and I was like, 'hey! Writing is fun! How come no one ever told me that?' It was the first time I felt like I was actually good at something. Looking back, it wasn't that bad...For a 10-year-old. (I mean no offence to any 10-year-olds. Some of my best friends are 10!) Anyways, ever since then I've loved writing. 80% of my ideas are still in my head. Trust me, most of them should stay that way. The few that have made them out of my head and onto paper/the computer screen usually haven't made it past the first chapter. There is one story, however, that has endured three entire chapters. Maybe I'll post some of it later. ;)

One of the things I love about reading is that you have to use your imagination to get anything out of it. You have to picture characters, and hear their voices. I love movies, don't get me wrong, but with reading you have to picture things for yourself. Writers only do half the work, the other half belongs to the readers. There's no point in writing if no one will read it, even if it's just you. I believe that everyone should read. And I don't just mean for school or assigned reading lists or whatever. Reading by requirement takes the fun out of it. Read on your own time. Read when your bored instead of watching T.V. or eating or whatever.

One of the things I love about writing is being able to share the things of my own imagination with others. Character that prior were only the figments of my wandering mind show up on paper and enter other peoples' minds. I love trying to describe a sword fight or a rain storm in a way that other people can see  and hear clearly in their heads. Being a good writer (especially of fiction) is being able to express your views and ideas and beliefs in a subtle way that people still understand. But the thing I love the most about writing is being able to worship God in a way people don't think of when they think of worship. I believe that one form of worship is using the gifts and talents God has given us in a way that glorifies Him, even if we don't directly say His name.

So that pretty much sums it up. I'll probably write more about writing and reading and cupcakes in the future, but for now I'd just like to congratulate you on making it through this whole post. ☺

This could be yours. ;)

And also, vote affirmative. I'll give you cupcakes if you do. And, as we all know, cupcakes are delicious. ☺