Finding my voice.

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I never claimed to be perfect.
I never said I wouldn't make mistakes. 
I'm trying to claim my words in this imperfect world.

 This world where being something different than the norm is set just slightly, ever so unnoticeable, to the side of what is supposed to be right. 

 What is right? 
Who are you to decide what is right?

 I have lots of things swimming around in this slightly different brain of mine. It seems I've found the voice I never had as the younger version of me. The one who craved people's approval more than the vast and complex ideas that were present even then. 

 I want to avenge this girl and the lost dreams she had. The ones that were swallowed up by others so she could feel accepted. Wanted. Loved. 

 If only we could feel in our teen years what life has given us in our forties. The knowledge, the confidence, and the ideas that want to burst into light. The knowing that no one's approval is needed or even asked for. That you don't have to have someone talk to you to be noticed. 

 That all we need is ourself to forge the path. The path that beckons. 

We look back and think "if only" and our blood runs cold at how it could have been. Should have been. But the past is gone and we have the now. The courageous now that we have been deemed fit to live in. The past is gone. Let it go. Pick up the thread that binds you to the past and cut it. 

 Tie a knot to the NOW and move forward.

 There are several issues that have been pulling me in their direction. These are issues that are dear to my heart for many reasons, and the most being how they have touched me personally. I have found that when trying to explain a stance I have in person, the words fail me. When I write about them, the words flow. Therefore I've decided I've been called to put controversial words into the social media stratosphere that may provoke and even anger some. 

 But there again, who are you to say you are the only one who is right? If God is calling me to write then write I must. Dusty ideas and old values have no place in the now. 

 I am not what I wear.
I am not defined by my weight.
I am not my skin color.
I am not defined by my friends.
I am different.
I am loved.

 I'm big on reading articles, so I've compiled a list of things that are gnawing at the back of my neck. If you follow me at all on Twitter (twitter.com/junkbabe68) then you might know where my leanings are. 

 I will not be silent because you squirm.
I will struggle with my own shortcomings.
I will persevere.
I will get on my knees and pray for my direction from HIM.

 Links: 

 http://homeschoolersanonymous.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/crosspost-what-rape-culture-and-modesty-culture-have-in-common/ (LANGUAGE)

 http://www.patheos.com/blogs/nakedpastor/2013/08/the-modesty-purity-movement-and-our-sacrificial-virgins/ (LANGUAGE)

 http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/current-events/op-ed-blog/26523-is-modest-really-hottest

 http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/07/no-rape-victim-male-or-female-deserves-to-be-blamed/277598/
THIS must change. It happens everyday.
http://www.upworthy.com/one-easy-thing-all-white-people-could-do-that-would-make-the-world-a-better-place-5?g=2

http://www.theologicalgraffiti.com/Guns-Dont-Stop-Killers-People-Stop-Killers-Love-Shared-Stories-and-the-Power-of-the-Holy-Spirit

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/07/the-great-wall-of-texas-how-the-us-is-repeating-one-of-historys-great-blunders/277617/

Stop the hate. 
http://melissakayherrera.blogspot.com/2013/07/stop-victim-blaming.html

 http://melissakayherrera.blogspot.com/2013/07/hate-is-virus.html

http://www.rageagainsttheminivan.com/2013/07/what-i-want-you-to-know-about-being.html?spref=tw

http://accidentaldevotional.com/2012/03/22/trayvon-martin-and-identifying-my-own-racist-thoughts/

http://www.rageagainsttheminivan.com/2013/07/why-im-encouraged-after-trayvon-martin.html?spref=tw

http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/literalist-gluttony







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