#my eternal identity is not defined by my present

[juju-or-anya]

I ship Zutara and I don't believe Aang is the Antichrist, despicable, misogynistic, depraved, or an abuser, as many paint him to be.

Let's dive deeper into the vast ocean of analysis regarding Zutara shipping and the complexities of the Avatar characters!

Exploring the Reasons Behind My Preference for Zutara and Zuko as the Best Option for Katara:

If you ask me why I choose Zutara and Zuko for Katara, it's a tale of dense and multifaceted layers. While I respect the idea that Katara could have progressed as a character while single, the reality is, if I must choose a partner for her, my heart leans toward Zuko.

From a young age, Katara is forced to assume adult and maternal roles due to circumstances. At 14, 15, and 16, she becomes the mother figure of the group, a dynamic that exposes her to something called parentification. This phenomenon, where a child assumes adult and motherly roles, deeply concerns me, especially when imposed on racialized girls (but that's a topic for another post). However, she's not alone in this journey. Sokka also carries this burden, assuming the role of tribe leader, protector of his sister, and head of the tribe in a world torn by war.

However, while Katara is drawn into the premature motherhood of the group, Zuko emerges as a figure of redemption. Although initially presented as an antagonist, his evolution throughout the series reveals layers of complexity and redemption. The friendship and relationship he develops with Katara represent an opportunity for both to escape predefined roles and find equality in their companionship.

Aang's Pedestal and Katara's Complexity: A Profound Reflection

Katara, like any human being, is not perfect. She has a series of flaws and weaknesses that are part of her nature. However, Aang seemed to ignore these imperfections, focusing on an idealized vision of her. What happens when Katara doesn't fit this pedestal? Aang tries to mold her according to his own beliefs and perspectives.

Take, for example, the advice about forgiveness that Aang offered Katara, specifically regarding Yon Rha. It's commendable that Aang advocates for forgiveness, but when Katara expressed her decision not to forgive, Aang didn't simply accept that choice. Instead of respecting her unique perspective on forgiveness, Aang insisted on changing her viewpoint.

This behavior is also evident in moments like the non-consensual kiss in the play episode or the lack of space for Katara to express her own feelings in "The Day of Black Sun." These are uncomfortable situations that should not be overlooked and shed light on the complexity of the relationship between Aang and Katara.

Katara: More than "The Avatar's Girl"

Another aspect I want to address is the concept of "The Avatar's Girl." I detest how this term has influenced perceptions of Katara. Despite being a formidable waterbending master and a powerful warrior, she is reduced to this stereotype that does not do justice to her true identity.

It is crucial to remember that this is the result of decisions made by writers and does not reflect the richness and depth of Katara's personality. She should not be defined by her relationship with Aang or her role as "The Avatar's Girl." She is more than that, with unique abilities and complexity beyond simple labels.

Conclusion: Exploring the Complexity of Relationships in Avatar

In conclusion, the relationship between Aang and Katara is multifaceted. Recognizing the imperfections and complexities is essential to appreciate the depth of these characters. Aang, although inherently good, also shows problematic aspects that deserve discussion.

The concept of "The Avatar's Girl" underscores the importance of challenging stereotypes and allowing characters like Katara to develop more fully and authentically.

Now, let's delve into the second topic:

Do I really believe that Aang is the most despicable being, worthy of hatred and condemnation? A misogynist, abuser, harasser, who deserves eternal punishment just because he obstructs my favorite ship and is the antichrist?

The answer is a resounding NO!

Look Aang in the eye and tell me he is pure evil, DARE YOU!

Throughout the story, Aang emerges as a pure being, whose character development evolves as he trains to become a great Avatar. Despite facing the darkness of the world, his losses, and the wounds he suffers, Aang continues to maintain unwavering faith that everything will be okay and that the world can be a better place. His beautiful and innocent glow, that childlike animation, sets him apart in a context where young characters are growing up amid war.

I observe the young characters in the show, like Sokka, Katara, Suki, Toph, Azula, among others; they are all children of war, forged by the conflict surrounding them. The emotions, decisions, and thoughts of these characters are inevitably influenced by war. Sokka is shaped by the war-torn context in which he grew up, just like Katara, Toph, Zuko, and Azula. The war determines their identities, regardless of which side they are on.

However, Aang is an exception to this rule. His first 12 years pass in peace, living without the shadow of a war that could affect his life, his personality, his beliefs, his innocence, and his morals. If Aang had been born amid war, his being would probably have evolved differently, perhaps leading him to more extreme actions like killing Ozai. But no, Aang refuses to kill Ozai because it goes against his moral principles.

It is true that Aang has his moments of tantrum and questionable behaviors, which are completely understandable given that he is a 12-year-old child. Unlike other characters like Sokka, Toph, Katara, and Zuko, Aang's destiny is practically set in stone. He is supposed to stop the war, defeat the Fire Nation, or perish in the attempt, having to wait for the next Avatar cycle. This weight on his shoulders is overwhelming for a child.

Aang also experiences moments of "micro-machismo," something we all possess to some extent, even the most deconstructed feminists. This is due to his upbringing in a society that, due to the era and other factors, influenced his perspective. But we see how Aang grows, progresses as a character and person. Although it is not right for Aang to get angry when Katara does not understand his feelings or to kiss her without her consent, I do not consider him an abuser, as some Zutara fans suggest.

I believe that if they had allowed both Aang and Katara to truly grow, giving them real time to develop as independent and adult individuals, I would have liked them much more.

So, let's clarify, I don't dislike them; I don't ship them, but I don't dislike them either. If you like them, that's fine. I firmly believe that everyone is free to ship what they want, without the need to discredit or diminish the ship they don't support. And this goes for fans of Kataang, Zutara,

Zukka, or any other ship from different books, movies, or TV shows. Freedom and respect for all shippers!

I edit and add:

They won't convince me easily. Korra is not canon. Aang would never be a bad father, and Katara wouldn't allow it either. Katara tears off his testicles and makes him swallow them before allowing Aang to be a bad father to all of his children. I understand that Aang has a special relationship with Tenzin, since he inherited his mastery of air, but don't try to fool me. Aang is an amazing father, and nothing will change my opinion on that, not even Korra.

Add something else that I forgot:

If Zuko and Katara were to have a romantic relationship, of course it would hurt Aang, because he is in love with Katara, but he would never ever get angry with either of them, because both Katara and Zuko are his family. and Aang loves his family. Stop calling the baby evil

#zuko x katara #zutara #pro aang #love for aang #I will fight tooth and nail to defend Aang #avatar the last airbender #avatar aang #aang #katara #zuko #katara x zuko #sokka #atla suki #toph beifong #azula

[genderkoolaid]

smth i've had to work through as a multigender person is the worry that i'm trying to collect oppression points through my identity- like the eternal question of "how can you be a gay man and a lesbian and bisexual at the same time?". ive worried that im just trying to be oppressed in every way, because all of these have always been presented as separate issues. society doesn't model multigender existence for us, so it can seem illogical for someone to be able to have that many "contradictory" identities while having them all be salient.

but like. they are! i engage with my attraction for men & my manhood in a way that is defined by gayness. my attraction to men is my manhood in a sense.

at the same time, my attraction for women & my womanhood is definitely lesbian. i have always engaged with my attraction to women through a lesbian lens.

and, on top of that, my varied sexuality is important to me, and so is the bisexual label! it also connects to my nonbinary identity, in such a way where i feel that my bisexuality & my nonbinariness are intertwined in the same way as my gayness & manhood and my lesbianism & womanhood.

i identify as a bi lesbian & bi gay for this reason, and i identify as a butch boydyke & femme girlfag because my multigender womanhood and manhood also impact my gayness & my lesbianism. my womanhood is shaped by my lesbianism which is shaped by my manhood which is shaped by my gayness which is shaped by my womanhood. i go out looking like a very butch dyke or a very femme fag or an bisexual androgyne. ive been in sapphic relationships as a masc woman and gay relationships as a femme man! i am large and contain multitudes!!

my identities aren't actually contradictory or inherently disparate. my multigenderedness does not divide or contradict itself. its cis-binary society that chops me into pieces and tries to force me to pit those pieces against each other. its like cutting a painting into different parts and then acting like its ridiculous for a painting to have a sky and trees and people. if you cant understand how someone can be all those things at once, you lack imagination. skill issue tbh

#m. #multigender

[awakentheeldritchabomination]

First Random Writing Dump

CW: mentions of self harm and emotional abuse

As decreed by the poll, most of ya’ll seem fine with a little bit of word vomit, and since I have some time, I’m just gonna spew a bit of my thoughts on my version of Charlie so far. It won’t be much, just a jumbled list of rough ideas. I don’t know how set I am with these, but here goes:

- They may or may not be renamed

- They use they/them pronouns but don’t correct people who misgender them; they find gender to be an odd concept, and they can’t quite grasp why people care so much about it

- They know a lot about human history but have not personally interacted with many people beyond what is necessary (until later)

- Their capacity to empathize with the plight of humans comes from guilt, their mother, who is still going to be Lilith… maybe…., a horrific chance encounter, and their relationship with V (gotta pick a name for her lol)

- Still, growing up in a privileged position largely removed from the sinners’ reality while being surrounded by reminders that these people invited suffering through their own wickedness has given them this sense of innate superiority; they are semi-aware of the fact that their elitist mindset exists and is not…great…but they prefer to bury it under toxic positivity and pretend it’s not an issue

- They have been trained to fight (heaven and hell are still basically at war, after all), but they’ve never had a real battle, and they’ve certainly never killed anyone before; the weight of dealing death terrifies and paralyzes them

- They are aware of what they are, and they deeply fear what they are capable of

- They are not very well acquainted with their demonic form, and they’d rather not be; it’s often triggered by ugly feelings they don’t want to confront

- Yeah, they’ve got some things going on deep down. Beneath the sunshine and rainbows and genuinely good intentions, there’s this raw, wriggling darkness, gnawing on their insides like maggots; they don’t know why

- Spoilers: it’s the manipulation and emotional abuse Lucifer subjected them to as well as the resentment harbored against both parents for deciding to bring a child into a realm meant as an eternal torture chamber for evil people; they don’t consciously recognize the abuse they experienced because of strategic subtly, gaslighting, and isolation from other experiences. Both they and Lilith know something about Lucifer is off, and it creates this eerie, underlying fear that permeates every interaction, yet neither of them know how bad it actually is; Also Lilith likes to make excuses just like: “Oh, don’t be like that. He’s just doing whatever coz he loves you :)”

- Their warring sides will come to a head; the anger inside them will boil over, and they will be a terror

- Lucifer cuts them off after a falling out that occurs because of the hotel proposal; they will only be accepted back once they’ve “come to their senses”

- Charlie and Alastor have a weird relationship; they’ve got this yin-yang, mirrored image thing going on; they:

1. Are both biracial and are torn between different worlds

2. Have distanced themselves from one (their blackness. Yeah, Charlie is technically half black. But it’s a little more about their relation to the whole of humanity for them), but while one is actively trying to seek it out, the other has been conditioned to avoid it

3. Are performers (which will play a role in discussions of identity, y’know, what it means to perform an aspect of identity; what is whiteness vs blackness; queerness vs heteronormative ideals; how we generally define them and individually express them. But it’s also just “hey, we both like doing a thing. Oh, wow. Neat.”)

4. Have a volatile amount of anger that makes them violently lash out

5. Have strictly opposing yet similarly extreme moral principles

this will also be present in their designs (they have opposing coloration: blue vs red, white on black vs black on white, etc.); then there’s the wolf vs deer thing… I feel like I’d need a separate post to go through all that. I feel like this is already a lot lol

- They kinda feel conflicted about being friends with Al because he allows them to cut loose a bit and have fun, and they weirdly enough have a bit in common….but like…. dude ate people…..uhhhhhhh (does that make them a bad person if they like a literal murderer?), but then they think “I’m not supposed to judge. I’m supposed to help (and I’m totally fine….right….?). Meanwhile, V’s just like, “No, babe, please judge”

- They don’t like absolute silence, and they don’t like being alone; it allows their mind to wander into dangerous places; since Alastor is a literal radio that spits out music and static constantly, they sometimes just seek him out when their thoughts are too loud. Like, he just becomes a sentient noise machine for them basically

- Charlie’s got a habit of chewing on things when they’re nervous—pens, the inside of their cheek, their nails—coz dog (or….wolf….dragon….thingy); it’s usually harmless, but when they feel especially bad, they bite themselves (sometimes they bite the stuffing out of pillows as a substitute); when they start to more aggressively gnaw on their nails, V usually tries to guide their hand away

- They hide under the bed when they are feeling particularly miserable and anxious

There’s a lot more crap brewing, and I didn’t go into as much detail as I could have…. But I think that’s enough for maybe the week idk. If anyone’s at all curious, I might make another post about V or something.

Leave thoughts in the notes if you wanna!

#hazbin hotel critical #hazbin hotel redesign #hazbin hotel criticism #hazbin hotel rewrite #charlie redesign #hazbin charlie redesign #Hazbin Charlie rewrite

[caeliajournal]

A journey through my moodboards

This is an analysis of all the moodboards I've created since I started journaling, from 2021 up to now

Searching for my golden hour

January, 2021

aestetic: golden hour

This phase of my life is defined by the significance of sunsets as a metaphor for what I was looking for: the magical and ephemeral moment that, despite its daily recurrence, never fails to captivate us.

Each of the images represented a goal:

The girl on the path symbolized the need for self-discovery and forging one's identity.

Roses embodied the past and roots, viewed through a lens of positivity and nostalgia.

We can also appreciate a collection of indoor plants, which would have a different meaning if they were wild plants. In this particular case, it represents caring for those who are home.

The bookshelf served as a gentle nudge to keep enriching my life with stories that leave enduring imprints.

Intertwined hands spoke of romantic connection.

Quotes:

❝Seek magic everyday❞

❝I am learning to find joy right here in the mess of things❞ — Morgan Harper Nichols. ❝Grow through what you go through❞ ❝feel what you need to feel and then let it go. do not let it consume you.❞ - Dhiman [...]

Homemade

September, 2021

aestetic: cottage core

The primary distinction I notice in this moodboard compared to the previous one is that nearly all the scenes take place indoors and are linked to artistic expression. It's akin to the seclusion of an artist, one might say.

Numerous activities are depicted, such as reading, writing, cooking, or drawing. The golden mirror symbolizes a distorted self-perception and the urgent need to gaze into it once more for self-recognition. Additionally, there are recurring elements from the previous board, like intertwined hands and a cat.

Unlike the previous aesthetic, this one features colors reminiscent of nature: muted browns and greens.

Quotes:

❝Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.❞ — Albert Camus, The Rebel, 1951.

❝Never regret your past. Rather, embrace it as the teacher it is.❞ — Robin Sharma

❝You have absolute control over just one thing, your thoughts.❞ — Napoleon Hill

[...]

Eternal dilemma: air or earth

Somewhere in 2023

aestetic: cottage core

The colors in this moodboard are much brighter compared to the previous ones, with green and purple being the main tones. There's a portrayal of a sunrise sky, although it's not golden anymore; rather, it has pastel colors, much softer and calmer.

The symbol of the mirror makes a comeback, along with elements that have disappeared and others that have emerged, like daisies, representing innocence and childhood. Themes such as books and art resurface, though this time there's a greater sense of solitude than in the previous boards.

Quotes:

❝part of her mystery is how she is calm in the storm and anxious in the quiet.❞ — JmStorm

❝He was earthly; she was aerial. He was made of clay and iron; she was made of fire and dreaming❞ — Graham Joyce, Some Kind of Fairy Tale

❝Book collecting is an obsession, an occupation, a disease, an addiction, a fascination, a fate. It is not a hobby.❞

[...]

The manuscript

March, 2024

aestetic: light academia

This moodboard boasts a distinct aesthetic, characterized by neutral tones, and it's centered around the writing process.

There's a contrast of ideas at play. On one side, there's handwriting alongside digital writing; on the other, tea versus coffee. It's safe to say I'm undecided.

There are fewer scenes depicted compared to the previous boards, making it simpler in design.

Quotes:

❝When it comes to art, it's important not to hide the madness.❞ — Atticus

❝The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.❞

#moodboard #cottagecore #cottage aesthetic #aesthetic #light academia #dark academia #light aesthetic #inspiration #photography #inspirational quotes #quotes #A little break from writing

[mejomonster]

DUDE IM NOT EVEN A MINUTE INTO TILL THE END OF THE MOON AND ALREADY HAVE THOUGHTS:

First, cgi has come a long way from like Eternal Love or The Untamed only a few years ago

Second, they got not just a Nice cgi team but also a unique vision concept wise. It's not like super niche of a vision, but like Love Between Fairy and Devil I can see an actual specific idea they had and realized. And that is going to make the show look and feel unique and like it's own thing. When a drama does Not have this, it has to do more to define itself apart from similar shows. You don't need a high budget to do it necessarily (Word of Honor did super saturated costumes and a LOT with cheap wigs that make it very visually different from say The Untamed or The Legends, Ice Fantasy did a TON to look unique and to this day I still can't think of another xianxia that went that much into left field to really feel like a Different fantasy world than the norm in xianxia, Love Between Fairy and Devil did a really stunning job and it was subtle but they added these genuine like faerie and elf and dark fantasy design choices that made it look distinctly different from the typical Eternal Love/Ashes of Love/Love and Redemption standard look of that show type). This drama COULD go Love and Redemption route, with nice looking cgi but not really a firm visually distinct identity. But it already is hinting at looking like it subtly is different than Eternal Love standards kind of style, so I suspect like Love Between Fairy and Devil it will carve its own particular visual style out.

MAIN GUY IS ACTUALLY DEMON KING? OKAY SO I thought Love Between Fairy and Devil (now calling it cang lan jue clj to type less) changed Dongfang Qingcang into the moon tribe specifically cause of like... the struggle to get a demon to BE the lead romance, BE the lead "hero" that wins the girl etc. Like... I thought that's why it was even changed. In Sifengs case in Love and Redemption, they hold the demon reveal for like 1/3 of the whole show and also Technically in his first life he's like a phoenix? Or part phoenix? So they don't quite make him full Demon Main Love, and Xuanji IS the demon king but like.. they save that reveal for the last 15 eps, and ultimately she's human in her present incarnation. I just. I expected this show likewise to soften it up and make him a idk wood tribe king or something idk. Anyway I LOVE demon leads so WOOH

I just. I fucking love cdramas. I love the cgi fantasy FULL ON battle opening. I love the dramatic costumes. I love it feeling high fantasy, FULL fantasy (I like my grounded urban fantasies a LOT as like my fave genre but like... if you're gonna DO regular fantasy, might as well COMMIT visually and cdramas do). This opening is likewise why I loved Ice Fantasy, just full on leaning into FANTASY WORLD. (I also write a lot of original fairy realm fantasy stories lmao so I have a soft spot for seeing live actions That Fantastical)

#tteotm #lb #AYYYYY

[bardic-tales]

WIP INTRO

page . tag . flash fiction . worldbuilding

Timeless Souls : Paranormal Romance / Erotica : Past Tense / third person limited.

Synopsis

“Interview with a Vampire Meets Fifty Shades of Grey.” For Vincent Delacroix, business is a cut-throat enterprise—and his publishing company is the city’s most successful. He has a few people he considers family, but he keeps most at a distance. For Vivian Rossi, family is a luxury. Something you never take for granted. As an orphan, she’s grown up in foster care and learned that most look out for themselves. After her husband cheated with an old flame, Vivian learns that taking risks is paramount to her happiness. Risks like being accepted into the Delacroix family. But to be accepted by her new family, Vivian needs to turn back on her old life and embrace the dark secret that the Delacroix family is hiding.

Main Characters

Cherelle Lamarre: Cherelle Lamarre, once second to Vincent Delacroix, is a very cunning vampire who was born in the 18th century. Her manipulation extends to the Knights of St. Cross. Cherelle Lamarre's actions betray Vincent and conceal a treacherous heart, which is ready to dismantle his empire with her actions.

Vincent Delacroix: Vincent Delacroix, an enigmatic and powerful figure, oversees his publishing company and vampire clutch with calculated authority. His present intersects with secrets from the past, shaping his future. His love for Vivian Rossi battles with the darkness of Asmodeus, defining the very path he takes.

Vivian Rossi: Vivian Rossi, a talented artist from Florence, finds herself entangled in a world of darkness and desire when she becomes the newest member of Vincent Delacroix's vampire clutch.

Learn More about Timeless Soul's characters.

Goals

blending genres, character development focused, emotional depth, engaging storytelling, exploration of love and relationships

Topics

darkness and light, destiny and free will, eternal love and devotion, identity and belonging, immortality and morality, love and sacrifice, nature of humanity, power and corruption, redemption and forgiveness, secrets and deception

Tropes

chosen one, eternal love, forbidden love, love triangle, opposites attract, paranormal romance, power struggle, rages to riches, redemption arc, secrets and betrayal

tag list

If you would like to be on my tag list for notifications on any chapters I might post to my Wattspad or Tumblr, check out this post here. If you wish to be taken off this taglist, feel free to tell me!

#writeblr #wip intro #writing community #writeblr community #wip: timeless souls #tw: gif #bardic tales #bardic-tales

[milkybonya]

☆彡beyond love

🎼 love as: you were so important to me that i can't define us as love_정이라고 하자

🎼 track 04 of the 낭만 (NANGMAN) -- do you believe in romance? series

🎼 some might call your relationship with Seungmin friends to lovers, but Seungmin believes what you had and have is way past the confines of love

#: mostly angst, some suggestive content, a smidge of fluff, flashbacks, you and Seungmin are no longer together but he misses you

[💌: happy birthday, Kim Seungmin ! you have been my bias for just less than a year now, but i think i've grown a lot in loving you.. here is a fic for you with my other favourite song (tied with vancouver!) from big naughty's nangman ♡ i'm sorry to put you in an angsty scenario on your day... ily 멍멍아]

Seungmin closes his eyes to the sound of rain tapping his bedroom window. it takes him to a memory from years ago.

"we'll get wet!" you whined, tugging on the sleeve of Seungmin's oversized jacket.

the boy smiled at you in response, his eyes turning into crescents. you thought you could see little puppy ears on his head with how adorable he looked.

"no, y/n, it'll be fine. besides, we have to run this errand, anyway!" he told you, opening your umbrella and stepping out into the open air.

you ran out behind him but he fled, causing you to get wet as you chased after him in the rain. in the moment, you didn't care about your white shoes staining as you trudged through puddles and mud to reach your boyfriend.

"you made it," he said, panting when you caught up to him.

"idiot," you mumbled, pinching his cheek before kissing it.

he held the umbrella over your head as he reached for your hand.

the rain starts hitting the windows so hard that Seungmin scrambles up to close them. he likes keeping them open because the sound makes him think of you, but when it pours too hard, he can't risk your side of the bed getting wet.

yes, even if you're no longer together, Seungmin still finds himself thinking of you like this. it's not his fault when you're pretty much the reason for his entire existence.

he met you when he was just a high schooler, still young and unsure of himself. with you, he made plans to take the world on head-first. even throughout college, no matter what came your way, the two of you could withstand it all as long as you were together.

somewhere along the friendship you formed, feelings had grown. at first, it was hard to tell if it was romantic or platonic, but soon enough, the two of you found yourselves falling asleep in each other's arms each night, bare chests pressing against each other and Seungmin leaving delicate kisses along your collarbones.

it wasn't friends with benefits either, not when the cuddling would go on for hours on end. you could stare into Seungmin's eyes for eternity, running your fingers through his hair as he spoke softly about what was on his mind.

the two of you were friends, lovers, and everything inbetween. you shared your lowest and highest moments together. in all honesty, you are the reason Seungmin believes in soulmates. yes, present tense believes, because even if you're not together, Seungmin believes he was destined to meet you.

a handful of years into and after college, your relationship with Seungmin felt like it was holding you back. it was too comfortable, too routine, too normal. you started to wonder if there was anything more to life than the four walls of the apartment that you shared with the love of your life.

ah, yes. the quarter-life crisis.

you left Seungmin in search of yourself. growing up with him, ending your teens and starting your twenties with him meant that he molded your identity and vice versa. now, you wanted to see who you could be without anyone's influence.

you were happy when you left. you were happy when you said goodbye, packed your bags and told Seungmin it was over. how could he hold you back?

he let you go... but he doesn't regret it. knowing how happy you were and are, he would never regret it. he just misses you to death.

a sigh escapes his lips as he stirs his hot americano.

a hot americano.

a drink Seungmin would only get when he wants to torture himself. according to him, americanos should always be iced. to have it hot it to wage war against yourself.

"i miss them," he mumbles.

Felix, his friend who sits across him at their table in a café, echoes Seungmin's sigh.

"it's been ten years, Seungmin. it's time to move on," Felix says.

Seungmin shakes his head.

"i close my eyes and i can still see their face... like just inches from mine as if we're about to kiss--"

Felix's face crumples up as he physically cringes.

"every time it's quiet, i just hear their laughter."

"if you miss them so bad, just reach out to them," Felix says, taking a sip of his own drink before staring out the window on his left.

he's having his main character moment after speaking, as if he just said something grand.

"i can't do that. y/n left me for a reason. they'll reach out to me first if they ever want to," Seungmin replies, in a dreamlike state.

he almost misses his mouth taking a sip of the drink in front of him, his moisturized lips leaving a mark on the chipped rim of the white mug.

Felix runs his fingers through his blonde hair, slowly getting fed up of his friend.

"i don't want to be mean but... it's either you do something about this, or stop complaining," Felix says.

Seungmin isn't hurt; he nods along, lips pressed together and glossy eyes blinking. he knows Felix is right.

"you're right... i still just wish, wait, and hope for them to contact me. i think even if they're on the other side of the world right now, i'd race over to meet them if they asked," Seungmin declares.

"you're crazy," Felix laughs.

"maybe... but we made a promise."

"oh? what promise?"

"a promise that we'd be forever. i know they'll keep it. i know they'll come back to me some day."

but the days keep passing and Seungmin loses hope that you'll ever find your way back to him. he realizes he misses you for the same reason you wanted to leave him: the safety, security, and comfort.

could any of that even be called love? a relationship formed out of a strange, lifelong bond that glues two people together but can feel a little suffocating if not handled properly... this was just beyond love, right?

whether or not the two of you were soulmates, and whether or not you made a promise, Seungmin finally decides on something as he throws his teddy bear onto 'your side' of the bed.

what the two of you had wasn't love. it was beyond that. and now it's time to move on.

#stray kids imagines #stray kids scenarios #seungmin imagines #seungmin scenarios #seungmin fluff #stray kids seungmin #seungmin #kim seungmin #kim seungmin scenarios #kim seungmin imagines #stray kids #skz drabbles #skz fluff #skz scenarios #skz imagines #skz #skz seungmins scenarios #skz seungmin imagines #skz seungmin #kpop imagines #kpop scenarios #kpop fluff

[dwollsadventures]

Magnus Chase Project Idea

The next thing for my list of projects is something a little closer to home and achievable, but also perhaps less anticipated. 

Percy Jackson was the first series of novels that I ever read of my own volition. It instilled a love of reading and appreciation of mythology that continues to this very day. When I heard that Riordan was going to be writing a series based on Norse mythology in 2014, I was ecstatic. Unlike before, I had a basis of knowledge to draw from to prepare for the books. When the books were released and I read them though, I felt a little disappointed. I actually have a large document that I wrote back in 2017 detailing all of my criticisms, but I’ll summarize them here: 

Magnus Chase as the protagonist goes through a very well defined and meaningful character arc in the first book. It’s probably one of the only things that make him stand out from Percy Jackson, who he can sometimes read as a carbon copy of. In the subsequent two books, however, he loses everything that made him special. His identity as a peacemaker and healer, and his choice to not use Jack the sword as a weapon are all forgotten about. 

Rick Riordan’s passion for Greek and Roman history oozes out of everything he wrote for his previous books. And while he did make an attempt, the mythology presented in Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard is one of its greatest flaws. The gods of the stories are shallow, one-joke cut-outs compared to the complex parents and power players in PJO. Heimdall is the worst example. Rather than echoing themes and remixing myths, oftentimes the characters play out recreations of Norse myths word for word during the course of the story. Norse mythology has a lot of large gaps in its content, meaning that an author will almost certainly have to bridge them with their own creations at some point. Riordan chooses to do this by mixing in modern culture and folklore from the 1800’s of Scandinavia. 

This book was not the first to feature cross-overs from other Riordan books, but it is the one that leaned the most heavily on them. Annabeth’s inclusion in the first book was appropriate, but it seemed like pandering to include Percy in the last one. When reading reviews to refresh myself for writing this, a good percentage of them cried out about their insufficient screen time. 

Slavery. The mythology point above makes me the most peeved, but this one baffled me as I read the books. One of the first einherjar characters introduced is Hunding, from the Volsung Saga. In the Saga, another of the characters, Helgi, kills Hunding, and his reward for the victory is that Hunding becomes his slave in Valhalla, commanded to “of every hero / Wash the feet, | and kindle the fire, / Tie up dogs, | and tend the horses, / And feed the swine | ere to sleep thou goest”. This is present in the books, but couched in PG13 language, so that Hunding is Helgi’s “servant”. One of the main cast of characters is Thomas Jefferson (TJ) Jr., a runaway slave that died fighting in the Civil war. In the third book, one of the other main characters replays a scene from mythology where she gets a bunch of jotunn slaves to accidentally kill each other. This character then apologizes to TJ for killing the slaves and they make up off-screen. Hunding is never rescued from eternal slavery, the existence of slavery in Valhalla is never acknowledged, the end. 

So what? Why did I list all of my gripes with the series and put it under the future projects title? Well, after I wrote my laundry list in 2017, I capped it off with a “what I would do” section. I’ve never been able to get into the realm of fan fiction. But what about fan rewrites? Rewriting the book chapter by chapter with my own changes? 

The reason I haven’t done this is because, again, I don’t have a foot in the fan fiction world, and for most of my time I’ve thought that spending so much time and effort working on something like that would be a waste of my time when I could be working on my own stuff. But recently I’ve been rethinking that. Finding the motivation to work on my own Acronym Pending series is conflicting with my anxiety about perfecting it so that I don’t tear it down a month afterwards. What if working on fan fiction doesn’t trigger this response? After all, the hard work’s already been done. If I end up doing this, it will be because I can’t bring myself to work on the TDG, which is bad, but it would mean something is still getting done, even if it’s something I cannot claim as 100% my own. 

What would I do differently? Here’s a few examples:

Magnus is not a demigod. Demigods are not a big thing in Norse sagas or myths, and it links the series too much to the previous ones. 

Samirah would not be a valkyrie, but another of the einherjar. 

Valhalla and the Norse elements would not be modernized, at all. 

Hearthstone’s father would be Volundr. 

Overall, the story would be closer to a runaway tale rather than a hero’s journey. The overarching mythological theme would be focused on breaking the cycle. 

#magnus chase #magnus chase and the gods of asgard #mcga #magnus chase spoilers #rick riordan #writing #writing idea #fan fiction idea

[takingthelefthandpath]

I post this following from 4lillith3 who’s no longer here at “t” under their old handle as far as I am aware.

The Path

We are all born into a culture and many of us are born into some religion.

We are all victims of social conditioning and indoctrination.

The Path is for most people something defined and laid out for them by various external institutions, like churches, the state or their parents.

Society and culture seeks to enforce an identity based on our class, gender, career and religion. This false imposed identity is a lie!  

The false identity is presented to us as being the foundation of our path. This is the path of the lower self.

The Black Flame

Most people are spiritually asleep and caught by the lie of the lower self. They cling to it because it’s all they know and all they have.

Their true self and their true will is unknown to them. The true self is the black flame burning within, suppressed and feared by most, because it does not abide by the imposed expectations of the world around us.

Waking up

When we become conscious of the black flame burning within, it burns away the illusions and lies of the lower self and the archontic culture we’re caught up in. We’ll want to distance ourselves from it and instead follow the The Black Flame or our True Will.

When we wake up the world notices and responds with hatred.

They’ll say: How dare you think you can just drift away and do your own thing!? How dare you reject the lies that we have imposed on you? How dare you reject the path that we have laid out for you? How dare you think that you are enough or that you are something at all? Everything you believe in is wrong, denounce it!

The archontic culture and its institutions will do anything in its power pull us back into the imposed identity of the lower self and try to force us to walk a path that they control.

The True Path

The archontic culture must be rejected and we must stay true to our true self; the black flame!

When we walk the path of the black flame, we walk a path that is truly our own.

When we become manifestations of our true will, we will be persecuted and hated by those seek to mold us into what they want us to be.  

The lower self faces its destruction and death in the flames of the eternal black flame and we become who we are supposed to be! The archons cannot recreate what rightfully has been destroyed.

RENICH TASA UBERACA BIASA ICAR LUCIFER!

Mighty Lord Lucifer! Ancient torchbearer! Help me illuminate my path because it’s foggy and unclear. I can’t see clearly and I’m lost! Share with me your light so that I may see!

Mighty Lucifer, awaken the black flame within me! Let it burn and kill the person they’ve molded me into! Let the black flame purify me so that I can become who I truly am!

[redaynia]

Penda's Fen

by Sukhdev Sandhu

There's scarcely a speech like it in British cinema: 'No, no! I am nothing pure! My race is mixed! My sex is mixed! I am woman and man, light with darkness, nothing pure! I am mud and flame!' So cries Stephen, the teenager whose transformation from sanctimonious parroter of establishment values to apostle of cultural alterity, is chronicled in Penda's Fen. It's a moment of awakening and of revelation, a jailbreak holler, a vision of a new kind of nationhood that anticipates by decades the work of historiographers and academic theorists who later speak of inseparability of 'nation and narration', of 'the invention of tradition', of 'imagine communities'.

And yet, although widely hailed as a visionary work -- troubling, beautiful, unforgettable -- almost as soon as it was broadcast as part of BBC1's Play for Today strand in 1974, Penda's Fen had never been made commercially available until the BFI'S current DVD and Blu-ray releases. For years it existed in the form of rumours and hand-me down memories, a folk myth about a lost televisual civilization. Then, after it was repeated in 1990, wobbly, nth-generation videotapes circulated among aficionados and collectors, one of which was uploaded to YouTube in 2008; its final scenes -- as if in tribute to the internal revolution Stephen himself was undergoing - were especially buckled. This disappearance -- or, at best, spectral existence -- seems almost pre-ordained. Penda himself (d. AD 655), the last pagan king of England, leader of a province where intermarriage with the Welsh was common and which was noted for its racially mixed population, a once-celebrated warrior whom Michael Wood describes as 'bestriding the seventh century like a colossus', is barely known today. The chief biographical source for information about his life, Bede's Ecclesiastical History, was completed 70 years after Penda's death.

Paganism itself has, in many quarters, been reduced to a synonym for something witchy and cabalistic. The film, though, treats it as being about the politics of scale, and draws attention to the word's etymology -- of the village -- to suggest that radical question and alternative answers are present not out there in universities, museums or sanctioned citadel of learning, but closer to hand, on the ground beneath our feet. Penda himself becomes a symbol of heretical nationhood, of pre-Christian identity, of an imaginative wildscape which has the potential to redeem us from the lies and orthodoxies of state knowledge.

The film's screenwriter David Rudkin was both an insieder and an outsider, He was of Northern Irish descent and his parents were evangelical Christians. He'd also studied at Cambridge, performed National Service in the Royal Corps of Signal, and taught classics at secondary schools. This proximity to and muscle memory of the architectonics of Englishness is palpable in every scene of Penda's Fen where he deconstructs most of its pillars. Stephen, a rather priggish adolescent, is defined by his education (a traditional grammar school), his religion (his father is a Rector), his home (a gorgeous stretch of the West Country whose green fields of forevermore his bedroom overlooks), and his politics (he believes in the sanctity of the nuclear family, and that the country is imperilled by left-wingers).

All these markers of a certain conservatism are bought into question by Stephen's growing doubts about his sexuality. Penda's Fen is not a film about homosexuality, it doesn't depict it as a subculture, a lifestyle, a social category, far less a cause. But it is, long before the term was first used to describe the work of directors such as Todd Haynes and Isaac Julien, a queer film. Stephen's vagrant, barely understood desires are fundamentally destabilising. They lead him to see through the values he used to espouse. The military masculinity of his school, mainstream Christian doctrine, the eternal benevolence of English pastoralism: all of these come to seem like fronts and conspiracies. Homosexuality provokes climate change, inspires heterodoxy, is a gateway drug to a new enlightenment.

Penda's Fen is perhaps the most significant film to be made during the rural turn that, as William Fowler has noted, British Cinema took in the early 1970s. A decline in manufacturing had led to the shrinkage of many urban centres, and that, combined with a post-sixties vogue for communes, free festival, and pre-industrial ways of being, inspired artists such as Derek Jarman (A Journey To Avebury, 1971), William Raban (Colours of This Time, 1972), and Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo (Winstanley, 1975) to explore the submerged histories, altered states and radical possibilities of the British landscape.

Rudkin shows the English countryside as a place, not of becalmed continuity and 'old maids bicycling to holy communion through the morning mist', but as a historical battleground and in constant turmoil. It offer wormholes and geysers, faultlines that fertilise, ruptures that release energy. It's a philosophy of pastoral -- and of what makes a nation -- that sloughs off Little Englandism and Middle Earthism in favour of something less self-satisfied and more attuned to its lurking darknesses.

No account if this film's making would be complete without mention of its commissioning editor, David Rose. Tasked in 1971 by David Attenborough to head a new regional television drama department as Pebble Mill Studios in Birmingham, he immediately set about developing adventurous projects -- by writers such as Alan Bleasdale, Alan Plater, Michael Abbensetts and Willy Russell -- that were steeped in the lore and soundworlds of non-metropolitan Britain. He has described Penda's Fen as 'a milestone, if not the milestone, of my career', though, 40 years after it was broadcast, he also admitted, 'I didn't understand it at all, but that's as it should be.'

If it's uncommon for films to be associated with their screenwriters rather than directors, it's especially strange when the director is Alan Clarke who, by the time of his death in 1990, had established an international reputation for the likes of Scum (1977), Made in Britain (1982), and The Firm (1989). Penda's Fen, with its rural setting, flights of dark lyricism and non-realist cadences, might seem a world away from the tough, urban milieus found in Clarke's work. Initially, Rudkin recalls, the director considered it too much of 'an intellectual piece'. Roy Minton, a playwright and regular Clarke collaborator, claimed, 'I didn't know what the fuck was going on with that piece. Nobody on the production seemed to, Much latter, in 1990, it was repeated and I asked Al, "Do you know any more now?" He said, "I had no idea what I was doing."' Stephen may not be as strutting or as vicious as Tim Roth or Gary Oldman's characters, but, like them, he bristles against authority and institutional power. The questions he poses -- in his yearnings and in his interaction with others -- are seismic. He talks up the value of community and group identity, but seems most himself when he's alone. 'When the chips are down, Penda's Fen is just about somebody who has to kick things over,' Rudkin has claimed. The film, like many which draw on horror motifs (Rudkin admired the baroque Romanticism of Hammer movies), pulsates and quivers, is often on the brink of a nervous breakdown, and it's Clarke, with his steely focus and mastery of dramatic stillness, who ensures it doesn't degenerate into a lysergic freakout.

For all its invocation of deep time and older Albions, and its revisiting of themes that Rudkin had been exploring for well over a decade, Penda's Fen is clearly a work of the early 1970s. It features a photograph-burning character based on Mary Whitehouse, the self-designated custodian of public morality who, from the 1960s to 1980s, railed against the permissive society. The film's discussions of cultural purity would have struck a nerve as, particularly following the arrival of almost 60,000 Idi Amin-expelled Ugandan Asians to Britain in 1972, funereal orations to true Englishness were routinely delivered by pundits and politicians, Enoch Powell's fear-mongering prophecies about immigration leading to rivers of blood were endlessly echoed. After a recent public screening of the film, Rudkin distanced it from the field of 'folk horror' -- 'psychogeography, hauntology, folklore, cultural rituals and costume, earth mysteries, visionary landscapism, archaic history' -- in which it has come to have hallowed status. 'It's a bloody political piece,' he observed, before adding, 'I've always thought of myself as a political writer.' Dread and paranoia permeate the drama: mounting industrial disputes, whispers about top secret military installations, withering denunciation of 'the manipulators and fixers and psychopaths who hold the real power in the land'.

There is so much to say about Penda's Fen. It is, as the poet and curator Gareth Evans has written 'an outrider of its origins and the era of its making, a singular far-seeing and multi-chambered work of art that has unravelled and reconstituted very many who have encountered it.' It is ceaseless and profound, dangerous and delirious. It is, in words that are spoken to Stephen at a crucial  scene in the film, 'strange, dark, true, impure, and dissonant.'

Sukhdev Sandhu is director of the Colloquium for Unpopular Culture at New York University.

References

Micheal Wood, 'That Waes God Cyning': Oenda, The Last Pagan King of Saxon England', in The Edge Is Where The Centre Is. David Rudkin and Penda's Fen: An Archaeology (Texte und Tone, 2015)

William Fowler, 'Deep Dreaming' in The Edge Is Where The Centre Is, pp 66-69

David Rolinson, Alan Clarke (Manchester University Press, 2005) p. 55

Richard Kelly (ed.), Alan Clarke (Faber, 1998)

Andy Paciorek, Folk Horror Revival: Field Studies (Wyrd Harvest Press, 2015)

Gareth Evans, 'Scored Being', in The Edge Is Where The Centre Is, p.72

Article sourced from the illustrated included with the BFI’s Blu-ray edition of Penda’s Fen (2016).

#Penda's Fen #Queer cinema #1970s cinema #gay cinema #alan clarke #david rudkin #folk horror #yes i am just transcribing interesting articles i cant find online from blurays i own. i have covid and this is mindless busy work. #i'd say everything for maurice is available already so i won't bother with it #I actually first saw it on youtube and yes it degrades towards the end and you cannot quite figure out if it's supposed to happen or not. #great experience altogether

[apollogie]

Whilst I am almost certain that I am doing nothing more than screaming into the void, there is a degree of catharsis in knowing that no one in practice and everyone in theory can partake in this confessional.

Seldom am I addressed by my middle name, but it is nonetheless apart of who I am. For that reason, I have chosen to pen this blog under the name Li. 黎, specifically. I don’t know if you care—it is likely that you don’t—but I do, and I have recently come to understand why I must even in the absence of validation. Ironic, I know, that I’m proclaiming this in a public forum rather than a private journal, though through baring my heart I feel I may better comprehend the granularity of my existence, my existence that is necessarily defined along paths of intersecting others, and my existence that has likewise come to be defined alongside you, my dear invisible reader. It is not validation I seek, but the companionship that permits life the ability to be one’s own through the sacrifice of our atomism.

I turn 22 in a month; it was approximately a decade ago that I made my first tumblr account—abandoned shortly after its conception. I often wonder why everything I venture to create inevitably falls into ruin before I manage to gather even the rubble of its would-be foundation. I have thought about this a lot, lately. Did my ambition vanish, or had I only once fooled myself into believing it ever existed in the first place? I don’t know, but I’ve washed the colours grey and the ink I forbade myself from spilling has become the ocean of my shame.

I’ve allowed my life to be dictated by the shame that seeks to rob me of the very life it simultaneously lusts to confer in a double-movement of hypocrisy I endlessly chase for liberation.

This may be yet another one of those movements, the identical dance my body weaves through without ever paying heed to the rhythm for which it is prostrated. Yet, despite every half-hearted lie I tell myself that tomorrow will be better than today, I cannot help but to pray that my salvation does not lie beyond the reach of the present—that the ephemerality itself is the eternal rebirth of a peace I’ve convinced myself we all grope towards—and that the banal words of this sciolist may transfigure his dying breaths into the buoy that chances for another daybreak.

#intro post #introduction #prose #spilled journal #spilled thoughts #spilled writing #i dont know how tags work #journal #my writing #diary

[mkkaris-archive]

I can sense vibrations. Even the tiniest movement. Including your voices when you speak. Did you two just waste my time?

► general information

FULL NAME & ALIAS: makkari CURRENT TEAM(S): the eternals AGE: 7,000+ years GENDER IDENTITY: cisgendered female SEXUALITY:  undefined NATIONALITY: n/a ETHNICITY: black/mexican presenting MULTIVERSAL ORIGIN: earth-199999 ( mcu )

► appearance

FACE CLAIM: lauren ridloff SPECIAL / RECOGNIZABLE FEATURES: none HAIR COLOR: black EYE COLOR: brown ACCENT: n/a CURRENT COSTUME: this without the glowing gold

► background

CURRENT HOME: the domo PAST OCCUPATION: defender of earth / killer of deviants CURRENT OCCUPATION: eternal looking for missing friends SNAP STATUS: survived

► relations

SIBLING(S): none PARTNER(S): druig ( partner ) CHILDREN: none BEST FRIEND: druig ADVERSARY: the deviants

► headcanons & fun facts

her likeness is depicted in ancient egyptian art

speaks sign language

can sense vibrations when people speak but cannot hear

deafness helps her not hear her own sonic booms

may be the fastest out there

became a recluse who lived on the domo by herself, collecting/stealing artifacts

has not defined what she is with druig

one of the “physical” eternals

► wanted connections

kingo / phastos / sprite / thena -- the eternals. family.

eros -- hopefully helpful eternal.

#mvmprompts #prompt

[newmusicradionetwork]

Erin Duvall Releases Her Highly Anticipated Full-Length Album ‘One by One’

Singer-songwriter, mother, and entrepreneur, Erin Duvall releases her full-length album One by One, available now. This album and the focus track “One by One” are penned from her own experience as she shares her artistry regarding her present and future that reflect her past. We all know the feeling of being turned upside down, uprooted from what we believed was a stable foundation, and left in unfamiliar territory. Erin Duvall masterfully captures the essence of life’s unpredictable transformations, portraying each imperfection one by one. As a mother of four, this profound journey for the singer-songwriter unfolds in her lyrics, resonates in every song, and culminates in her entire new album, titled One by One. Through an ever-shifting journey, Erin says, “Life comes with its ups and downs and the strength you must find to rise from the ashes when it all goes up in smoke. It’s what either breaks you or defines you.” The past several years for Erin have come with some of life’s biggest blessings and yet some of her biggest heartbreaks. “When I got married, I never envisioned that I would be standing where I am today. As a single mother of four incredible children, I am fervently chasing the dreams that ring so loudly in my heart and have the burning desire to leave a legacy behind for my children. Without the hardships I endured, I truly believe I wouldn’t be the person I am today,” adds Erin. In the midst of unexpected twists and turns, Erin developed into three successful mediums, which include music, motherhood, and entrepreneurship. Her soulful country voice expertly captures the pain she faced, yet she is the fearless woman she is. “Someone once told me that God shut off all of my breakers as a coping mechanism to keep me from truly feeling. That the weight of my pain was too much to carry and that just by shutting off my breakers, I could continue to move throughout my day without completely falling apart. Until I couldn’t anymore, and the whole breaker system completely shut down. That analogy has stuck with me all of these years after going through my divorce,” says Erin. This album touched Erin in many ways, as she needed to get the words from her soul onto paper and the melodies in her heart to her listeners. One by One puts into perspective things that we’re not defined by our relationships, and you can still find yourself again even through the whirlwind. Erin says, “My producers would say they could see me in the studio healing with each note I sang. And with each song, one by one, I became whole again. I am eternally grateful for this journey and for the strength I have found along the way to be a better me for myself, my friendships, my family, but most importantly for my children.” In the lead-up to the One by One album release, Erin dropped the singles “Walking Country Song,” “Too Little, Too Late,” “To Be Here,” “Girls Weekend,” and “Best Time of the Year.” She continues to find her influence through trailblazing women, including Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, and Shania Twain. This incredibly vulnerable project by Erin speaks seamlessly to her personal experiences and the cathartic healing process that put her back together one by one. Beyond her musical endeavors, Erin’s non-profit charity, Twice the Love Foundation, focuses on the social, emotional, and financial stressors of being a single parent and helping those who need assistance to get back on their feet again. Both men and women alike throughout the year, emphasizing the importance of support. Erin’s commitment to this cause adds another layer to her multifaceted identity—musician, mother, and entrepreneur. Set to take place Tuesday, February 13 at the AT&T Performing Arts Center—Wyly Theater in Dallas, TX, Erin will host One Night: Twice the Heart and Twice the Love, benefiting The Genesis Women’s Shelter. A great night of music, celebrating love, and giving back. To stay up-to-date, please visit TwicetheLoveFoundation.org. For more information and to connect with Erin Duvall follow her on  Website, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Spotify, and Twitter.  Read the full article

[wolint]

FRESH MANNA

GET PAST YOUR PAST

Joshua 2

Life is all about moving forward and moving on but so many people are stuck in the past and are unable to move beyond where they’ve been. “No need crying over spilt milk, they say, it changes nothing; that’s the same with life, crying over our past mistakes and allowing it to define our future changes nothing.

Jeremiah 29:11 says God has a good plan for everyone, yes, everyone, but it’s up to individuals to accept God’s plan and allow it to work out according to God’s patent.

We all need to get past our past! Stop using your past as an excuse, a manipulative tool, and a reason for where, who, and what you are. Get past your past!

Rahab was an innkeeper but a prostitute nonetheless, even Hebrews 11:31 referred to her as a prostitute, using her past as an identification mark for recognition.

There will be people who will not let you get past your past even if you want to, they will keep reminding you as often as they can of your questionable past once you claim to be born again and changed.

2 Peter 3:9 says the Lord does not want anyone to perish, following on that, He will use any means to reach those whose hearts are willing, yearning and ready to receive Him by the exhibition of their faith just as Rahab did.

She had heard so much about the God of Israel and the wonders He’s performed for His people, though, she didn’t know Him yet, she had more reverential fear for Him than for her human king and knew the God of Israel would keep His promise more than mere men.

The spies could have left and forgotten the promise to Rahab and her family by just thinking of her as a prostitute who may not be a good addition to their community. But they didn’t!

So many of us have Facebook accounts and if we’re honest and have seen the “now posting for you memories of your past feature, we would be happy never to see some of those unflattering moments caught on camera that were posted at the time we thought was highlights or cool periods of life.

Some people may just want to forget that part of their lives, but yet, it’s almost like Facebook is reminding us of what was, almost like shaming us by bringing them back and not letting us get past the past that we so desperately want to forget.

We all have things that we are embarrassed and ashamed of and would be happy not to ever think about, much less talk about, but life and people, unfortunately, would not allow us to do so.

The Lord will redeem anyone who comes to Him for the sake of His reputation and then promises to wipe our past without it hindering our present and future.

Whatever threats and dangers in our past that may rear their heads to harm our nows and tomorrows are best dealt with by hiding in the Lord because only God has the power to protect and deliver us as He did Rahab and her family.

It was Rahab’s quick thinking, courage and faith that saved everyone’s lives. Despite her past, she was instrumental to God in saving Israel. Her past did not deter her from wanting to know and follow God, instead, she got past her past and found a new identity with God’s people that through her the line of Jesus’s ancestry was established.

Make the right decision and stand firm in getting past your past, you can do it! Let the past stay in the past!

PRAYER: Father, protect me as you protected the spies. Cover me and my family and community in your great love, as you eternally secure us in Christ. Amen.

Shalom

WOMEN OF LIGHT INT. PRAYER MIN.

#spotify #devotional #christianpost #women's ministry #biblestudy #biblestudy christianpost women's ministry #biblestudy christianpost 'women's ministry #conference #family #prayer meeting

[elliebear666]

My dumb ass rant-response to an article about how there "isn't a self" and that "science agrees." Actually, it doesn't. It's quite split, but here's my rant.

See... I don't agree with this. I'll tell you why, but let me first preface by saying: I'm not a fucking scientist. I don't know shit about fuck, but also when it comes to complex topics like the existence of a "self," neither do most of the people that study it.

To contextualize my thoughts about, and juxtapose the presence of vs. a lack of, a self… first I will explain how I and many others see the self as a concept: The self is not a static identity. When it comes to existence, static isn't something that often, well, is. Reality is constantly shifting and changing and evolving. The universe expands, stars die and turn in on themselves, planets don't maintain a perfect distance from their star, etc.

However… that doesn't mean the universe doesn't exist. It does. If you can define a concept, and it persists? Then that's something you can say exists.

The self is the same way. Example: If you have a water bottle and you fill it up with water? You still have a water bottle. The volume of water may fluctuate, and its shape may be in a constant state of change, but that water is still inside of a water bottle.

The self is the same in some ways. We are a vessel, a body, which houses an ever changing person. The self is both the body and whatever is beneath the skin, in my opinion. You can't separate the body from the self, and if you CAN, in the literal sense, and you transfer that self to another vessel, that WOULD change things to a degree. The water analogy works only when the self cannot leave the body it is housed within. But when it can, the analogy falls apart. So… onward into obnoxious philosophizing!

So, if we can transfer the self to another vessel, what makes it still the self? I suppose, if we renovate a house, and next to nothing remains of the original material… is it still the same house? That's a bit beyond my ken, but I'll try to put my thoughts to words.

Yes and no.

When it comes to HUMANS, and the existence of a self, one could argue that our "soul" is our self. I don't particularly believe in souls. But I digress…

I guess what I'm trying to say is that… the self is both an amalgamated byproduct of being exposed to existence, and an inherent part of existing as a human. It isn't static, sure, it remains in flux even when it does not appear to be on the outside. But our universe does not stop being the universe that it is simply because it is ever expanding or because whatever is contained within that universe is constantly changing.

I actually think that a universe is the best analogy for a self. Everything is in motion, it's always changing. Maybe its contents are somewhat unrecognizable to an eternal entity that just hangs out in nonexistence and observes. However, despite that, the universe is still the universe that it is, even when all light and life is extinguished.

I read a quote that said that "sentience is simply the universe becoming self-aware and experiencing itself." I feel like that's maybe a bit of an oversimplification - we were children of the universe. A father is not his child, even if who he is can be seen in the child he helped create.

The idea of a lack of self would indicate that a person is not an individual. And to be honest, I detest antirealism. I detest anti-individualism, especially because I have spent my life taking a journey into myself and the world around me to discover my most authentic self. Were a self not present, I wouldn't care to find what is most me, and I wouldn't be able perceive the journey as my own.

The fact that each individual's perception is their own is fact enough to posit that there is a self. Each self is capable of perception. Therefore, the self exists. That seems redundant, but many other scientific minds agree that the very nature of an INDIVIDUAL'S capacity for perceiving is proof enough that they have a self.

That's my dumb rant for the day. Here's an article from a free-think website about the existence of a self:

https://aeon.co/essays/the-self-does-exist-and-is-amenable-to-scientific-investigation

[anthonybialy]

Altering Patterns New Precedent for Champion Buffalo Bandits

A lacrosse title is not merely a consolation prize.  Buffalo’s third professional franchise is first in wrapping up its league by infinity percent. If one counts the area’s football club’s AFL triumphs, then wearing MILL crowns is definitely included amongst Bandits’ tallies.  There’s no better problem than needing to find more banner space in the rafters.

I still think the Bandits could blow it.  I’m a thorough Buffalo fan.  But numerous published accounts plus the availability of boastful merchandise combine to indicate this final is conclusive.  Wake up from dreaming and the trophy is still there.

Eerie deja vu permeated the atmosphere until the Bandits proved otherwise.  Playing the same team with identical results in the first two meetings made cinematic fans feel like they were dashing through Run Lola Run again.  There wasn’t much time to improvise a solution.  Short of never making mistakes, we can at least learn from them.  

Now, that’s how to conclude a character arc.  Success seems even more pronounced when one screws up first.  The latest champions had to banish demons from both last year and the previous game.  Delinquency that defined the earlier outing .  A promise to behave is the easy part.  But displaying a commitment to angelic restraint is the true challenge.  Pulling it off got rewarded with a confetti storm.

One of the One Buffalo teams sets a good example that the others don’t appreciate.  The other sporting outfits infamously never make them or fall short, respectively.  The identity of the bigger disappointment fluctuates over time, but the results are the same.  Meanwhile, the lacrosse side is hoisting hardware.

It only seemed like an eternity.  The world evolved rapidly between the fourth and fifth tournament victories without people doing the same.  We kvetched to each other without the chance to broadcast to the rest of Earth about it, so embrace the broadcast possibilities through the ether now.

I was like most humans who weren’t on Facebook or Twitter during 2008’s jubilation upon topping the inside lacrosse universe.  And I didn’t choose which filter to use on my Instagram photo of the gala on account of how it wasn’t invented yet.  The way we connect with everyone else only seemed rapid.  Nobody’s better trained to wait for beating boss levels than Buffalo fans.

Waiting since the MySpace era for an ultimate victory is a blink compared to eternity.  The other team that plays within the same arena’s boards has taken a rather leisurely path to victory where they’ve not made it to the onramp.  The Gang got closer to the Grand Canyon than the Sabres presently are to a Cup.

Welcome to Title City.  Buffalo has monopolized playoff-ending wins to the detriment of deprived fans of less fortunate franchises.  The Bills snuck in their aforementioned pre-Super Bowl prevailing.  And the baseball Bisons have piled up 13 since the 19th century while the AHL team of the same name nabbed five of their own before they went out on a high note.  As for hockey without ice, the rolling Stampede won whatever the Murphy Cup was in their first of two seasons as a Buffalo team, which is one way of tipping the percentage to look favorable.

Brace for Earth to tip off its orbit, or at least the Buffalo part.  Tensing involved muscles will be good practice even if there’s no cosmic catastrophe this week.  It’s not whining to note recent times have felt even rougher than usual.  Occasionally, a universe that’s cruel in its uncaring nature offers a slightly remorseful break.  Thank this roster.  Players earned it for a city that deserved it.

With a trophy getting passed around Erie County, I can finally take a break and do nothing instead of doing nothing while watching sports.  Lacrosse’s coda is the end of my personal athletic voyeuristic season.  I’m trying not to pick a USFL football team to support, as I don’t need to endure potential trauma from a Houston team that’s never been there.  I was going to pretend to be interested in baseball before the pitch clock and shift ban drove me to video games.

Fans who are ardent even by Buffalo standards finally got a payoff.  Was it worth it?  The answer is moot, as these are our circumstances regardless of opinions about them.  But the inability to control many circumstances makes appreciating ascendancy even more crucial.  Buffalo’s faithful have gotten some compensation for the last couple months.

The city’s lacrosse team is the show on the app you don’t have that your one friend insists is worth the subscription.  There’s still time for this band of Bandits to gain widespread appreciation.  A ring for the thumb helps.

They’re an obscure team; you’ve probably never heard of them.  Hipster fans want their interest to get deserved acclaim as long as they’re acknowledged to have been cheering when it was underground.  The least known of the city’s pro teams inspires the most zealous dedication.  Those of us ancient enough to have attended games at the Aud know even the shortest long wait seems endless.

Revelry seems sweeter following a significant buildup, we tell ourselves while the elation of the celebration remains fresh.  The Bandits offer quite an apology for sporting sins committed almost entirely by other.