Spring is here!

I often underestimate how much I love Spring. The cool rain showers, flowers popping up everywhere, the first hints of real warmth after a long, cold winter… with the sweeping in of the storms, Spring is a breath of fresh air… literally.

I always talk about being an Autumn girl, and loving my warm drinks and cuddly sweaters. But I think this year, I’m really trying to embrace Spring. In part, because one of my best friends adores spring, and naturally, her excitement is infectious. And secondly, last (school) year, I chose the word growth as my word of the year. And my oh my, has that word come to fruit.

I like to think of Spring as the real beginning of the year. Sure, we have January and New Years, but everything’s so cold and dead… Spring fits. Either way, as I grow closer and closer to the end of this school year, I feel like I’m building up momentum. To embrace the growth and the challenges. To fight back the weeds of anxiety and trauma and fear. To dance in the rain, to soak in the sunrise, to laugh with my head held high in the face of the wind.

The world will always offer storms and challenges. That’s how life is. But now, I’m making a move to see every storm as pure growth. There’s always a reason for the trials, and you’ll always come out on the other side stronger, if you just keep fighting. Even if you’re covered in mud and bits of grass. At least you’re a little closer to nature ❤

Update on the Book Challenge

So, in January, I began a little series of a reading challenge for the year. In March, during my vacation, I promptly forgot about this challenge… and didn’t do anything about it all month. Whoops.

I would like to continue it, though. I always find it fun to expand my horizons, reading or not, and I have a feeling I’m not the only one who likes a challenge. But I’ve also been really busy with school and life… so I’ve decided to simply share the prompts for now, and some recommendations. As always, I love to hear if any of you have recommendations, comments or thoughts! You’re always to share.

(And if any of you want to, feel free to still do the bracket challenge! I’d love to see how your reading year is coming along!)

Without further ado, our prompt for the month is…. *drumroll please*

Read a book from the POV of/about someone different than you.

Differences can be really hard. Sometimes it brings up things in ourselves that we’ve tried to bury, whether that be from guilt, pain, fear, or trauma. But you must uncover yourself to truly grow. And in stepping into someone else’s shoes, it gives you a wider view of the world we all live in.

Recommendation-wise, this can be different for everyone (no pun intended…?). Really search yourself. Is there some element of the past you’re biased against or turn a blind eye to? A people? A place? Even reading a biography for this counts.

For example, I’ve been reading a book about young Hitler–Young Hitler: The Making of the Führer by Paul Ham, for anyone who’s interested. Naturally, I am very different from Hitler–I have no desire to annihilate a people simply because they are a certain denomination or not “perfect.” But learning about his upbringing, his travels, the way his brain seemed to work and how he became the charismatic dictator he was has been so intriguing. And it’s shed light on so many situations.

(Dare I say, reading about him has inspired me to further develop the villains in my novel….)

But anyways. Have fun with this. Have fun growing, learning. Take it as slow as you need to–this can be a hard one. But it’s important. I invite you to the challenge.

Another Update on my Writing Craft Posts

As I mentioned above, I’ve been really busy with school and life. So much so, it’s been very stressful to figure out how to write my writing craft posts… especially when I end up procrastinating them until Thursday night…

Lo and below, another decision XD as much as I love writing them, I won’t be posting craft posts every month anymore. I just don’t think I can bring the quality information I want to for y’all. But (depending on how life goes) I do want to try to do a craft post with each season. We’ll see how it goes, but stay tuned ❤

Now, onto our prompts for the month:

First off, our short story prompt:

What’s holding your character back?

Our poetry prompt:

dancing // whispers // roots

And last but never least, our self-care prompt:

Take a moment this month to just be. To lift your head and taste a raindrop on your tongue. To stop on your way to work and breathe in fresh air. Touch some grass. And be.

Hopefully these are inspiring to you all! If so, let me know in the comments!

Until then, I’ll be making a point to dance in the rain as I try to figure out how to wrangle my characters back into their story… they’ve been very naughty as of late XD

As always, have a wonderful week. Keep growing and learning and expanding your horizons. And don’t let anyone take that growth from you. You deserve to bloom.

~ Z.Rise