“La idea es escribir para que la gente lo escuche y se desliza a través del cerebrohasta llegar directamente al corazón.” ~Maya Angelou
“The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.” ~Maya Angelou
“The purpose of art is washing the dust off daily life off our souls.” ~Pablo Picasso
“El objetivo del arte es quitar el polvo a la vida diaria de nuestras almas.”~Pablo Picasso
“Si hay luz en tu corazón, hallaras el camino a casa. ” ~Rumi
“If light is in your heart, you will find your way home.” ~Rumi
John Steinbeck Quote – Frase de John Steinbeck
“Creo que una mujer fuerte puede ser más fuerte que un hombre. Especialmente, si tiene amor en su corazón. Supongo que una mujer amorosa es indestructible.” ~John Steinbeck
“I believe a strong woman may be stronger than a man, particularly if she happens to have love in her heart. I guess a loving woman is indestructible.” ~ John Steinbeck
“Solo se ve bien con el corazón; lo esencial es invisible a los ojos.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery
“Tu misión consiste en descubrir cuál es tu misión y entregarte a ella de corazón.”
“Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it.” ~ Buddah
In one week, I came upon these two different quotes:
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”~ Oscar Wilde
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
And then came a post, Yourself, by John Saddington on this topic. http://tentblogger.com/yourself/
As if this wasn’t enough, I was watching my favorite comedian, Dave Chappelle, on Inside The Actor’s Studio http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84NjYRTHpfU His brutal honesty inspired me as he talked about walking away from a 50 million dollar contract for another season of the Dave Chappelle Show because he wasn’t being his true self anymore.
The Universe was telling ME something and I HEARD it and LOUD and CLEAR!!
For a week I thought and thought about this. Have I been my true self lately? When I write, am I my true self? If I’d sit with you or anyone, then I’d have to say yes. But when I blog, I wasn’t being true to myself.
Come to find out, I wasn’t “keepin’ it real” in my blog and this is why-
1. FEAR.
Why did this not surprise me? The world of blogging is still fairly new to me as I began just 4 months ago. I certainly have feared what readers would say about it all – my writing, my dream- to the degree that I took no action for a very long time.
In an ideal world, everyone would love your writing.
But this is not always the case. As writers and bloggers, we open ourselves up to the criticism and praise, and this makes us vulnerable. However, I keep in mind and return to my initial intentions of helping others through my writing and pursuing my dream of becoming a published author and speaker.
2. Show and Presentation
Again, as a new blogger, I focused a little too much on the actual presentation of the blog. By doing this, my writing suffered as I was no longer writing from my heart. In his post, Yourself, John Saddington says, “To live freely and to give freely of oneself through such a medium as one’s blog is deeply personal – I believe we do ourselves and our audience a disservice by holding back because it, ergo, becomes no longer personal – it becomes simply presentation, and on a bad day just bullshit peacocking.” From http://tentblogger.com/yourself/#more-40074 True, right? Will this blog’s content change? No. The only thing that will change is that I’ll be writing from my heart.
Why “Keepin’ It Real?”
When I initially came up with this title, I literally laughed out loud. The truth is that it has to do with my background and where I am from. I am Mexican-American and I grew up in Lynwood, California. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this city or it’s location, it’s in Southern California, and its neighbouring city is Compton – a city I lived in for the first six years of my life. You may call this the ghetto, but I called it home and I love it! We kept it real there.
For the most part, I think I am a simple girl.
My students would disagree. They joke with me and they’ll say that Ms. C (as they affectionately call me) is “gangsta” and “a thug.” I laugh of course because I’m so far from this. Being from where I am is a part of me though. I am who I am. Do I go around snapping my fingers in a Z formation? No, but I’ll do it on occasions. And yes, I’m down with rap and hip hop. I jokingly tell others that it would be a sin for me to not like this music given where I am from. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
And now, for an exciting announcement…
Never have I been more enthusiastic or have had more energy to create than at this time. Being that I am bilingual (Spanish and English) and that this is a big part of culture and who I am, I have decided to keep it even more real by doing my blog posts in Spanish and English- a bilingual blog. More work? Yes. But I can only see the advantages from where I stand.
Thank you for reading my posts.
How are you keepin’ it real? Are you writing from your heart?
Elizabeth Cardenas. Writer 