Month: June 2019

Musings

[Blog] City

Faith Hakimian

This is going to completely out me as a small town girl, but the sheer size and the huge number of people who live in LA is… overwhelming. Amazing, too. And humbling. There’s around four million people in the city itself. There’s more than ten million in LA county. And there’s a few million more in Orange County right next door. That’s around seventeen million people, each with their own lives, their own families, their own friends, their own joys, their own sorrows.

And this huge number of people is just a fraction of the population of the whole United States (327,000,000). And that’s just a fraction of the roughly seven billion human beings who inhabit the whole planet.

That’s a lot of neighbors to love. That’s a lot of people who would be affected by anyone trying to make the world a better place. And that’s overwhelming too. But we’re not responsible for the whole world on our own– that burden is on bigger shoulders. We’re “just” responsible for our own actions and the way we treat others*. It’s what God does with that that’s going to change the world.

* Even typing that out, I realize that that’s a distinctly Western/individualistic view. I think it’s true as far as it goes, but there’s more to it that I haven’t figured out how to articulate.

I forgot to check my wordcount before I left the house– so if you happen to be curious, check back later tonight.

Musings

[Blog] Chugging Along– Finally!

Faith Hakimian

Not much to report on this week– save that I’m finally getting back into the habit of writing every day. It’s lovely! Slow, of course, and my brain and my fingers feel so very rusty, but the creakiness is getting knocked loose and, if all keeps going well, it shouldn’t be long before I’m back to my old pace.

In the meantime, I’ll just enjoy even a few dozen words each day!

Tanner and Miranda Stories
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Total Draft Wordcount: 5093
Weekly Wordcount: 438

Musings

[Blog] Horses

Faith Hakimian

Miranda doesn’t like horses. I don’t remember when I decided that– or, perhaps more accurately, when I discovered that. But my snarky, feisty, pugnacious little freelancer really doesn’t care for the big animals. Which I find amusing. Mostly because I personally never outgrew the horse-nut phase that most(?) girls seem to go through.

So, here’s a snippet of our fearless narrator being not quite so fearless. Because I think it’s funny.

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Knickers was a sturdy gelding, colored chestnut and with a bald face— which I found out when I referred to him as “the brown one”. The other, Jitterbug, was a rangy pinto who looked calm enough, except that I swear I saw her giving me and Tanner a sly look as if she knew that one of us would be riding her. I expected her to start trouble before Tanner could even mount up. She didn’t, and honestly, that was worse. It meant she was going to wait until it would cause the most problems, and then she would do it. And she would think it was funny. And she’d probably bring Knickers in on it as well.

Whatever it was.

It crossed my mind that I might be being paranoid, but that was ridiculous. I just remembered the horses on Auntie Heather’s ranch a little too well.

Whatever the big animals’ intentions for us down the road, though, they didn’t act on any devious compulsions just then. Knickers stood perfectly still as I climbed into the saddle. Jitterbug pawed the ground once or twice as Tanner settled in, but that was all. In less than five minutes, we were on our way.

Tanner and Miranda Stories
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Total Draft Wordcount: 4655
Weekly Wordcount: 211

Musings

[Blog] Pen and Paper

Faith Hakimian

I don’t usually write by hand. Probably by long practice, the words usually come easier when I’m typing, and my thought process seems a little more streamlined. Usually, at any rate. This week, though, was an exception to the rule– thanks in no small part to the fact that I had a lot of downtime at work, forgot my book, but did have paper and pen.

And I might have to try to do it more often. Because the stuff I scribbled down was rough and jumbled, but when I typed it up and cleaned it up a little, I’m actually pretty happy with it.

Tanner and Miranda Stories
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Total Draft Wordcount: 4444
Weekly Wordcount: 729