Mighty Girls – strong and powerful.

Ginny Thrasher 2016 Olympic Gold Medalist

Ginny Thrasher, 2016 Rio Olympics Gold Medalist in Sports Shooting, photo from “A Mighty Girl” website.

Have you noticed lately there is a push toward “girl power?” A few months ago I started following “A Mighty Girl” on Facebook. They are a great resource for girls of all ages on being strong, confident and courageous.

The website shares all sorts of books, movies, TV resources featuring girls/women who have made a difference in their lives, community and/or the world. When I was young we didn’t have a special resource like this. What a wonderful website for girls!

As I follow “A Mighty Girl” on Facebook, I am pleasantly surprised by their inspiring posts every day. Share this website with young girls/women you know.

TODAY their message was really special. They honored Ginny Thrasher, a nineteen-year-old American sports shooter from Virginia, who won the FIRST GOLD MEDAL of the 2016 Rio Olympics in the 10 meter air rifle competition. I got lucky and I happened to turn on the Olympics during the shooting competitions, so I saw Ms. Thrasher in action. It takes a lot of concentration to win, especially when the crowd, instead of being silent, was loud and started clapping, which is distracting…. BUT she kept her FOCUS and finished with a 10.9 beating two-time medalist Li Du of China.

The story gets better. Ginny Thrasher only took up this shooting sport five years ago and was ranked 23 in the world as she entered the Olympics and not favored to win gold. Clearly she has a special skill and her passion and determination brought her the GOLD medal. She’s a sophomore at West Virgina University and became the first freshman ever in history to win the NCAA individual air rifle titles.

2016 Rio Olympic history was made!  Another Mighty Girl was revealed.

Congratulations Ginny Thrasher, we’re PROUD of you!!  Go Team U.S.A.!

The Red Quill Pen

image

With my red quill pen in hand, I can officially say, “it is time to write.”

My daughter recently asked me how my children’s book was coming along. I told her I was at the cliff hanger part… “You know, where you think the character is doomed and won’t make it out alive, so you sit at the edge of your seat, KNOWING there is ALWAYS a way out, but HOW?! This is a James Bond situation.”

So, I made a joke with her that it was the computer that was holding me back from being creative. If I “just had” a red quill pen, I could think like a Pirate!

I was missing the days of the old typewriter where you had to really THINK of every word you typed; otherwise, you would be yanking the page out of the typewriter constantly, crumpling it up and throwing it in the waste basket only to start again.

So… I was pleasantly surprised when my daughter gave me a red quill pen for Mother’s Day!

NOW, you can write, she said. I really laughed, but where was the ink well and the thick paper that makes a scratching noise when the Pirate writes? Can’t have everything at once, right.

THE UNIVERSE IS AT WORK!

Another interesting thing happened last week. I was laid off work, so it would appear that the Universe is setting me up to write the end of my children’s story “in between job searching,” of course. No excuses now!

I’m following a few good writing Blogs. Visit “A Writer’s Path,” and this weekend on “Live to Write – Write to Live,” there was a wonderful Blog about facing our inner critic for any topic in our lives called, “Weekend Edition – Battling the Writer’s Inner Critic,” by Suddenly Jamie.  You’ll read that and be inspired!

So, with quill in hand I write… “You dare to touch the nose of a sleeping tiger!?”