This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work at MJMunoz.com.
Welcome to Story Over Everything, episode 35.001. You can not always win.
It's been another rough week for me in writing and in drawing.
In fact, looking back on the week, I'm not sure if I've written or drawn at all over the period of time that I'm supposed to have written or drawn,
which is September 3rd to September 8th. I don't know, I guess it's September 2nd to September 8th. I don't think I've done anything.
And I know why. I have good concrete, tangible reasons why I didn't write during this period of time.
It doesn't mean that I like those reasons. And some things in life are unavoidable.
As much as you want to believe that if you believe hard enough, it will happen, as much as you want to believe that love never fades and friendships never end,
as much as you want to believe that stick-to-it-iveness alone is enough to carry you through, I don't know that that's true.
And that's not what I'm experiencing right now in life. And even if those things are true, which honestly I hope all of them are,
even if all those things are true, sometimes you get defeated. Sometimes you get beat down. You can't win them all after all.
That's what they say. And I believe that. I forgot that you can't win them all means that sometimes you're going to lose.
And I guess I've forgotten, because things have been going so well for me lately, as far as my creative endeavors are concerned,
sometimes you are going to lose means that you will be thoroughly thrashed. You will be locked down, put down, shot down every time you try to get back up
and walked all over by whatever it is in life that you are competing against. Sometimes that's yourself. Sometimes that's your schedule.
Sometimes that's, I don't even know what, but what is it? The righteous man falls down seven times, but that means he keeps getting up.
And I think I've heard somebody from the Land of Israel Network said that it's not that he falls down seven times.
It's that he's righteous, therefore he falls down seven times and keeps getting up. He falls down seven times and he keeps getting up,
so that he's a righteous man. So yeah, I'm not doing anything moral by writing. I'm following my own heart's desires by writing and drawing
and getting these stories out. So I'm not saying I'm trying to stop myself from robbing banks or anything, God forbid.
I'm trying to do my heart's desire of getting me, of being creative and using that creative writing and drawing outlet to make my soul happy,
make my heart happy, make some deep part of me happy and feel contented. And I just have not been able to do that.
I've been doing extra work that has taken me, well the details don't matter. I've been doing extra work that has taken me out of the house
and for an extra period of time. I'm getting home. I'm walking at least one kid to sleep, at least one time if not two.
Thank you God for the opportunity I have to spend time with my children, snuggling.
And I basically want to collapse into bed after that and spend a little bit of time with my wife.
And then I have to go to sleep before the night is over. Last night I literally sat in bed and I thought I should write.
I should at least draw. And I thought I don't want to write. I don't want to draw. I'm too tired. My feet hurt.
I've got other things I need to do. And I ended up spending about 21 minutes later doing more stuff for a job.
And I was waiting for a call from somebody for another job. And I don't know if I'm going to get that today or when that one's going to come.
But that's like a huge possibility, a huge potential for me in the literary world. And that's where I want to be.
And again, thank God for my wife. She came across the opportunity for me to enter the literary world in this very interesting way.
It's like perfect for everything that I've been doing, all the stuff that I've been listening to, all the thoughts that I've had, all the plans that I've wanted to implement for myself as an author.
This situation came up, this opportunity came up where I could take all those things I've been wanting to do and that I think are great ideas that I can see other people having success with.
And I can implement them in this situation and make something really good out of it.
And I'm not sure. I'm barely hanging in there. This is the second day in a row. I woke up super late to get to work.
Again, thank God no kids woke up this morning with me for me to have to attend to before I could 100% get off and go into work.
It's not only me that's having sleepless nights lately. We've got sick kids in the house. It's my wife as well.
So I'm sure she's bearing the brunt of it. But I'm just so tired. I'm so, so tired.
And I even, I did seize the opportunity last night. I could have written while I was walking last night at 2, I don't know, from like 2.15, 2.10 to like 2.45, 2.50.
I was up walking one of the times I was walking. I think I'd walked before them as well.
But I was listening to some biblical teachings because I want to make sure that I do that a certain amount each day.
And that has also been harder for me to do every day and as consistently as I want to. And that's also frustrating for me.
But anyway, I did that. I prioritized that because I think that's important.
And that's what's keeping me centered, what's keeping me more. But I don't know.
I hate to come back to saying it's a struggle and poor me because it's not poor me. I, it's not for me. I have so many blessings.
I have so much good. It's just I'm in a trough right now. Right. The phrase peaks and troughs. I'm in a trough right now.
And I need to climb back out. In fact, although I was about to break into song.
Hand over hand over hand over hand. I'll crawl till I can stand. I think is the way that line goes.
If I sang it, I'd know. I'm going to sing and if you hate it, too bad.
Hand over hand over hand. Hand over hand till I can. No, I can't remember.
I'll crawl. It's really impressive. I was just drowning. I'll crawl. Might as well be a butterfly.
Anyway, that's from one of my favorite bands ever. And it's a really I know I love it. It's an inspiring song.
It makes me feel like I can go. In fact, as soon as I finish this, I'm going to listen to that.
And then I'll let you get to listen to me talking about Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
So the plan is and I do not know if it will come to fruition today because things are so hectic.
And I'm on my way to work and I'm going to try to you know, I'm not going to clock in.
I'm going to eat something first before I clock in because I'm hungry. That's the thing, too. I've been so hungry.
I was charged up. I will. Yeah, I'm going to try to take a few minutes of like sanity because I got up late.
I rushed off this morning and I decided I got to do something. I got to do something.
So I'll talk about my failures real quick and I'll talk about perseverance, I guess, and how hard it is to get back up and to do what you need to do.
And yeah, golly, I'm having a super hard time. But again, thank God I have the strength. I'm still alive. I'm still here.
I can still fog a mirror. I can still do this. I just need to move forward a little bit at a time and crawl if I have to.
So yeah, I decided in the last like 34 seconds that I am going to rip that song from YouTube and I'm going to put it here at the end of the episode.
I hope you enjoy. And anyway, I'm going the next episode of Story of Everything I will put out is a skimming leaves episode.
It'll be episode 35.5 and it'll be my casual book chat skimming leaves on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
I'm stuck in book five. I don't know when I'll finish it, but I'm going to be brave and I'm going to let there be a lag in the content if there has to be because, yeah, just the way my time is being used right now.
I'm having a very difficult time getting anything else done. But enough complaining.
Now, you know, if you want to skip out on this song, this really awesome, cool, inspirational song by a fantastic award winning, long, long active, long action.
How would you say that band with a long career, many successes, many feathers in their caps.
They go ahead and skip out and you can go ahead and listen to hopefully well and stick around for on the feed.
The next thing to come out is going to be that skimming leaves episode of Chamber of Secrets.
So anyway, folks, enjoy that. Be strong. Be strong. Be strong, folks. Be strong and keep going.
Whatever it is that you're after, keep going for it because you're the only one stopping you.
That's the truth. Oh, well, you're the only one stopping you from getting what you want.
And you got to learn to work with yourself, forgive yourself and say, no, we're going to keep doing this.
I know it's hard. I know we're tired. I know whatever, but we're going to do this.
And yeah, we're not going to think we're just going to make it happen.
So anyway, with that, be well, folks. Until next time, this is MJ signing out and enjoy these cool tunes.
Coming up next from their hit album, Grinning Streak, it's Crawl by BNL.
It's harder than it looks to move through water.
First, you've got to paddle like a pup.
You see yourself, you're sure you'll land to slaughter.
See, take what was pure and lock it up.
I'll throw my hands up and drag myself through.
I'll take my feet because I'm learning to crawl.
It's really impressive when I was just drowning.
I'll crawl. Might as well be a butterfly.
I'll hold my breath and just stay under.
Now there's rings of fire on the lake.
Looking back from here, I have to wonder.
How much did I think that I could take?
So I'll throw my hands up and drag myself through.
I'll take my feet because I'm learning to crawl.
It's really impressive when I was just drowning.
I'll crawl. Might as well be a butterfly.
I'll crawl. It's really impressive when I was just drowning.
I'll crawl. Might as well be a butterfly.
Hand over, hand over hand.
Hand over hand, till I believe that I can stand.
I'll crawl.
I'll crawl. It's really impressive when I was just drowning.
I'll crawl. Might as well be a butterfly.
I'll crawl. It's really impressive when I was just drowning.
I'll crawl. Might as well be a butterfly.
I'll crawl.
I hope you enjoyed that. Go to MJMunoz.com to leave any questions, comments, or other feedback you might have.
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This has been a Story Over Everything production.