"The Painful Path To Becoming A (w)Holy Ghostwriter: Part 5 of The Halloween Short Story Series"
?...Kathleen Kasper-Kat Armstrong
? Content Writing ?? Sales ??Training ? Community Support & Office Assistance ? Recruiting & Team Building
"The Painful Path To Becoming A (w)Holy Ghostwriter: Part 5 of The Halloween Short Story Series" of Kathleen (Kasper-Kat) Armstrong, (w)Holy Ghostwriter, ? Sept 16, 2024, ? Sept 18, 2024
Intro To Part 5 of the Halloween Short Story Series of Kathleen Armstrong:
If you haven't read the introduction to the Halloween Short Story Series I began this year (in 2024), this was posted on the Linkedin and Facebook (Meta) platforms on Sept 16, 2024. The introduction lists the title for the 5 short stories that were in the process of being written prior to Halloween 2024.
Although the introduction and the 5th story (posted here today) is being posted on both profiles, two of the five stories will be posted on Facebook (Meta) and two of the five stories will be posted on Linkedin. The purpose for doing this, was to encourage people to see the value in having both a Facebook (Meta) and a Linkedin account. Currently, those without an account should still be able to view the stories on each website, simply by typing in the link address for these stories.
The website for each of these profiles I set up can be seen here:
and
Today's (semi-short) story will be laid out in an outline that matches the 5 short stories in this series as follows:
1. Challenges In Growing Up
*Where I came from
2. Where My Hope Comes From
*How my hope shapes my future today
3. The Path To Where I AM
*Chosen Career Pathways of an unknowing (w)Holy Ghostwriter
4. My Hope For Others
*How my current knowledge shapes my hope for others today
5. Wisdom I've Acquired (And What I Don't Know) Today
*Enough said--because much wisdom is found in what isn't said.
--
"The Painful Path To Becoming A (w)Holy Ghostwriter: Part 5 of The Halloween Short Story Series" of Kathleen (Kasper-Kat) Armstrong, (w)Holy Ghostwriter, ? Sept 16, 2024, ? Sept 18, 2024
1. Challenges In Growing Up
Have you ever thought about what you want to be when you "grow up" before? Children are asked this question often. The sad truth is, when I grew up I became aware that "grown-ups" know far less than I thought they did. Whether you are young or "over the hill," chances are you've had to manage some challenges at some point in your life, me too. The reason I decided to write this short story about the painful path to becoming a (w)Holy Ghostwriter isn't to scare people for Halloween. I'm writing about the painful path I've been on to be helpful to others like you.
Whether you are aware of this or not, every small choice you make tells YOU something you need to know about yourself. I am honestly amazed to see how all the choices I made in my life have revealed my unique calling. When I write about a "calling," I'm not talking about someone calling you on a telephone; however, when I taught 2 and 3 year olds in a church group known as MOPs (Mothers of Preschoolers), I did have them make a telephone, so they could call God up and have a heart-to-heart talk with God.
When I write about a calling--what I am saying is, I believe there is something each person was meant to do with their life. These things people were meant to do may even be a series of things they were meant to do that reveals to them and others the purpose for them being here.
I've heard that adults can remember when they were very young (as little as two years old). I'm not one of them. Most of what I remember about my childhood happened around when I was seven and older. Infact, I'm not sure if I was seven or eight when I stood on a dark pathway and had a conversation with this entity my mom called "God," whose supposed to be very powerful and can see you at all times. I was upset that night, and I looked up at the moon. I noticed the moon seemed to be following me. Keep in mind I was upset at the time, so I asked this God guy--"Why are you following me? I don't even know if you are real." This probably isn't the best approach to take with someone who is all powerful, but fortunately I was speaking to someone who is also very kind (at least that's my opinion of God today.)
I didn't get a direct answer that day, but I did remember our conversation. Little did I realize, that was probably my first genuine prayer to God. Even though I went to church, I didn't really understand much of what we were taught. I heard stories about some guy named Noah who built a boat and saved a bunch of people, cause God told him to, but I honestly hadn't thought much about what I was supposed to learn from this story. Maybe you haven't thought much about that either.
A short time after that, little did I know I began to get a vision of where I am headed. You know how you see things when you open your eyes? Well, we also have this internal vision -- a type of map for helping us find our way to where we need to go that is called a vision also. To see the vision, you must know that you must be open to seeing it first; just like you can't see unless you open your eyes first.
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I was eight years old and I lined a bunch of chairs up in our house. I pulled out a pen and a pad of paper and began writing tickets. These tickets were very special; they weren't given to people who were doing something bad, they were given to people who wanted to go to "the happiest place on earth," just like me. I was both the ticket-master and the stewardess that made sure you got to your destination safely. If you haven't heard about this happy place; the book of Revelation tells about this place in the "Holy Bible" chapters 21-22 of the book of Revelation. The "happiest place" on earth you may have heard about is somewhere I was fortunate to have gone to also, known as Walt Disney World and Disneyland. I happened to have a set of grandparents that lived near each of these two Walt Disney parks and was often sent by plane to visit my grandparents who would take me to these fun-filled places.
Seeing how much fun people had at these places, I determined to do likewise. Around that time, having just moved to a new neighborhood, I invited all the neighbors I met to come over so that I and some new friends could put on a special performance for them; cause that's what they do at the "happiest place on earth," right?
After that, I imagine many people were sure I'd become a famous actress or something, but they'd be wrong. Although I like many movies, I don't like a bunch of drama around me, and even worse is asking me to speak in public. But that's not all I did that revealed my purpose in life. I also rounded up these new friends and had them create beautiful works of art that we sold to make lots of shiny pennies. Surely, I was meant to be a great art dealer and salesperson, right? Well, I did take more than one job when I grew up where I sold things to other people. Sometimes I sold people food, sometimes boxes that holds food. Selling things is hard work; it's a lot harder than it looks, and requires you remember lots and lots of stuff. There was a small problem, my memory isn't all that great, but I did meet lots of great people, and I loved to get to know them when I sold them things they were looking for.
Believe it or not, some customers came to me and told me stories about themselves: like how one of them was fixing up a old car, and how another one had racoons visit him at his house, and how a little girl who waited in line to see me when she came to the store took yoga--and she even showed me her yoga poses when she came to see me at the store. One customer even brought pictures to show me of artwork he did. As much as I loved the people there, it was very physically challenging for me, so I didn't stay there for the rest of my life.
When I was young, I was also told I would be a good teacher. Well, that made sense, because I did love kids (and animals) and lots of other things too. So, I did that for a while too. I found out about this job after I had been helping a friend of mine who had a disability: some people don't like it if you use that word to describe them; the point of the word, is simply to say that some people have challenges that requires special assistance. So, that's what I did. I wanted to help people be happy, remember? What better way to make people happy, than to help them learn, right? Oh, boy the things I didn't know that teachers need to do besides write up lesson plans on how to learn to read and write. I found out the hard way, I wasn't the only kid that had challenges when going to school. In fact, I had plenty of troubles just trying to get out of school, and here I was trying to get back in school. What was I thinking. If you haven't ever had to deal with people being unkind or bullying you around, I am certainly happy about that. That wasn't my experience, and I came to see firsthand that kids who have disabilities not only have problems learning, they also have problems with being treated kindly by others -- even more so than kids who can do much more than they can do. Being their teacher means you must be on your toes, in order to keep them safe, and here I already got kicked out of ballet school because I was told "flowers don't talk." I think that's why Steven Curtis Chapman wrote the song "Declaration" about the talking flowers in the Small World Walt Disney ride. Who knows, maybe he wanted me to go back to school, because he thought I could learn about being on my toes enough to be a better protector for the kids with challenges. Little did he know I'm one of those kids who needs a protector too.
I thought I might be able to help people who were sick and hurting in the hospital, but that didn't quite work out very well either. It's a good idea for you to not get all upset and frantic when someone gets hurt if you do that, so there went that idea. I thought maybe I could be a vet, but I found out I'm allergic to tons of animals. Go figure that a woman who calls herself Kat, is allergic to the other kind of cats.
What was there left for me to do? It seemed as though every single thing people said I could and should do wasn't working out very well. I could work in an office and type things up for other people--the only problem is, if you read through all of my work, you will find enough spelling and grammar problems that you'll see why that didn't pan out either.
But then I went to this "networking group." A networking group (or so I thought was a term that means a group where people meet and help each other,) not a group where tech people connect a bunch of wires together so that you can get online, although technically that could be called a "networking group" also. I tried to learn "coding," and lets just say, I'll stick with what I do now to help people learn about coding.
Have you ever heard the song jingle by Huggies that says "I'm a big kid now?" Well, I haven't quite written the book on this, but I did jot a few notes about a book I planned to write about adults being big kids with itty bitty desks. That's kind of the point of this portion of my story.
Being an "adult," I've learned about the challenges of growing up. Sometimes "grown ups" make child-like choices that aren't so smart and friends aren't always so friendly. This can cause enormous problems for people who really want to make wise choices but get confused by the messages they receive from other people they trust. I know the challenges of growing up because that's been a goal of mine for most of my life, and it still is something that is easier said than done. Time and time again, I've been lied to, had people I trusted steal from me, encourage me to do things I shouldn't do, and the list of bad things that have been done seems to get bigger and bigger the longer you live.
This is probably starting to sound like one of those SCARY GHOSTSTORIES rather than a story that is encouraging. Well, it's true that the things that happen in life can be scary sometimes, but that doesn't mean everyone does mean things to others, or that people go around lying all the time, and that everyone will encourage you to do things you shouldn't do.
Being truthful about the challenges of growing up is kind, because it helps people to know that people who say they like you make mistakes sometimes, maybe often. Grownups aren't perfect. Grownups may even have problems you don't know about--that causes them to make bad choices too. I guess that's why the "Holy Bible" says,
"Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." 1 Timothy 4:12 KJV
In essence, what that means is this:
"Don't worry about being too young to help others. People who are older than you make plenty of mistakes; so learn what you can about making good choices in everything you say and do, and pure-heartedly loving people, whilst having faith in the things you truly can learn to do well." 1 Tim 4:12: KKV (a paraphrase by Kathleen (Kasper-Kat) Armstrong, (w)Holy Ghostwriter.
Remember the list of all those things I did that didn't seem to work out? Well, those were only a few of the things I have done in my life that helped to reveal my true purpose for being here, just like there are many things you will do in your life that will reveal your true purpose for being here too.
Here's a few things that ARE NOT listed on my Linkedin or Facebook or other social media profile pages that helped me to see the good plans God has for my life:
All of these things shaped me -- sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse -- yet everything has and will work together for a good purpose.
If you've gone through your share of challenges, maybe you'll review the next part of this article about where my hope comes from and be encouraged by what has brought me hope that has shaped my future.
2. Where My Hope Comes From *How my hope shapes my future today:
Coming Soon!
3. The Path To Where I AM *Chosen Career Pathways of an unknowing (w)Holy Ghostwriter:
Coming Soon!
4. My Hope For Others *How my current knowledge shapes my hope for others today:
Coming Soon!
5. Wisdom I've Acquired (And What I Don't Know) Today *Enough said--because much wisdom is found in what isn't said:
Coming Soon!