Free Times Blurb

I enjoy partnering with my friends at Free Times not only on stories but also about my publications. Find a brief blurb about The Very Least of Me poetry book below in the Arts & Culture section.

http://www.free-times.com/pdf/042314/

It’s Time for You to Be You by Len Lawson

This blog entry is devoted to integrity and individuality in writing. A poem from my debut poetry book The Very Least of Me speaks to these themes. 

to be you

you 

well you’re you

but you want to 

be me too

and you

well you’re you 

yet I want to

be like you

now you,

you’re you

but still can I be like you

too?

listen, you

be you

but just let me be you

too

you’re you

and I’m you

we’ll be you

and me too

now we’re you

I’m me too

no room for you

too

goodbye, you

I’m you

oh, you

should have just been you

My blog from the South Carolina Writers Workshop website below speaks clearly to writer integrity and individuality. It serves as an encouragement to writers.

It’s Time for You to Be You by Len Lawson

Your Passion, Your Problem, & Your Purpose, Part 1

I'm starting this new series of blogs that has been on my heart to write. It will one day be converted into a non-fiction book once the time is right, but I want to introduce the principles here. These are principles that I have found to be proven in my professional and spiritual life. I pray they will be beneficial to this audience and beyond. This blueprint for success connects your passion in life; your understanding, acceptance, and embrace of your problem; and ultimately the fulfillment of your purpose. Much has been written about these self-help categories, but I seek to blaze a trail behind me for others who have had shortcomings in life as I have. We are not far from achieving success in our lives when we have a plan in place to address and not duplicate our failures.

We start with passion. This can be a nebulous term. It does not have to always be sensual, but it is still rooted in that concept. Here are ways that I define what your passion is or should be in life:

1. A gift or talent that you feel is worth developing for a lifetime. Your passion starts with something that you quite literally were born to do. Inside all of us is a desire to be great at something. Often, however, we neglect the tugging of that passion within us and brush it off as a hobby or a whim. If we seek deep within, we will find that thing and harness it for a lifetime of fulfillment and continual success.
2. Something you do not have to be compensated for. After we have earnestly discovered this passion, we will find that we do not have to make money right away from doing it. Your passion is something that fulfills your soul, not just your pockets. That usually comes later. Truly, if you identify something as your passion, you will want to do it and nothing else. Your passion can honestly become your addiction (which is not so bad).
3. Something that will eventually "work" for you. Here is where the money comes in. After you have developed your passion well enough, people will eventually recognize you for it. They will want to compensate you for your gift or talent. This is how you can convert this passion from just a hobby into your life's work!
4. Something that does not feel like work. Your passion should never feel like a chore. Certainly, there will be difficult, challenging days while you discover what your passion is and how to achieve success from it. However, the stress should be minimal--if not non-existent. If this is something you truly want to do for the rest of your days, then you will feel fulfilled by the rough times as well as the smooth ones. Your passion should give you a reason to wake up in the morning and be excited! Your passion will drive you to stay up late at night to perfect it. It should never be something you have to do. When it does, then you know you have not found it yet.
5. Something you can teach to others. When you have developed your passion well enough, you become an expert at it. Others will want to sit at your feet and learn from you. This could also lead to compensation but more importantly to fulfillment. Consultants are some of the most sought-after people in today's society because they possess the intangible quality of wisdom. Your passion will put you in the class of the elite amongst your peers if you accept the light burden of developing it.
6. Something you can leave a legacy behind you for doing. Your passion will outlive your days here on earth. You will begin blazing your own trail once others grow to respect your work ethic and your "passion" for your passion. Generations remember people for wealth, fame, intelligence, or strength. These things, however, are merely the products of a well-developed passion. They start with the idea that you have a gift that you want it to be more than a hobby. It is your life's work and your immortal reward.

Once you get a grasp of what this passion is, you will usually receive a platform on which to perform your passion. For example, before I became a professor, my initial passion was writing. It was my ultimate goal to write poetry, short stories, and novels. However, teaching is my platform for ultimately displaying my passion for writing. A platform literally is a flat surface that something can stand on. In order to launch your passion into the world, you need a firm platform to stand on so that your passion can soar.

Search your heart and discover what you were created to do in life. No one can tell you what this is. You have to discover it for yourself. The journey may be long to find it, but once you do, it is like finding a long-lost treasure that will change your life and fulfill you for a lifetime.

Thorns & Nectar/Peace in the Raging Storm

Meet Frances Dubose Singleton. She is a retired educator from Sumter, SC, who taught English in South Carolina public schools for 40 years. She earned a bachelor's degree in English from Morris College in Sumter, SC, and a master's degree in English from Clark-Atlanta University in Atlanta, GA. Mrs. Singleton has written two books of poetry and plans to publish a children's book. Her work centers around the themes of Southern living, Christianity, and purpose. She has given her life to writing, teaching, and having a strong relationship with God--the blueprint for my own passion and purpose.



Therefore, imagine my surprise when I was seated next to this marvelous woman at the Excellence in Teaching Awards Banquet. She noticed on my profile in the banquet bulletin that I, too, am a teacher and a writer, and we enjoyed a wonderful conversation on writing. God has a magnificent way of bringing the perfect people into our lives with impeccable timing.

I asked Mrs. Singleton for samples of her work which I would have gladly paid for, but she gave me two signed copies of her poetry books as "a gift to you as you embark on your career as a writer," according to her. Within the cover of each book, she wrote heart-warming inscriptions. One of them ended with a quaint yet powerful message on becoming an author:

"Bon voyage, my son."

 

 

 

Although she is retired, Mrs. Singleton still found time to educate a young man aspiring to be anything and everything. That night she taught me that whether outside the classroom or beyond the campus walls, educating and mentoring never truly ends. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to meet this special lady and for her to enlighten me with her work and her wisdom. In my eyes, Frances Dubose Singleton is a pillar of Southern poetry and education in this country. I am blessed to know her and sincerely humbled to carry on her legacy.

 

 

For more information about Mrs. Singleton and her poetry, her contact information is below:

 

 

Frances Dubose Singleton

P.O. Box 341

Sumter, SC 29151

francesdsingleto@cs.com

Keys to Starting a Business

I am fresh off of attending a two-day entrepreneurial conference. If you design any type of product or service for a profit, then you are an entrepreneur; you are in business. Most importantly, you are your business. For me, I'm an author, a freelance writer, a writing/editing consultant, and a professor. I also sing on occasion, usually in religious settings. Therefore, building my brand and my business are keys to my success.

I'd like to offer these key points that resonated with me from the conference. I hope they will inspire you.

From Eric W. Davis, pastor, engineer, consultant:

• Have a clear view of your goals in business, your target market, and legitimate obstacles to your business.
• Set reachable goals (preferably perpetual annual goals).
• Balance your time and your talent. Time management increases business effectiveness and profitability.
• Define your concept (product or service) fully by:
• conducting research
• identifying distinctions between your concept and the competition
• asking professionals in your field or industry
• Do not move too quickly into living off of your business before stabilizing it or developing new strategies to remain competitive.
• Once you have gained success, repeat the process with the same concept or a new concept.

Follow-up questions for entrepreneurs include:

• What is the purpose of the business?
• Are you the right person to start the business?
• What risks are involved and can they be managed?
• What is the next step after the business becomes profitable?
• What can you do if the business becomes unsuccessful?

As a writer, this conference enhanced my understanding of my purpose and my ability to grow from simply a person to a brand or an entity. It has increased my awareness of how to serve my customers (my readers) and my clients more professionally.

I encourage all entrepreneurs and those wanted to become entrepreneurs to:

1. Define your vision for your business.
2. Create an effective and long-term business plan for the business.
3. Rally like-minded individuals and professionals to rally around the vision (i.e. attorneys, accountants, consultants, others in the industry).
4. Seek God in every phase of the business to ensure success.

For further information about the Entrepreneurial Conference, contact Word of God Church and Ministries at www.wordofgodcm.org.

Update on "This Is Why We Teach"

I'm writing an update to a note I wrote some time ago on Facebook about a former student. Here is the note:

A freshman girl came into my office today highly upset over her failing grade in my class from the previous spring semester. She vehemently criticized my teaching practices, my grading process, and my credentials. However, as she berated me while I just sat there and swallowed that harsh pill, her eyes began to fill with tears spilling down her heated face.

I explained my syllabus and class procedures to her, but she remained inconsolable. She finally listened to reason when I inquired about the classes she was taking for the summer. She replied that she was doing better in those courses than the spring courses. I posed the question to her that brought her to the gate of epiphany.

"What are you doing in these new classes that you had not done in my class last semester?"

She explained that she studied more and had a better attitude about school. She neglected her friends' requests to pledge or go out to clubs. Finally, she realized that I was not her enemy and that I was trying to prepare her for a cruel world who seeks only the best and brightest for its endeavors. Sometimes the best teacher is harsh reality.

She said to me that she learned a lesson from the failing grade and (I like this part) that she was "woman enough" to confront me about the situation and to work on herself in the process. I told her that students who spend four years or more in college (including myself) don't learn that lesson until it is too late.


This student is a junior now. Yes, she did pledge and was accepted into a sorority. However, she is also on the Dean's List. Days after I saw her name on Dean's List board on campus, guess who walked into my office to give an update?

She did not come to rub her success in my face, but she said, "I came to check up on you, Mr. Lawson, and to say thank you for kickin' my butt in English two years ago. I needed it."

If you are a teacher, then don't give up on your high expectations for your students. You should not have to lower the bar for them. That would be easy. No! They should rise up to the bar you set.

I am blessed and fulfilled by this student's story and more like her. I'm not waiting for my destiny to be fulfilled, but I am walking it out each day that I submit myself to serve God and people.

Statement of Purpose

I recently wrote a Statement of Purpose for a graduate school application. Instantly, I reflected on the past five to six years of my life and my path to my overall purpose in life. It extends far beyond graduate school. I realize that people are unfamiliar with my career path, so I have included excerpts from the statement.

I am originally from Bamberg, SC, which is an hour away from Columbia and closest to Orangeburg, where I attended Bamberg-Ehrhardt High School. It was there in my AP English course that we read the works of Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Shakespeare, and other iconic literary writers. Mrs. Lisa Deibel, my English teacher, always told me that my writing was superior and that I should pursue it as a career. I also enrolled in her Teacher Cadets course where I first learned about pedagogy, psychological theorists such as Piaget and Maslow, and valuable classroom instructional strategies. Mrs. Deibel later told me that I should also pursue a career in education. However, I neglected her counsel and pursued an undergraduate degree in business administration and management at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC. After graduating there and after five years in the business field, I realized that it was not my passion; I discovered that Mrs. Deibel was right. In college, I should have pursued my true passion which is writing and teaching...

Upon leaving the business world, I received a master’s degree in English from National University near San Diego, CA. My coursework included literary criticism, the Romantic and Victorian periods, and major authors such as Walt Whitman and F. Scott Fitzgerald. I wrote my graduate thesis entitled The Blackness of Darkness: Africanism and the Africanist Presence in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, which is based on Toni Morrison’s derivative of African American literary criticism. After graduating, I received my first teaching position at Hampton School District 2 in middle level English/Language Arts. Three years later I accepted a position as a full-time instructor teaching developmental English, freshman composition, and literature courses at Morris College in Sumter, SC, where I am in the third year of my tenure. In 2012, I was awarded the Advisor of the Year Award at Morris...

During my years in education, I have also developed as a writer. In 2013, Claflin University in Orangeburg will publish a pedagogical essay I wrote entitled Back to the Future: Approaches to Best Practices in Reflective Teaching. I also have compiled a collection of poetry that I will publish this year entitled The Very Least of Me, and I am completing a fiction novel entitled City of David that I would like to publish this year as well. Moreover, I am a member of the South Carolina Writers Workshop and have attended its annual conference in Myrtle Beach. The group meets semi-monthly to read and critique each members’ writing samples of various genres, including poetry and fiction...

I ended the statement with this...Preparation remains the key to success in any journey toward purpose, and I will pursue [it] diligently because it is the beginning of my life’s work.