Following your dreams means actively pursuing your personal goals, passions, and aspirations to achieve a life that is fulfilling and purposeful. Sounds simple, right? You figure out what you want to do and do it. So, what exactly is it that keeps the majority of us from pursuing our passions or accomplishing that one thing we want to do? The answer is a four-letter word. It’s called fear.
Tallulah native and published author Ella Jackson is a woman who is very familiar with personal fear. Growing up in Tallulah she met some of the milestones designated by society to entrap individuals and smother goals. Jackson admittedly says she was a teen mom with an abundance of low confidence and an ample amount of fear. That fear kept at bay the dream she had deep down inside of her. Jackson wanted to be a writer.
As can happen, life can get in the way of the best laid plans. By the time Jackson left Tallulah in 2001, she’d borne three children and had her share of failed relationships. “I moved to California to be with my mother after she’d been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis,” Jackson said. Little did she know that California would bring a huge loss to her life. During the 10 years she lived there, her middle son was murdered. “It was a difficult time,” Jackson said. “The grief was so stressful and overwhelming. I kept hearing God telling me to go back to Tallulah but I kept putting it off. Finally, I began to really listen to what He was telling me and being obedient to His word, I returned to Tallulah.”
There is often a turning point that re-directs the trajectory of our lives. Jackson says that she brought her children back to Tallulah to rejoin her mother who had left California years before. “I remember after returning, one day I was at a friend’s house and I was sitting outdoors just looking at God’s creation,” Jackson says. “It was a beautiful, sunny day. The sky was bright, just one of those days where you look around and marvel at what God can do.” Jackson says that day was the turning point in her life. “I went home that evening and I started writing. I guess the gift had always been there, buried in me.”
What Jackson wrote that day, she entitled “Are You Giving God Thanks?” It wasn’t a poem, or the beginning of book. It was, as many authors recant, a “panster,” which is a term applied to an author’s very first work. It comes from the idiom “by the seat of your pants.” In simple terms it was Jackson’s foray into authorship and from there she began to learn the craft.
Today, Jackson is a published author. Her first book is entitled “Truth Be Told Volume 1.” It is, in her words, a book written for Christians, really everyone, as they navigate their own spiritual journey. “People are so often easily deceived in life,” Jackson said. “My book is designed to be a guide to help us remember to be grateful for what God has done for us and what he will continue to do in our lives,” she said. “We rarely give thought to what God is doing in our lives behind the scene. When we realize just how much He does and protects us from, we really need to ensure that we are acknowledging and thanking him every day.”
Jackson had no formal training as a writer. “When I began, I had to really learn simple things like understanding run on sentences or where to stop and start paragraphs,” she said laughing at her former self. “I have to admit that fear showed up again in different ways. I procrastinated and I allowed the fear and low confidence to creep back in.” Jackson says this time, she recognized what was happening. “So, I stepped out on faith,” she says. “Before my book, I really hadn’t written anything. Maybe small welcome speeches for church, things like that. And once I started my book journey, I still ran in to problems. Mr. Rufus Puckett introduced me to my publisher. He was a real inspiration to me.” Jackson says she and the publisher had their fair share of issues but ultimately the book was published. “My faith helped me overcome and I ended up fulfilling my dream,” she said.
Jackson says she hopes that readers of her book come away with a renewed sense of gratitude for God and his Word. “Be inspired and know that God is real. But also know that the Enemy is real too. He’s not some made up character. He is real and his mission is to steal, kill and destroy. I often tell people you can’t blame the Enemy for doing his job. What we have to do is to not give him access to our thoughts or heart. Ultimately, we have to rely on God’s word and always remember to show gratitude to Him in any way we can.”
