The most beautiful woman I know is turning 65-years-young today and I would not miss this opportunity to write about her. This beautiful woman I am referring to is my mother, Colene. She is one of my biggest fans, an amazing, loving mother, nana (soon to be great-nana), wife, sister, aunt, daughter and friend. She is my “Every Woman” and definitely deserves all the happiness this day and every day brings.

I can honestly say I have never known a day in my life where I didn’t feel loved. This lady, even when she is mad at you would love you so deeply that you never felt unloved. She has known her days of hardship, triumph, failure, loss and wins and to my knowledge she has taken it all in stride, showing humility and getting back up and trying again. As I am typing this, I realize now where I get this trait of persistence even in the face of possible failure from my mother.

Earlier in the week you heard my story about my grandmother, Louise Ward, and I had mentioned the “ladies” in my life that have shown me how to love, cook and strive to be a good human being. My mother is on the top of that list. She comes by it honestly, because the third lady on that list is my other grandmother, Emma Crum, my mother’s mom. When I think about my past, my childhood and these women who have shaped and formed my opinions and outlook on life, the thought which comes to mind is these ladies are/were the epitome of love. I don’t think about the items they bought me, I remember the love they have shown me and continue to show me.

When I look back on my journey in life, especially coming out and getting married to Clay Finck-Ward, I had apprehension that these ladies in my life might turn their backs on me, but I can honestly say, shame on me. Never in my life have they ever shown me in any indication that would happen. Love, love, love is what I have been shown. They held true to those words and continue to love Clay, me and our family we have together. I am a blessed man in so many wonderful and amazing ways.

So today, I honor you mom. I honor you for being who you are, for loving unconditionally, for being brave, strong, stoic and for staying true to who you are at all times. You are my hero, my role model and if I can be a small fraction of the human being you are then I am doing good. We love you with all our heart and soul and I speak on behalf of me, Clay, Nataya, Nathan, Lupe, Steven and our unborn grandchild. We hope you have the most amazing and special day.

Your son,

Johnny Bryan Ward

We have been eagerly awaiting this holiday weekend. I know many of you have. What is different for us this holiday weekend, as opposed to our regular weekends is WE ARE GOING OFF THE GRID! Yes you read that correctly, we are going rogue. Well not really, but we are going to be without wireless and internet service the entire weekend. If we want to have those “luxuries” we will have to drive 16 miles into the nearest city.

We are going camping (yes tent and all) in Missouri and I am actually on the road now as I type this. It is a beautiful place and I hope to get some pictures to share with you all, but no promises. I plan on getting some much needed relaxation, take in some reading, maybe some writing and lots of fun with some friends meeting us there, and also making some new friends along the way. Life is such an adventure and if you aren’t living it to the fullest, then get up and do something about it today. Make the most of your day!

When we return to the technology world, we plan on diving head first into the book launch plans. I also have a series of blogs I have been developing which I hope you all will find interesting and entertaining. I guess the journalist in me is wanting to come out and play. It has been way to long.

I plan on bringing you some of our favorite cultural events and activities in Tulsa area and also from the Northern Cherokee Pow Wow next month in Clinton, Missouri. I want to tell you about mine and Clay’s lunch with the Prince of India, Manvendra Singh Gohil, which turned into almost 8 hours of talking non-stop and lots of laughs as we learned more about him and he about us. He is an amazing man and I look forward to telling you more about his amazing causes and our interesting conversation about the full moon and how India uses the lunar calendar year (you know that is right up my alley, as the books are full moon related).

I am also excited to bring you blogs highlighting some of my favorite organizations from my “Causes” page on the website. They are near and dear to me and I will do what I can to fight to make sure these organization get the attention and respect they deserve for their efforts towards making awareness forefront and making the world a better place for all. Please go to the “Causes” page to read up on these spectacular organizations. The blogs will be covering LGBTQ issues, Bullying and Mental Health awareness, just to get us started.

I also want to let you in on my adventures and fumbles in writing. It has been a very interesting and exciting time for me to take up living my dream of writing. Remember, right now it is all on the side, but the goal is full-time. So join me on this adventure and watch me follow my dreams! I also will be bringing some highlights of trips, family and the upcoming grandchild. Yes, you read it correctly. We are going to be grandfathers, or GBoo as we like to refer to it.

Have a peace night and a wonderful Holiday weekend!

Johnny Bryan Ward

I wanted to take this time to wish one of the most wonderful, amazing and influential women in my life a very Happy Birthday. My grandmother, Louise Ward, turned 86-years-old today. She is a remarkable mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, friend and human being.

Some of the best qualities I have in my own personality I owe to her. She is generous, loving, kind, always has food to feed an army of people, including anyone who just might happen to drop by at a moments notice. For any of you who have had my cooking and baking, well, she is one of the three reasons I can cook. My mother is an amazing cook and my grandmother, Emma, who is no longer with us was also an outstanding cook. But all three of these women taught me love, which is the best gift any of them could have given me.

Not one day did I go through life not feeling loved. Even on my darkest days, I knew these women loved me. They wanted the best for me and even tonight, my grandmother made the comment that she hoped my book would do so well that I could quit my job and write full time. She knows how much this means to me and how long I have wanted this. 

She has been married to my grandfather for 69 years and they are still as in love with each other. To see them now, they still laugh together, cry together and share in each others joys together. They have shown us (their children and grandchildren) what true love is and how when you want something you have to put hard work and put effort into it, because it doesn't come free. This philosophy goes for your marriage as well. 

So I just want to take this time to honor my grandmother for all of the many blessings she has bestowed upon me and my family. I just hope that I have given her as much joy as she has given me. I look forward to sharing many more birthday posts about her with you in the coming future. I love you Granny so very much and am thankful daily to have been blessed with such a loving grandmother. I feel like the luckiest man in the world.

Have a peaceful night!

Johnny Bryan Ward

I am so moved by all of the Ice Bucket Challenges I see going viral on Facebook and I applaud you all for your involvement in moving forward the education of this horrible disease. You are hearing about this disease more and more and there is still not enough strides being made in research and education mainly due to funding. That is why this movement has been instrumental in capturing the nations attention and hopefully the world. The ALS.org Foundation estimates that as of today Ice Bucket Donations have reached $70.2 million. What an amazing testament to the caring nature of our nation.

I have an aunt who died from Lou Gehrig's Disease and her battle was not unlike the ones you hear being told all over the internet. Every family must feel some of the same feelings; how could this strike one of our own, someone we loved dearly and at a time when little was known about it. She slowly went from our beloved Aunt Peggy, to someone who was unable to care for herself and eventually breath on her own. 

We just cannot let this continue to happen to more humans. As a race we have to stand up and find a way to eradicate this. As with all movements, you have your protesters against the education, such as the Catholic Church speaking out against the donations going towards the forms of testing needed involving stem cell research which goes against their stance on abortion.

There are even states warning against the Ice Bucket Challenge due to severe droughts in those affected states. An argument can be made for both of the above scenarios, but what do you say to the person who has just found out they have ALS? Do you tell them their life isn't important enough, not profitable enough, too controversial to fight for a cure to save their life? I for one will not tell them that. I have watched this horrific disease rip the life from one of our family members and the devastation left after she was gone. I will take the challenge and I will donate the money. 

As a nation we have spent billions upon billions of tax payer's money on issues that had nothing to do with us. Don't let anyone tell you that you shouldn't stand up and fight for the people you love or the people who need your voice. Everyone's life is precious and it should not be left up to religious leaders or federal governments to dictate if we will work towards finding a cure for these rare and deadly diseases. Stand up with the rest of America and let you voices (and screams from the ice cold water) be heard around the world.

Have a Peaceful Night!

Johnny Bryan Ward

I have found myself struggling with burn out. Not from writing, which seems to be the saving grace in my work plan, short and long term. I have set goals for myself involving my current full time job and am working to make sure those goals don't move into the background. 

My current job is a stressful one, which has little thanks for little pay. I adore the people I work with, but find myself just not really feeling any passion towards it. I am a person who wants to give 100% at whatever I am doing, but I am struggling. I am having to dig deep to find renewed meaning in it. 

I have set a time frame for myself, a realistic one, for my writing career to take over full time, but in the meantime I have to make my current job work and for me to do that, I have to have a purpose and meaning for it. I do go in and fight the good fight, to be the unsung hero for the children of Oklahoma and quite frankly, when I am feeling down about it, I think about all the good I do for the children of Oklahoma and for the household they live in. 

Yes, it is a thankless job, but it is one that is meaningful and it you are in it for the thanks, then you will be waiting for quite sometime. You are more likely to get a "go to hell" before you get a thank you. That is just fine. I do what I do because I know the good I am doing. But it isn't my dream job and it isn't where my interest lie. 

So what do you do when you are struggling with burnout? How do you find it in yourself to dig deep and find your own motivation?

Please comment back because I would really love to hear from you.

Have a peaceful night!

Johnny Bryan Ward

Turning a discipline into a habit can be a very tricky thing. Especially when you have other responsibilities, work a full time job, have a family and other things that seem to take priority. But when you really want something, deep down in your heart and soul you can make anything happen, right? Well I would like to say yes, and I do believe the answer is yes, but it is about setting aside the appropriate amount of time for you to accomplish your goals and not let others things take the back burner, like family and work.

All of my life I have wanted to be a writer. If you asked me when I was little I would have told you the same thing. But to be a writer, you have to write. You have to be dedicated and disciplined and make writing an everyday habit. It doesn't have to be a great amount of time, but you just have to do it. 

Stephen King stated in his book, appropriately titled On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, that you have to set a time aside everyday, the same time even if only an hour, lock yourself away from the outside world and just be in the moment, just write. Set goals for yourself, a word count, a chapter or whatever, but just do it and do it everyday.

I went to a local writers group Tuesday night called Tulsa NightWriters and they had a celebration of the life of Peggy Fielding who passed away in May. I can't think of one person who got up to talk about Peggy where they didn't mention Peggy asking them every time she saw them if they had wrote that day. If the answer was no, she would tell them to grab a chair and sit down and write. Writing is key.

For me, the writing has come in batches. I have decided to write a book so I would get up around 4:30 or 5:00 am and write until it was time to get ready for work. Some days I only got to write for an hour, some days it was two hours. That time for me became routine, but when the first draft for the book was finished, so was the routine. The same can be said for what I just did on the first draft of the second book. I get in a routine of writing and made it happen, then when it was done, so was the routine.

My commitment to my goal of becoming a professional writer is to write everyday. Even this blog helps me focus in on that as it is a daily blog and for those of you who read it, I thank you. For those that have not read it yet, I thank you for when you do. For those who have read it and didn't care for it, I thank you as well for taking the time to read it; but I also hope you hang in there with me and keep coming back. 

I decided a while ago, back in January I would take a professional creative writing course at Oklahoma State University, but before any of you Sooner's start booing me and before any of you Pokes start cheering me, I really don't have a side other than knowledge. There is an amazing teacher there whom I want to learn from. She has written many books herself and has taught some amazing authors. I want to refine and hone in my writing. I want to be the best writer I can possibly be. 

So what goals do you have that you are willing to make changes in order to see them come to fruition? Writing daily is no different than getting up and working out each day or making sure you are eating healthy everyday.  I would love to hear from you? Any tips to share on making daily writing a habit or making any healthy goal a habit?

Have a peaceful night!

Johnny Bryan Ward

There were too many signs today for me to ignore them, so I am once again reaching out to all of the children, parents, teachers and family members of every household in this nation and the world. Please start talking about the very real issue of bullying. With school starting back it is more important than ever for us to be talking to our children, both young and older, about the importance of being kind, keeping mean and cruel words to ourselves and standing out from the crowd by standing up and saying enough when you see someone being bullying. 

Sometimes it is just enough to go talk to the person being bullied and letting them know that you care about their feelings. It doesn't mean that you have to take the leap and be best friends, although you never know, that could be a perk from it. But it is about being human and understanding on a very real level what that person or child must be feeling when going through it. We have all been through something, or most have, where we have felt belittled, ashamed or made to feel less than ourselves. Now amplify that by any number you wish and you may get close to what the person who experiences bullying day in and day out feels like. 

Don't let another child lose their self esteem, or even worse, their life because of bullying. If you think that it is happening to someone in your school or life in general, go talk to an adult, a teacher, a school counselor or principle. Don't turn a blind eye to this cruel and ugly act. 

For more ways to obtain information on what you can do to help please visit The Bully Project.

There was a Facebook post by a wonderful, caring lady named Reba McEntire and  I urge you to take the time to go read it. If you click on her name, it will take you to her post. 

I will close with the wise words and song of Bette Midler, "I'm Beautiful, I'm Beautiful, I'm Beautiful, Dammit." I say that you are beautiful. Believe in yourself enough to try and take it one day at a time. It does get better.

Have a peaceful night!

Johnny Bryan Ward

Today is day William Jefferson Blythe III was born in 1946. You know him as President Bill Clinton. His was the first Presidential election that I was able to vote in and I took special pride when he was elected into office.           Charismatic, funny and a dynamic speaker he won a nation, twice and also won the hearts of many worldwide. His tenure wasn't without blemish, but I have yet to see a President who didn't stumble from time to time. We set them up as infallible and but tend to forget they are human beings as well. 

We often do the same with royalty, holding them up to an almost unattainable standard and being heartbroken when they tumble from the pedestal that we place them on. But we as a society love our royals, just as we love our First Families in the White House. Watching the Clinton family go through their share of hardships and struggles made them real to me. Now they have emerged stronger than ever, with Hillary Clinton vying for the 2016 Presidential Election and if elected would make her the first female President of the United States and make Bill the First Man of the United States. I love how far our country has come in its diversity and cultural acceptance. 

Their daughter Chelsea is an amazing leader in her own right. She is not only a special corespondent for NBC News, but she also works with the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative.

Happy Birthday Mr. President and may you have many more to come.

Have a peaceful night!

Johnny Bryan Ward