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    NIKI FLORICA

    The Quiet Quill

    Books, Blessings, & Quiet Contemplations 

    • All Posts
    • Reviews
    • Mon. Musings
    • Tues. Truths
    • Wed. Wisdom
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    Keep Your Head Up
    nikiflorica
    • Dec 28, 2021
    • 2 min

    Keep Your Head Up

    I think it would alarm me if I actually knew how much time I spend with my head down, watching the road ahead of me. On walks, I barely see the sky. The trees are shadows in my periphery. If birds are singing, I don't hear them through the whirlwind of thoughts in my head. The benefit of keeping your head down is focus. Your eyes are on the road ahead—on the prize, if you would, on where you want to go. You're watching your feet—choosing the best steps forward, avoiding any p
    33 views1 comment
    Negativity Stinks... And Other Reasons to Smile This Christmas
    nikiflorica
    • Dec 21, 2021
    • 3 min

    Negativity Stinks... And Other Reasons to Smile This Christmas

    Maybe this goes without saying, but isn't negativity the worst? I mean, you're just rolling along, enjoying God's grace and goodness, and someone just can't help trying to bring you down. Grumbling. Complaining. Poking holes in everything good. Sometimes we can resist that gravity, buoyed by thankfulness and love for the Lord. But sometimes, thankfulness isn't enough to keep us floating. Negativity is contagious, and the grumbling of others, more often than not, can drag us d
    25 views2 comments
    Be Filled.
    nikiflorica
    • Sep 8, 2021
    • 2 min

    Be Filled.

    Want to hear a secret? Just kidding—it's not really a secret. I'm a smidge of a pessimist. Just kidding—it's more than a smidge. I think it stems from my fear of being caught unprepared for an emotional blow; I hate having hopes dashed or high expectations crushed. I hate being let down, so my subconscious coping mechanism is to lower my expectations on all fronts so I can't be disappointed. The problem? It also makes it much, much harder to get excited. School starts tomorro
    18 views0 comments
    Let's Talk About My Most Epic Failure Ever
    nikiflorica
    • Aug 26, 2021
    • 3 min

    Let's Talk About My Most Epic Failure Ever

    I bombed my first driver's test. And, no, before you say, "Oh, I failed, too!" believe me when I say that mine was probably worse. In fact, I'm almost 100% sure. It's okay, I've accepted it . . . mostly. Failure was not something I was overly accustomed to, and I don't say that with any kind of arrogance or conceit whatsoever! Academically speaking, I just always worked hard and saw good results, and generally speaking, I don't spend much free time doing things I'm not okayis
    32 views0 comments
    Bad Dreams Are Good for Something
    nikiflorica
    • Aug 12, 2021
    • 2 min

    Bad Dreams Are Good for Something

    Imagine this. You have a dream about something you've been dreading. It goes badly. You screw up, or the whole shebang goes south in the most drastic way. It's a worst-case scenario as it can only be in dreams. Then you wake up and realize—DEEP BREATH—it was just a dream. Maybe you've already done the dreaded thing, or maybe circumstances have changed and spared you from that fate. Either way, what follows is that inevitable feeling of gratitude flooding every sense and tingl
    23 views0 comments
    Will We or Will We Not
    nikiflorica
    • Jun 22, 2021
    • 3 min

    Will We or Will We Not

    When you stop to count them, a TON of spiritual traits boil down to good ol' fashioned acts of will. Prayerfulness. Forgiveness. Thankfulness. Selflessness. Love. Even faith. We love to think of being inherently forgiving or prayerful or full of faith as if it just happens when we've been believers long enough. We look at those around us who excel in certain areas and say, "Well, So-and-So is just naturally forgiving. It's easy for her, much harder for me." We might even let
    17 views0 comments
    When the Stakes Are High—Smile!
    nikiflorica
    • Jun 17, 2021
    • 2 min

    When the Stakes Are High—Smile!

    I'm usually pretty good at laughing at myself. You know, when the stakes are low. When things get stressful, though, and nobody else is laughing? Yeah, that kills my good humour. The past couple of months have marked a struggle to build competence in what I do. New tasks are always daunting, but new tasks along with the weight of dozens of people's expectations are crippling for someone like me. I wish I could say I'm a cauldron of confidence, but that would be a bald-faced l
    8 views0 comments
    How Was Your Productive-in-Its-Own-Way Thursday?
    nikiflorica
    • Jan 15, 2021
    • 2 min

    How Was Your Productive-in-Its-Own-Way Thursday?

    Now, I typically don't write my Thankful Thursday posts at eight o'clock on Thursday night, but when life hands you lemons and a busy day, you make lemonade at your earliest convenience. So, here we are. I had a relatively unproductive 24 hours, all things considered—one of those days when every task seems to take an eternity and leaves you feeling utterly devoid of accomplishment. But in a way, I suppose that's just a matter of perspective. Our need to constantly operate at
    10 views0 comments
    Snowmen Smiles
    nikiflorica
    • Dec 17, 2020
    • 2 min

    Snowmen Smiles

    Meet Dudley, Myrtle, and Rudy, the three happy snowmen mascots of this Thankful Thursday post. Technically, I should be studying for my final exam tomorrow, but thankfulness waits for no exam, and I think we could all use a reminder that there is always something to smile about, especially at this time of year. Christmas is in just over a week and I catch myself wondering how it's snuck up so fast. It doesn't feel like Christmas at all, and part of me is feeling that little p
    19 views0 comments
    A Very Fond Furwell
    nikiflorica
    • Jun 18, 2020
    • 2 min

    A Very Fond Furwell

    I must have been three, maybe four years old when I went with my grandparents to pick this adorable pup from its litter mates. Since that day, Cody was the dog I never had—the smiling face that met me on my grandparents' front porch, the ecstatic bark when we arrived for visits and the frantic one when we left. My grandparents' yearly vacation was a highlight of back-to-school time, when Cody would move in as a temporary resident and for one whole week, I could pretend that t
    11 views0 comments
    60 Seconds of Solid Gratitude—GO!
    nikiflorica
    • Jun 11, 2020
    • 1 min

    60 Seconds of Solid Gratitude—GO!

    Despite the mountain of bookish research I could be doing at present, I'm taking a brief respite to enjoy this fine Thankful Thursday morning, and to draw a deep breath of gratitude before plunging into the grind. Have a stressful day ahead? Feel free to join me! I promise, it'll only take a minute. This week, I know exactly what I'm thankful for: unexpected encouragement and guidance from a new friend God brought into my life days ago. At a time of stress and confusion in wh
    14 views0 comments
    From Failure Vortex to Victory
    nikiflorica
    • May 14, 2020
    • 2 min

    From Failure Vortex to Victory

    Failure is one of the most unpleasant phenomenons to grip our world since Adam and Eve's fall in the Garden of Eden. Whether magnanimous or minute, the feelings of worthlessness, disappointment, grief, pain, and guilt that so often accompany failure can be crippling . . . and damaging to our spiritual mindset. Failure has the power to distort. It can shrink the grand scope of life and inflate the tiny speck of one mistake, until all we see is the task we couldn't fulfill. Som
    13 views0 comments
    Looking Out and Giving Thanks
    nikiflorica
    • Oct 24, 2019
    • 2 min

    Looking Out and Giving Thanks

    One temptation that seems prevalent in our luxury-cushioned first-world is the urge to dwell on ourselves. Whether it's that nagging cold, or that way-too-early morning, or that hurtful word we just can’t seem to smooth from our memories—how much time do we spend, do we waste, looking inwards, at our own troubles, instead of looking out? It’s not an easy concept—forgetting ourselves. It’s true and authentic selflessness. But when we do step out of the grey cloud of our proble
    16 views0 comments

    We all need to put our heads in the clouds sometimes . . .

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