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I think the year was 2002. If I really tried took time to figure out the timeline, I could say with certainty whether it was or not but it really doesn’t matter. It’s a minor detail in the story. In the story that I want to write tonight. Because it’s all about writing, this story that I want to write.
Countless people had told me that I should write a book, that I should be a writer. Why is that? Because my life is not your run-of-the-mill American life? Because I showed some talent or I acted like I had something to say? Who knows. The point is that sometime in 2002 I began to write. In fact, I began my first blog a year later.
My writing began with filling journals and free writing exercises, bits and pieces written here and there. I even took a writing tele-class, my hands shaking that first time I dialed the number to join. It was during that class that I was first asked to determine what my goals were with my writing and I remember not having any goals, any grand dreams of best-selling books.
I still don’t. I am not even overly concerned about building an audience here.
So why do I write? And does what I do qualify me as a writer? Well, I am learning to not let anyone else’s definition be my own unless I so choose. Am I a writer? Not professionally but I can’t deny that always I am drawn back to writing. It was the explosion that blew open the door to my creativity. I don’t think I would have found myself as an artist if I hadn’t begun writing.
As for my reasons to write, they are purely selfish. Putting my thoughts into words and sentences and paragraphs helps me make sense of my world. I need to remember that what I just wrote. Please someone call me and remind me each week! This is one of my own therapies and also, this is the legacy that I am leaving for my own children, my journal of sorts, my sounding board. If they don’t already know my LOUD opinions, they will find them here preserved for them and their children.
Along the way, I am finding others who recognize the steps I am taking. I write to them as well. I want them to know that they are not alone and I receive that same acknowledgement from others. Some say there is nothing new under the sun and I might not have anything unique to say or write but if that were true, why do so many of us feel alone in our thoughts? Why do we yearn to know that others are experiencing the same things? In reality, what I have to say may not be extraordinary but that is exactly why I must say it. I want you to know that you are not alone. There are common experiences and feelings to us all. I write to break down those walls that isolate us.
It’s the end of the day. I didn’t know what I would write when I sat down, only that I needed to write. My fingers needed to tap out a rhythm that would lure my thoughts from my mind to the screen. And here I leave them for you to read.
Grace and Peace!
