I Write

Continuing with my theme of things I am thankful for, I want to talk about writing.

I realized today, as I was contemplating what I am thankful for this year, that I am thankful for the gift of words.

It’s not something I consciously think about much, because I have literally been writing my entire life. But it is a true gift, and I am thankful for it.

I’ve always said that I wanted to touch people with my words, be it poetry or novels. And I have, because people have told me.

When I was a member of Job’s Daughters, the youth group I was involved in from the time I was fifteen until I was twenty, I was promoted to the state chapter, which was a great honor. My job was to be a pen pal to the girls in Missouri (this was before the Internet. Wow, I am really showing my age!). So we wrote back and forth and sent each other stuff. For the big State convention, there was a contest to see who had the best depiction of their assigned state (and an essay). I made a cool map of Missouri and made it into a collage with all the stuff I got over the course of the year. And I wrote an awesome essay.

Well, I won. And was asked to stand up in front of hundreds of people and read it.

Apparently, I made some people cry. I had touched them that much.

That was a defining moment for me. Yeah, I knew I had talent, but that just proved to me what I’d known forever: I was destined to do great things with my writing.

And I have. I’ve written a series of books that I still love to this day. I’ve written poetry about tough subjects such as chronic illness and the dark side of love.

Writing has always been my refuge, my way to make sense of the world. A way to escape everyday stress and go somewhere else, and visit with some pretty cool people.

I would not be myself without it. It’s such an intrinsic part of me that I could never be separated from it. It is me, and I am it.

I would never want to lose this gift of mine, this fire that compels me to put words on paper (or computer screen). The few times I’ve had writer’s block or if I wasn’t able to write were pure torture. Luckily, that doesn’t happen very often.

So, thank you God for this priceless gift. I will continue to try to touch people through my words. I will try to evoke feeling, and show people a different side of things, and show them new worlds and different kinds of people, and other cool stuff.

And I will never be alone, because I have a million lives within me just waiting to be born on the page.

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