There are quite a lot of words in my day to day. So many that sometimes I avoid a computer for a full weekend day if possible, or go weeks without picking up a book to read for fun. That’s hard to admit as an editor.
But truth is I love words. I’ll get a little antsy if I’m away from a keyboard for long enough, even if it’s just to write a clever Facebook status. Sans keyboard I’ll begin doodling words on a piece of paper. (I have a thing for sketching serifs.) And by Day 3 of a much-anticipated vacation I’m lost in the pages of a novel I’ve been meaning to read for six months (or 20).
This blog has been around for a few more years than I’d like to admit: I started it when blogs were cool. Then they weren’t as popular for a little while, and now they’re back “in” again. They’re called platforms now.
I used to think I had nothing important to write about outside my profession’s focus. Then, right there in my job I had the responsibility to tell a few people’s stories. First it was some people impacted by Katrina, who overcame odds to survive and help others in the meantime. Then it was a lady who happened across a starving horse by the Interstate and demolished obstacles to bring him back to health.
But when I visited Kenya for the first time a few months later in 2009, all bets were off. I simply wasn’t able to cultivate the words to describe the marvelous people I met, the tremendously challenging situations they faced every day, and the joy they emitted with every expression and phrase. I made a feeble attempt and quickly became overwhelmed with trying to describe the sights and sounds. So I waited another two years to try again on my next trip to Kenya. Repeat scenario, only this time I had the presence of mind to line up a few guest bloggers to fill in the gaps. For months I grappled with the stories that would make anyone generally considered interesting feel like they were flat, dull, inexperienced.
Then something happened. I got pretty sick. I had some time to think and imagine because I was relegated to a dark room for many days and had lost vision in one eye. It was pretty heinous, but I got better, and after doing so I entered a Major Contest. There was an assignment and a deadline, and I told a story I’d been waiting a long time to tell. Words started coming alive again, because they had more meaning to me than usual. Then I started noticing other people’s stories around me, some that I was even lucky enough to be a part of.
So here I am, blogging again with a new title of “What’s Your Story?” (inspired first by a conference I went to a few weeks ago but then by Psalm 107:2). I want to share a few of those stories and life experiences. With some posts I hope to inspire you to action. Others will have neat little packaged take-home messages. Maybe a few will simply make you laugh (I’m hoping I might get a few coffee-out-the-nostril moments from a few of you)
So, about that contest: Ten thousand people plus entered it. And I was hopeful, not for the sweet prize they were offering but, rather, because that story could be shared on a larger scale. While I didn’t win anything, hey, at least I got it written and it gave me a hunger to write again in my free time.
That story will be of the early ones I share. Welcome back, friends.
If you’re a writer/blogger/creative, what gets you writing again when you’re stuck in a work-only, get-it-done mode?