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I Just Can't Stop

I've been a writer for over 30 years.  And I'm 37.  My entire life I've written and written and written.  Desk drawers and boxes now overflow with journals and notebooks of essays, narratives, poetry and blog articles.  I just can't stop.

Writing to me is a salve.  It's like pouring cool Benadryl Gel on fresh mosquito bites.  It feels like holding a steaming cup of tea to my chest on a stiff, cool morning.  To me, writing is everything soft, soothing, and real.  It highlights the color in my otherwise gray life.  It opens space for love.  It brings with it something holy that I can't quite put my fingers on.

Natalie Goldberg's perspective, "This is what it is to be a writer: to be the carrier of details that make up history... our task is to say a holy yes to the real things of our life as they exist-- the real truth of who we are... Writing is a deeply political act, because you are not just staying in the heat of your own emotions.  You are offering up some good solid bread for the hungry."

And so, every day I offer up the bread.  First for my hungry self and then to every person who brushes up against me.  May we all eat and be filled.



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