A Whole New World

 A Whole New World

 

How many times have you sang along to your favourite song and just taken the lyric for granted? How many times have you laughed and cried at the novel you’ve taken on holiday, without appreciating that someone has written every single one of those words?

 

I’m almost 43 years old and up until about a year ago I was completely guilty of these crimes; I also wrote out of necessity only. I would write birthday greetings, Christmas greetings and shopping lists, but mostly I would write technical reports containing endless chemical formulae and equations; revenue reports with lists of expense codes and budgetary requirements; and the dreaded staff appraisals. Writing for work had to be pertinent, concise and functional with certainly no room for poetic prose. I wonder what my then technical director would have thought if I’d submitted my monthly report in the form of an acrostic, or a memo in the form of a haiku. He probably would have sent for the men in white coats to lock me away. Writing for pleasure or to express my emotional feelings was not a part of my life.

 

It took a series of emotional traumas to awaken my inner writer, the one that lives in my heart not my brain. I had so many emotions, fears and questions tumbling around inside me, and the only way to release them was onto paper in written word. No-one could have been more surprised than myself when my first write emerged in poetic form. Several more soon followed and I wanted to share them, that’s when I found OSWS. My poor inner writer hasn’t slept much since. Aside from the therapeutic and cathartic effect of allowing me to share my emotional burden, writing has literally opened up a whole new world for me. A world where I do listen to and appreciate the lyrics of songs, and the words of the novels that I read. When I pull back my curtains in the morning and see frost coating the trees, I see a real beauty that I want to share by finding the most perfect description. Sunsets, cloud formations, the moon and the stars all seem to stir the writer in me.

 

I’m just a beginner, but writing is now a huge part of my life and I regret not starting it sooner. Writing has brought me new friends and a fantastic way to communicate with them; it has given me a new vision and an appreciation of nature and art; it has given me a way to touch the hearts of others through my words, to make people laugh or to bring a tear their eye; it has allowed me to share  beautiful autumn and winter scenery with people who have never experienced it. Writing has given back the life that was slipping away from me in a spiral of depression and I'm so grateful that I discovered its power.

 

 

 

by bluemoon (Viewed 629 times)