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This weekend, I worked on a project I had left off of my schedule for some time. Since it was a personal endeavor, I ended up sliding it at the bottom of the to do list day after day. There were more important projects to work on, ones that would build clientelle and pay the bills. Yet this writing project had always been there- nagging at me.
After more than a year of saying to myself and my husband- we really do need to work on this project, I began researching what needed to be done to accomplish it. As I have been actively working, I am reminded of the importance of service and how serving others and the work we do goes hand in hand. How many people can we reach? The truth is, we may never know.
So what does motivate us in our work? It may be watching a client succeed, building connections between people, supporting someone who is in need of help, supporting our local community, understanding that we have an important message that others need to hear. Many times we let doubt, uncertainty, fear- sometimes even the fear of succeeding undermine our efforts.
Barton and I are an unusual couple; people ask us questions about our relationship wherever we go. They are curious to know how we make our marriage work. What is it to be married to someone in a wheelchair? Everyday we have an opportunity to teach people, show them the essence of love, break down barriers and stereotypes. While we each have individual goals, there is an incredible amount of work that we do together because that message is what needs to be out there.
Writing is only one piece of what I actually do; many times it means also being a researcher, interviewer, saleswoman, intermediator, negotiator... the list goes on. Underneath all of them is knowing why I'm a writer, what is my motivation and finding ways to bring that motivation into each one of these places.
So that the message won't get left behind.
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