Finding the Love in Writing
"A warrior does not give up what he loves. He finds the love in what he does."
-Peaceful Warrior
I always wanted to be a writer- I would be writing and reading with a flashlight under covers long after lights out as a child. My father, a psychologist, believed my teachers when they told them that my writing stories was interfering with my social skills. They didn't realize that writing stories was the only was I could survive being a child of divorced parents, switching houses literally every day. I hid my notebooks in my school lockers, under the bed, in closets, at my mother's house, anywhere.
There were many times in my life when I was ready to give up writing- graduating from college, after a devastating year of loss when my mother died and the breakup of an engagement, realizing that the writing profession doesn't bring in a lot of money, believing people when they said, "You can't ...."
I was just at the point of giving up on my writing, succumbing myself to life in "the real world" when I started training in bujinkan budo taijutsu. That same week, I also started a free writing workshop with a local writer. When I walked in the bookstore where we met, the instructor looked oddly familiar. He said, "Hey, didn't you just start training in martial arts this week?" Jim, the writing instructor was one of the black belts at the dojo.
About a year later, I was introduced to Barton who also trains in bujinkan budo taijutsu, at that time in Arizona. How ironic it was when we realized we were both writers. By e-mail, we swapped poetry and short stories back and forth every day for six months during our long-distance courtship.
I am just now realizing the importance in writing, telling and sharing our stories. For my birthday last year, Barton gave me a dozen roses with a card, "Your dreams are in your hands, and I am so proud of you for living them."
The passion is alive.
|
