Writing is a release.
Something happens when the jumbled thoughts in your head become a coherent story on a piece of paper or a computer screen. You begin to figure things out: things about yourself, your situation, life in general. It all starts to make sense. Even if no one were to read it, there's something empowering about knowing an audience has the ability to understand what's going on in your head.
I've been writing for as long as I can remember: poems, stories, journals. I was the typical little girl with my journal hidden under my mattress. It sat there for years. Some nights I would spill my secrets and others I wouldn't touch it. As I grew older my writing changed, it went from secrets and crushes, to the complaints of a disgruntled preteen, to daily chronicles, to real life happenings, prayers, notes, everything.
I faithfully return to writing whenever I venture off for a month or so. It's how I organize myself. It's how I deal with whatever life hands me, or rather hurls at me. It's how I focus my thoughts. The mind is an easy place to get lost in and I have yet to find a gas station that sells that map. Finding my way out can be calming. When I feel trapped, I take to the pen and tell the pages what it's like in here -- while unraveling the nonsense the first time for myself as well.
Writing is the only thing that truly grants do-overs. I can mess it up until I get it right and my journal will except every attempt -- in full. The backspace button is undoubtedly the best invention. Once pressed, the letters are gone forever, never to be seen again (unless you hit the undo button -- also a great invention).
Words don't always do the job. We've all been at a spot where there is no way to express the emotion welling up in our chests. However, words can help. Crafting, mending, twisting, refining them until it's exactly what needs to be heard by others.
Writing provides an avenue to be heard. This is a desire in all of our hearts: simply to be heard. Every story counts. I just tend to write mine out.
My writings have the potential of being a catharsis of emotion crying out to God or a simple thank you accompanied by a list of reasons why my day was great, and anywhere in between. I love writing and sharing my stories.
