My writing journey started before I can remember. I entered kindergarten knowing how to read, I have always kept a journal, and I’m finally now (35+ years into my life) learning how to express myself creatively through my writing.
There was a project that I did, I think it was in grade 3, called “Happiness Is” and we were each responsible for finishing the sentence and then drawing a picture above it to show what made us happy. I chose camping, which still does make me happy, but what stands out to me in this memory is the writing. Not what it said, I can’t remember that far back, but how meaningful the project was for me at the time. How I can look back and see what really makes me happy is the words. When they come out wrong, when they’re from a me of so-long-ago, when they take over and something shifts in my brain and the words come pouring out over top of one another, so fast that my fingers can barely keep up.
Happiness Is ...
I’ve found myself in the words that I write, along with the hours I’ve put into talking and counselling to become the best version of myself there is. I was prompted to share this with you today because in all the madness in the world, all the things we have been restricted from enjoying and the things we’re being forced to enjoy, I think is where we find our true selves. The selves that have always been there, slowed down, isolated, restrained. Being home all the time isn’t easy for some, or plausible for others, but it’s our base; where most of us start every morning, every day moving forward. We have created our homes as our happy places, and find that we’re here, A LOT, lately. Our circumstances are making us see what we like and what we don’t like about the four walls around us, those that are near, and especially those that are far from our touch, regardless of geographical location.
No matter what I’ve taken on to this point in my life, education, marriage and other relationships, kids, dogs, my writing has been a constant for me. Always there, therapeutically, inside. The words are always there for me, to help me through a rough day, a difficult time or situation.
Just like I think that we are all inside ourselves, if we look hard enough. I hope that you have found you, and can make peace with the four walls around you, and those within it, too. Especially now, when those walls are so close, those loved ones perhaps a little too much? Ha. I'm definitely longing for a vacation right about now, though, thankfully, I'm not ready to evict anybody yet!
My writing journey will hopefully be one that never ends, that I am constantly learning from and growing with. When Brad and I talk about retiring, it never includes a retirement from writing for me. I will write as long as I am physically and mentally able to. As long as I can find my voice.
Tell me, what journey are you on and which one makes you the proudest, the most you?
Stay true,
Anya