I have been writing most of my life. As a child, maybe just the requirements, but as I moved into High School I expanded my creative process. I wrote for the school news paper. I wrote for the city news paper. I secured a job writing commercials for the local radio station. I wrote songs for my yet-to-be-formed rock band, Fluid Vision. I wrote.
In December of 2008 my father died. For 2009 I slowed down in my writing. Forcing myself to complete a couple of assignments and attending my usual events, (like the Doves.) In 2010 I stopped writing. I don’t know if it can completely be blamed on depression over my fathers death, or on technology overload, heaven knows I put enough “tweets” and “Facebook status updates” out there. I had a really great friend tell me that I had moved my “line” in the sand. That I was allowing things to flow out of me that she hadn’t seen or heard before. I dismissed her comments (and quite frankly her) for a brief time.
In August of 2008 I had moved away from Jacksonville, FL, my home and my home church. I have been faithfully attending churches in Houston, but not really “feeling” any of them. I think I attended out of guilt. Not wanting to walk away “from” God but not exactly walking “toward” Him either. We’ve all read the scripture about your first love (Rev 2:4) It has played in my head for a year. Another scripture also plagued me over the past year is James 3:10-11. I have begun a new journey with a church here in Houston that I finally feel at home in. There, I have begun a new study…on James. Its funny how God can take simple words on a page and make them hit you where your hurting, yet use that hurting to heal you!
My first loves were simple: writing and music. While I’ve dreamed the lofty dreams of writing the song that touches the emotions of all who hear it, I’ve yet to hear one of my songs sung. But I have written the reviews, done the interviews, and seen my work in print (my own byline both in digital and actual print).
Houston, yes, we’ve had a problem. But I am praying that 2011 moves me back into God’s will for my life. I believe that it is writing, until He shows me something else, I will once again… write.
