When God chose to reveal His truths to mankind, he chose to use written words to give us His promises. The stories of saints of old are set to words that we can still read about today. Words have shaped families, careers and nations. That is why I think to be a wordsmith is one of the most divine callings you can have.
Even though I have always loved words, my verbal communication skills are at best passable, at worst, a deficit. I have always loved to read, I love to learn new words and their meanings, but for some reason that does not carry over to my ability to verbalize my thoughts clearly. Maybe its because I've always been more comfortable behind the scenes, whether it was playing in a band or sharing my thoughts, but the bottom line is that I have never excelled in my oratorical abilities.
I have tried to address this failing. In the early 80's I sought to increase my skill in this area at great personal cost, (the course cost around $500.00 - equal to $1,500 in today's dollars). I enrolled in Dale Carnegie's Public Speaking Course at the local YMCA. Two main motivations, one was to help my abilities to advance in my career at the time and the second was to personally challenge myself in what I thought at the time was my only weakness. (I'm laughing out loud just typing the words my twenty-something self truly believed) The course was excellent, the instructor was inspiring, and I did dissolve some of my fear, but public speaking remains an uncomfortable experience even today.
So writing it is! This is how I'm choosing to share my thoughts, even if its just for my own therapy. I sincerely promise (yes, I know I'm talking to myself here) to try to avoid the gap of time between my last post, (over ten years) and commit to putting my thoughts on paper at least once a week in this blog.
Here are some inspiring quotes about writing that I hope will help inspire me to honor my commitment in this area:
"You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children."
--Madeleine L'Engle
--Madeleine L'Engle
"If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that."
--Stephen King
--Stephen King
"We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect."
--Anaïs Nin
--Anaïs Nin
"Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be."
--Mark Twain
--Mark Twain
"If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."
--Toni Morrison
--Toni Morrison
"One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple."
--Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
--Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing."
--Benjamin Franklin
--Benjamin Franklin
"You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write."
--Saul Bellow
--Saul Bellow
"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader."
--Robert Frost
--Robert Frost
"Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window."
--William Faulkner
--William Faulkner
"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you."
--Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing
--Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing
"Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly -- they'll go through anything. You read and you're pierced."
--Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
--Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live."
--Henry David Thoreau
--Henry David Thoreau
"I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn."
--Anne Frank
--Anne Frank
