As the post below has been swirling around in back of my mind today…I wanted to share with you about an incredibly honest and gifted writer who tenderly laid a blanket of encouragement over me, tucking me securely in to embrace the writer’s life.

I knew I loved to journal…to write down one small revelation after another that jumped out at me during the day…displays of God’s work and wisdom in the simple “everydayness” of  life.  Yet fear had a terrible hold on me…I doubted that I could really write anything that would ever be worth sharing.

One night my husband and I were settling into bed after a long day…he’d already rolled over to sink soundly to sleep…and then just turned his head back around and said, out of the blue, “You’re going to write a book.”  Then promptly settled back into his pillow and and left this to hang there…suspended in the night…for me to gaze upon like a misty apparition that made something leap in my heart.

As I awoke to real life and my aprehensions, I wrote…but with fear melting my hope of moving from journaling…to writing for the enjoyment and encouragement of others. Not long after this, a friend shared the book, Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Ordinary Life by Shauna Niequist. This work is beautifully written…like cool, clear, refreshing water.  But, strangely, as I closed the book I felt my heart sink a bit…oh, someone had written the book I dreamed of writing.  Why go on writing when someone had already written my book.

My dismay, though, melted into the richness and beauty of her writing.  From this delicious feast served up one chapter at a time, she called to me to write.  If you are an artist in hiding, a dancer in your dreams, a writer held captive by doubts…any kind of creative person who stands on the brink of a dream too afraid to jump…get your hands on this book.  Her words will be like honey to sooth your soul.

When you find the words she offers to a 7th grade writer…you will be readied to jump, eager to take flight…for I wonder if there isn’t 7th grader in all of us wondering if he…or she can truly fly.