Sometimes I just have to write. I don’t know why, but something in me tells me that I need to. My fingers hover over the keyboard wondering how to begin. Sometimes the words flow and other times, my mind is blank. What could I possibly have to say that anyone would want to read? At times like those, I usually resist the urge and try to find something else to do, but this time I decided to simply start. Where this is going, I really don’t know!

Although I love to lose myself in a good novel, I’m  not a writer of fiction. I never have been. I’ve tried dabbling in it once or twice, but it clearly wasn’t my forte. Neither am I a poet. No, though nonfiction seems somehow less exciting, it’s what I do.

Scripture tells us that we’re made in the image of a creative God. As such, I believe that we all have the innate ability to be creative. I create with words. What do you create with?

I have a friend who is an avid quilter. She creates works of art with fabric and many of her quilts bring comfort to people living with cancer. (see Victoria’s Quilts Canada or Victoria’s Quilts USA) Another friend is an artist in the kitchen creating culinary masterpieces and a cousin is a songwriter. My daughter knits and crochets everything from sweaters and slippers to teddy bears and stuffed animals. Some people are artists in the traditional sense creating drawings, paintings, or sculptures. Others design and build with wood. Still others create online games and programs.

Releasing creativity, whatever form it takes, can be therapeutic. It can help people resolve issues as well as develop and manage behaviours and feelings, reduce stress, and improve self-esteem and awareness. There are things that I can’t write about, or at least I can’t publish, because they would be hurtful to people that I care deeply about or because they’re not my stories to tell. Writing about my cancer, however, especially in the early days, helped me process and better accept and understand what was happening. Some cancer centres even offer art therapy classes to their patients.

We all have gifts and passions. I’m thankful that I found mine a long time ago. Even as a child, I enjoyed writing reports for school. As a university student, I much preferred essays to exams. By the time I graduated, I knew that even though teaching was my chosen profession, writing would also be part of my future. Of course, there was no internet back then. I did a bit of freelance writing, selling a few articles to small publications, but it was retirement and the advent of blogging that really opened the door to writing for sheer enjoyment. To date, I’ve published over 1300 posts. Together they’d equal the length of an average novel!

The only problem with not knowing where this post was going is not knowing how it should end, so I’ll simply finish with a couple of quotes from science fiction writer, Isaac Asimov.