The Power of Writing

I don’t watch much TV and consider myself a bit of a hippie in that arena but the other day I found myself holding back a fountain of tears as I was watching Extreme Makeover (Thanksgiving Edition). It was an episode about a family that offers a place for single woman to stay to get on their feet again and develop the skills they need to make it on their own. Well, that was not the part that got me leaking with tears but rather it was the part during the show were the community was giving notebooks and pencils to children in Ethiopia where one of the families child was adopted. The camera crew captured the moment when one little boy in Ethiopia received a pencil and his expression of sheer joy radiated through the TV screen and melted my heart as he said “Thanks for my pencil!” with pure joy and gratitude. If only I could be excited about the simplest of things that are taken for granted. The resources I have at my fingertips each day and don’t even think about are bringing megawatt smiles to children across the world because it brings opportunity they never had before to learn, write, and grow.

This got me thinking about the power of writing and how I need to never take this gift for granted. Writing brings such a sense of accomplishment after it is completed, it unloads the burdens that we carry with our thoughts, it brings our imaginations to life and helps us through the pitfalls. Even if no one ever reads our words it can be our sacred place of trust between ourselves and our unspoken journal. Writing can touch the multitudes or it can be the place of defeat where we vent our failures and fears. It’s the place where prince charming really can show up at our doorstep with a handful of roses declaring his love, it’s the place where our wildest dreams become colorful and infused with the excitement that we feel in our hearts. It’s the place where we can tell our own precious story of new beginnings or wisest discernment of lessons learned.

If I did not have the opportunity to write I would be a  stuffed up bottle of emotions ready to burst. I would be tear of sadness upon my face with endless pain locked inside. I would be a light burning with no place to shine.  To be able to write is like a sweet breath of release and a dream coming true. So as I think upon that sweet child in Ethiopia who was so thankful for the simplest of things, my soul is awaken again to the power of writing and the extraordinary gift that is right at my fingertips.

XOXO

Nicole Renee