I have liked writing as much as I did reading for as long as I can remember. Not poetry or prose; no, nothing as profound as that. I liked writing letters to relatives who lived in other parts of the country and the world. I liked writing essays in school. I even liked the exercise in English literature class wherein we constructed sentences using words we had just learned in our school lesson.
After I left high school, my creative writing was restricted to mail alone. Since I began writing my newsletters in 2006 to a bigger group of my contacts, I’ve been told several times by some of them that I ought to blog or write where I could reach a wider reader base. I appreciated their encouragement, but I was held back by apprehensions over privacy.
I’ve experienced some difficult emotional times in the past 3 years. Despite that, I have had, and still do have, a good grip on my life due to my faith, my family and my friends. Reading a couple of blogs, too, helped bolster my spirits if they threatened to sag. Blogs written by strangers taught me about things I didn’t know; oh, just random things that connected dots sometimes, or took me into completely new terrain at other times. Some blogs made me smile, some made me laugh. An upward curve of the mouth or the mouth opened wide with head thrown back is welcome no matter the emotional climate!
I noticed the growing influence in my life of blogs written by people I do not know at all and one day, a few months ago …
This image is licensed under Creative Commons. Thank you, cheerfulmonk, for letting me share your luminescence!
I realised I could still help people the way Daddy would have liked me to!
In the past, when the people I care about went through dips in life, I was not always right next to them to alleviate their pain or to make them feel less lonely, but my written word came pretty darned close to wrapping my arms around their slumped shoulders, some told me. Others said they felt energised by my tales, and that caused them to be tail-between-the-legs no more. And there were a handful of others who blurted something along the lines of, “Kate, you are one cray-zay woman!” I prefer to interpret those as compliments.
So, since my hammer-and-tongs hands (which is beaten in volume only by my motor mouth) could elicit such responses from people I know, could my words then have the same effect on people I do not know at all? A pretty ambitious thought. And there’s only one way to find out.
As mentioned in the ‘About This Blog’ page, I have chosen not to tell any of the people I know about this blog; not even those on the character roll. I want readers to be drawn to my blog on the strength of my narrative. Not because I am some font of wisdom; not by a long shot! But because I learn from people I don’t know at all, too; by observing them and reading about them in their own words or someone else’s. I hope to pass on my experience and views with the same hope that it may help someone in some way. If you happen to crack a smile or chuckle even while perusing my posts, even better!
In my fourth and current career avatar as a social worker, I try to do what I can to make the people I come in contact with feel a little less burdened, a little less alone.
Thank you, Colin Gibson, for permitting me the use of your image.
As Daddy wished all those years ago, I am ready to reach out to a wider group. Finally.
For You, Daddy! 