Thanks for joining me!
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
I love to write, but I admittedly have stopped writing for a very long time. When I was young I loved to write poetry and songs. If I had been brave enough to pursue my dream job it would have been writing songs and collaborating with musical artists (…and maybe even doing a little singing), but fear got in my way!
My mother loved to write, she was interested in children’s stories and was really very good. She read me several of her stories as a child and I loved them! She worked up the courage only one time to submit her work and was rejected and never wrote again except for her children. There of course weren’t as many publishers in those days – we’re talking the 1960s – and being turned away was a big blow to her confidence. My Father tried to encourage her and explain that one rejection didn’t mean total rejection and abject failure, but to Mom it was.
I think that happens often to many of us – not having the confidence to pursue what makes us happy – I know having confidence enough to write publicly has been my desire, but fear held me back, except one time I dug very deep and wrote a song and sang it publicly. I was 19, getting married and wanted to do something very special for my then fiance, soon-to-be husband. I met a girl, Laura, that lived in one of my parents apartments, she had a guitar in her corner and I indicated that it was great that she played. She explained that she’d played all through high school and was in a band in college etc. I told her that I would LOVE to write my fiance a song and sing it at the wedding and admitted my fear and that I could never do it. Laura had other ideas! She said she’d help! I was stunned. This person I barely knew, was willing to help me compose a song. I was thrilled and scared all at once!
We decided to go down to the lakeside, sit on a dock, have a little wine and see what we came up with (I was from the Finger Lakes region of upstate NY so it was beautiful and good inspiration). It was to be a surprise, so even if it never manifested, there was no harm no foul. I wrote the song in about 20 minutes, she had some chords from another song she’d done years before and by the end of the evening, we had the structure of a full blown song. Over the next four weeks, we practiced in the church most nights, working out tempo, adding a little here and a little there, even adding Laura as a backup for the hook. She was awesome. Always encouraging me, telling me I had the voice, so use it! I of course thought she was off her rocker, but somehow she gave me confidence.
The wedding day came. I wasn’t nervous, which was odd considering it was my wedding! I remember my Dad asking me just before we walked up the aisle .. “do you want to go get a cup of coffee and think a little more…” I laughed and said, “No Dad, I have a song to sing!” He laughed and onward we walked.
A weird calm came over me when my priest handed me the microphone. I was focused on my husband-to-be, hoping he didn’t think this was all really stupid and just sang him the song, no fear, no second guessing, just singing – straight to him. It went perfectly, apparently there wasn’t a dry eye in the place to include my new husband. I didn’t know because I never looked right or left. As we exited the church and greeted our guests, I got nothing but wonderful comments and many that said, “I didn’t know you sang!” I laughed and said, “yeah me either!”
Moral of my story is…I’m taking a leap of faith and starting to blog. It’s not big deal if I don’t get followers, my goal is to just write on all sorts of topics and not be scared to do it!
My Two Cents of Sense 