The Freedom of Words

There - I successfully did it. I didn't write on my blog for the month of February. Not one word, not a whisper, not a whimper. I didn't have time for the first two weeks and what time I did have for writing were spent working on my short story (see Writing a Story, Simply January 2011).

I was feeling the weight of not writing until Saturday night, February 19th, when I received wise words from a good friend. I was putting the finishing touches to our Persian lamb dinner for five friends. Morrie came to join me, leaning on the counter space that separates our one-person-at-a-time kitchen from the dining area.

"So you're having trouble with your story are you?"

I looked at him a touch perplexed.

"That's what I picked up from reading between the lines, you know," he added as he used his right hand to draw a straight line in the air.

"Oh, you read my blog," I caught on; I sometimes suffer from a time delay. "Yes, I'm having some trouble with it. Mostly because I'm so busy and I'm tired."

"Yes, I read that too," Morrie said.

"I haven't written anything since that last blog about feeling like I'm burning to the ground."

"Well, don't worry about it," said Morrie, "you'll write again when it's right."

"Yeah, but I have some people who follow my blog," I smiled at him, "and I don't want them to look and find nothing new there."

"But then you've got it all wrong," Morrie replied, "because you should be writing just for you not for anyone else. If you feel the pressure to write for your readership, you're no longer writing for yourself."

"You're right, Morrie," I said as I spooned the red pepper sauce from the pan into a serving dish. "I should just be writing for myself. I've forgotten to do that."

And so, I spent the next week focusing on and finishing my short story, free of guilt and my self-inflicted perfectionism to do everything and to do it well. Thank you Morrie, your wise words of freedom found an open window into my soul.