What Kind of Book are you Writing for your Life in 2014?

When I got on Facebook this morning, I saw this picture that a friend had shared. I started thinking about it.

Seeing as today is New Year's Eve - the last day of 2013. Tomorrow is a new year. And for many of us we see it as an opportunity to start a fresh. That turning of the calendar page to a new year often signals a new start in our lives.

The challenge of this picture to write a good one when we start the new book of our lives for the new year . . . it sort of seems impossible to choose to do that - to choose to write a good one. Yet, it's also what I and most other people I talk to want for the new year.

 The challenge is that we don't have complete control over everything that happens to us. We will have good and hard things that happen to us and to the people we love in our lives that we can't control. So, does that mean it's impossible to write the book of our lives for 2014 a good one?

But, even though we can't control events that happen, we can still choose how we respond to those events. Whether things are good or hard that happen, we can make the choice of our response to them. That's where we have the control to write a good one when it comes to our book for 2014.

So, what kind of book are you going to write for the year 2014 in your life? What choice will you make in how you respond to the things that happen that are out of your control?

Why do I Write?

Why do you write?

That's a question I was challenged with a few weeks ago. Someone from a writer's group I'm a part of posed this question to us and challenged us to write a post on it. (Here's a link to the post that started this conversation.)

It's a question I hadn't thought about before, but it was not one that left my thoughts easily. As someone who calls themselves a writer, it's probably a question I should have the answer to. No, I'm not a traditionally published author, but I write . . . and I write a lot.

So, why do I write?

I write because it's how I make sense of the world around me.

I write because it's how I make sense of things that are happening in my life.

I write because it's how I remember all the things that happen in life that I don't want to forget.

I write because it's how I notice all the little things in life.

I write because it's how I remember all the little things that happen in life that I don't want to forget.

I write because it's how I notice all the little things in life.

But, most of all, I write because it's something I can't not to. Even when I'm not posting things here, I'm still writing. For me, there's nothing like sitting in a coffee shop or a park with a pen and notebook and writing whatever comes. (Yes, I'm one of those people who still writes everything with a pen and paper first.)

Writing excites me. It energizes me.

And it frustrates me . . . often.

But, even when it's hard, I can't stop, because I truly believe it is something God gave me to do. It definitely isn't something this "numbers are fun" person who hated English class in school ever thought they would be doing.

Writing is a gift from God for me that I can't imagine my life without anymore.

That's why I write. My answer to the question posed in my writer's group.

Snow

Branches bend low

With the weight of the snow

A blanket of white

Reflecting the light

 

Of sun brightly shining

Each step I take crunching

On fresh fallen snow

The world seems to glow

 

Light all around me

Beauty is all I see

Quietly waiting

Silence not breaking

 

The branch soon lets go

A fresh shower of snow

Branches so green

Are now what is seen