Get Those Creative Juices Flowing

I'm over at Faith & Family LIVE! sharing tips on how to get your kids' creative juices flowing with tried and true writing exercises.

I'd love to hear how you nurture your children's inner Hemingway. See you over there!

Being Open to God's Plan

Some of my kids have had the sniffles this week, and I'm not feeling so hot either (more emotionally drained than physically - more on that maybe one of these days). Plus, we were at Gaba's a few days this week to keep her from going completely stir crazy as she continues to recover from her back surgery. So I'm re-posting a version of something I wrote way back in spring 2008 (have I really been blogging that long?).

There's a reason I chose this one from the mountain of archived posts. I really, really felt like I needed the Sacrament of Reconciliation this week. I rearranged my schedule and made sure my older girls would be in good hands while I renewed my soul. Then the baby and I headed out to a scheduled weekly confession time. When I arrived, the doors to the church were locked. A few other people were there for confession as well. We chatted and after we'd all been waiting for close to half an hour, someone came to inform us that there would be no confession that evening.

That's when I almost started to cry. (When I reached my car, the floodgates broke and I did cry.)

I was extremely frustrated with the situation and wondering why I'd made all this effort for naught. Later that evening though I started to consider that the very fact that I couldn't make it to confession when I'd planned to just may have been a divine nudge from God. In fact, one of the sins I was planning to confess had a lot to do with feeling out of control.

Newsflash, Katie: You are not in control. You never been and you never will be.

I wrote this post a long time ago, but it seems I remain a recovering control freak. Do you find you struggle with the same weaknesses, too? If the answer is no, then don't bother commenting. Just kidding. Sort of.

On a completely different note, today is my final guest post on writing at Just Another Day of Catholic Pondering. I'm sharing some final tips for folks who dream of getting paid to write or who just want to improve their craft. You can read it here.

Without further ado, from the archives:

I’ve really got to work on being more flexible. Not in the Downward Facing Dog kind of way (although I could use a little more flexibility in the body department as well, considering my back and even my hamstrings have been feeling really tight after toting around a baby all day), but more in the “I’m open to God’s plan – even if it’s different than mine” variety.

I recently read an entry in an old faith journal where I was writing about the Israelites’ struggles. I wrote:

“I’ll thankfully never have to face what they [the Israelites] faced – living under an oppressive, godless ruler and being whisked away to a foreign land, but there are plenty of things that will (and have) happened that are completely out of my control. Do I question God when my own plan is disrupted, or do I go with the flow and look to God for peace and for guidance?”

It’s funny how these similar themes keep popping up in my life. I struggle with the same issues. I'm a repeat offender who confesses the same sins over and over during Reconciliation. This whole control freak/lack of flexibility issue is one of my top fivers. I come from a long line of planners and control freaks. We like to be in charge. We thrive on knowing what’s ahead. I personally like to have both short-term and long-term goals outlined, and then I like to execute them in a streamlined fashion. This is a good trait in some ways because I'm productive. I don’t procrastinate. I meet deadlines. Blah, blah, blah.

However, my need for absolute control and precise planning can become a problem when I’m faced with the twists and turns of life. On a small scale, things happen every day to disturb my daily routine or my daily plan to accomplish any number of tasks. A daughter refuses to let me brush her hair. The baby projectile vomits all over me just as we’re ready to head out the door. All of the kids decide to actually sleep in when we have to be somewhere by 8 a.m. Dave has to stay at the hospital late when I’d planned on making a romantic, fancy schmancy dinner for the two of us. Just as I sit down to pray or to write or to make a grocery list, the baby wakes up from a short snooze and an older child decides quiet time is for the birds or any other animal but her.

Sometimes the surprises of life are more large-scale. I can’t conceive right away (as was the case with our second child). The car breaks down and we have to tap into our emergency savings. And it could be a lot worse. One of my parents gets really sick. I unexpectedly lose a loved one. I face a difficult medical diagnosis. We suffer a miscarriage. The United States becomes a socialist regime and we're forced to move to New Zealand. (Yes, I'm using a little hyperbole, but, really, you never know.) The fact is I really don’t have control over a lot of things in life and when I try to, all I do is drive myself (and probably God) crazy.

As I mentioned, it’s okay and sometimes even beneficial to have a plan in mind, but I’ve got to learn to know when my plan is keeping me from being receptive to God’s blueprint for my life, from being the best mom and wife I can be, from putting Christ at the center of my life. For instance, my days can’t be so jam-packed with “things to do” that I leave no room for spontaneity, games of peek-a-boo, random hugs or unprompted prayers. That freelance assignment can wait – really, it can, you anal geek; your deadline is not for another two weeks. Your toddler wants you now. Put the laptop away and go have a pretend tea party with her.

I must learn to react to all of life’s curve balls without anger, anxiety or exasperation. I must adapt, be flexible. I must take a deep breath and trust that God knows what he’s doing. An athlete stretches to gain more flexibility and to prevent injury; I must practice “going with the flow” when I encounter baby (both literally and not literally) intrusions into my everyday plan so that I might be able to, with God’s help, handle the bombshells of life with grace and faithful acceptance.

My spiritual resolution for the week: Be open to God’s plan for you both in daily life and in what he’s calling to do with your life.

Here are some ideas I have to help make this resolution a reality:

• Be spontaneous! Surprise your spouse with a date night.
• Pick a day of the week to stay in your PJs with the kiddos and have a pajama party. Or, if weather permits, go outside and search for signs of fall.
• Call up a friend last minute and invite her to share a glass of wine with you and some good conversation.
• If your child tugs on your hand while you’re trying to finish a task – no matter how important you think it is – stop what you’re doing and get down to your child’s level and listen to what he or she has to say.
• During your daily prayers shut up long enough to listen to what God's asking you to do.

Prayer: God, I want to give you my heart and to be open to your graces and your will, but I can get so wrapped up in my own plans and the tasks at hand that I leave little room for you in my life. Please remind me to look to you for guidance and peace when things happen (or don’t) that are out of my control. Remind me that I really can relax, knowing that my life and the lives of all those I love are in your capable, caring hands. Amen.

Encouraging Little Hemingways

One of my "side jobs" is teaching creative writing to children. This summer I've been teaching a workshop of sorts to children, ages 7 to 9. Although I'm paid to nurture these budding writers, I've found the best reward for teaching creative writing to children is not monetary. These kids are filled with raw talent, and I think they inspire me far more than I inspire them. What a gift it is for me to see inside their minds, to see their inner muses unleashed.

As a boring, old and dare I say cynical adult, I don't always notice the small details in life. When my girls and I venture out on nature walks, for instance, I look for big things like the clambering the snapping turtle we recently observed along the shoreline of a nearby pond. But my little ones, they see it all: The tiny trail of ants marching along a fence line, the fragments of mica flickering in the sunlight, plain leaves I trample upon without so much as a second glance...Children are incredibly attuned to sensory details. Maybe that's why they make such good writers - if only we're able to overlook their misspellings and the rules of grammar and logic they're constantly breaking.

Even the children who have a hard time with writing according to their moms are eager to weave words together to tell a story when they're encouraged to create rather than to follow a set of strict rules for writing (I detest the five paragraph essay; I see its purpose, but it's just so confining). Most children are just waiting to let their pencils fly across the paper to create a story or a poem, or even a crazy, creative cluster that begins with the word "night" and somehow spawns words like pizza, fairy, and birthday. We just have to let them create and put aside our expectations for what a story ought to look (or sound) like. There's a time and place for teaching structure, grammar, syntax, and spelling, but every child also needs time to just write whatever comes into his or her mind.

I'm often surprised by what these children come up with. Sometimes when I hear the details they include in their stories like "the ocean foam lapped on my ankles like whipped cream," "the fish was as small as a flaxseed," or "the earthy smell after the rain fills the air, and I'm reminded of my mom's garden," I forget my oldest student is only 9.

Recently, we discussed the hallmark of good writing is to show not tell. As a prewriting group exercise, I wrote the following statement on a dry erase board: "Grandma was beautiful for many reasons." I then asked the children to imagine a beautiful grandma. I pointed out that "beautiful" wasn't simply referring to physical attributes but also to how a person reveals love and truth. Likewise, I told them they could create a mental image of their own grandma or of a fictional one. There were no rules. After they brainstormed for a bit, we went around the room, and each child shared a detail of their "beautiful grandma."

This is what the children came up with:

Grandma is beautiful for many reasons. She has glossy, white hair that reminds me of silver strands. She has a comfortable smell that always reminds me of the comfortable way she lives. Simply. She lives simply. And her kitchen always smells of cinnamon or like an apple pile right out of the oven.

She has sparkly, blue eyes that are always smiling. Her smile is so welcoming - like the smile God will wear when he welcomes me to heaven.

She's the warmest person I've ever known - it's like she carries the sunshine in her soul.

And her voice? It's like a bell. It always rings true.

She's wrinkled, too, like a Sharpei puppy.

Oh, but she's beautiful. Truly, truly beautiful.

Lovely, isn't it? I should note that all my students are currently girls (hence, the silvery strands of hair and puppy references), but I've taught boys as well, and they, too, come up with colorful details.

So let your children write. Hand them a pencil (or pen or even a keyboard) and tell them that for today the only rule is that you must write. And when they share their art with you, put your adult world view aside, talk less and listen more.

Creative Writing Exercises

As promised, I've included some of my favorite writing exercises for kids in this post. (They're sure to get adult writers thinking, too.)

It goes without saying that there's an infinite number of ways to get scribes-in-the-making writing. These are just a handful of ideas to provide your child “seeds” that might just blossom into stories, poems, or plays.

•Write a poem that is simply a list of things. Ideas: List the contents in your desk drawer, the items in your refrigerator at home, what you would pack if you were traveling to Africa or some other far off place, or list everything you can think of that is yellow or some other color.

•Create a poem or story that’s a metaphor by completing the following phrase: “I am a___________” with an object like a flower, a type of animal, a dream, etc.

•Write about building or taking something apart. The object you build or take apart may be small, like a knitted scarf or a model plane, or it may be huge like a sprawling garden or a skyscraper.

•Transform an idea to an image. Mom (or Dad) ask your child to close her eyes and to picture what she sees when you say a word. Then say something aloud such as love, death, soul, night (any word will do). Ask your child to write about what she “saw” when you said this word.

•Write a story or a poem using a photograph or a picture from a magazine/newspaper. (We did this exercise in the camp I taught, and it produced some great tales about everything from talking the majestic Sea Star taking a family on an ocean journey to the adventures of a super gnome.)

•Write a story about someone of the opposite sex. Questions to get you started: If you were a girl/boy, what would be your favorite things to do? What are your talents? What do you look like? Or, make a list of boy/men or girls/women you know and write adjectives next to each name. Look at how different even people of the same sex can be.

•Write an autobiography. What interesting facts would you include? Alternatively, choose a favorite historical figure and write his or her biography after doing some research.

•Think about what you wish for when you toss a penny into a fountain or blow out candles on a birthday cake. Now write a story about this wish – no matter how fanciful it might be – coming true.

*The first four ideas are adapted from The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises From Poets Who Teach by Robin Behn

Online Resources:

This is just a small sampling of what’s available on the Web. All you have to do is Google “kids’ writing” or “kids + creativity” and you’ll get a slew of sites that help to inspire creativity (not only in the written medium but beyond) for your budding artistes.

•Headline Maker: This site generates a wacky headline to get kids started writing a fictional news story. The main site also has other helpful links for sparking creativity in children.

•Poetry Wheel: In the most recent issue of Family Fun magazine, Jack Prelutsky, an award-winning children’s poet, shared tips on nurturing creativity in children. This is a link to his poetry wheel, which you can make at home and use to generate ideas for poems.

•Kids on the Net: This site serves as a “clearinghouse” of sorts for kids who want to write.

•Funds for Writers: This is a top site for freelance writers or anyone who wants to write and it offers several wonderful free e-newsletters, including one tailored for kids (elementary through college). It includes writing contests for kids as well as markets that accept kid-authored work.

How to Raise a Writer

I was privileged to teach a mini creative writing camp to children this past week. The budding Hemingways inspired me with their stories of twin sisters releasing coconut candles into the sea mist and man-eating blueberry muffins. These kids are brimming with creativity and I don't want that to change, so I gave the parents a handout with tips on how to hatch a writer.

I thought other parents of scribes (as well as parents who write themselves) might enjoy these tips. Look for a post on creative writing exercises and online resources in the near future.

Happy writing!

• Encourage your child to write. This sounds like a no-brainer, but sometimes we may think we are encouraging our child when we’re doing just the opposite. Let’s say your child reads you a story that really doesn’t make logical sense. Or maybe your child always writes about a magical world and nothing else. It would be easy and tempting to point out that this or that doesn’t make sense or to ask your child to write about something different for a change. You might feel your words are innocuous, but if you keep pointing to things that are illogical or push your child to write about topics she’s not interested in, it could all backfire.

Kids are sensitive muses (oftentimes so are adults) and we have to be careful when looking at their works in progress. As I explained here, try not to get too focused on grammar, structure, etc. There is a time and place for editing, practicing spelling, developing cohesive and coherent thoughts, but not during a creative writing exercise. Consider having a creative writing time when he or she can write about anything and doesn’t have to worry about the way things are spelled. Then you can concentrate on composition, the art of constructing a paragraph, grammar, syntax, etc. during a different writing session. Your ultimate goal is to raise a child who loves to write because the more he writes, the better he will get at it, and writing well will help him in all facets of life.

• Your child is creative. Not all children are destined to be Shakespeares or Flannery O’Connors, but all children are creative – even the ones who seem to think in concrete terms at an early age.

While some seem to drift through life with their heads in the clouds where there’s no dearth of dreamy ideas, you might have to point your more “grounded” children in the direction of heaven. Okay, before you think I’ve really gone off my rocker, consider this: Barbara Ueland, a writer, writing teacher and the author of If You Want to Write, suggests that the creative power (or the creative impulse to be creative) that we all possess is actually the Holy Spirit.

The brilliant poet and artist William Blake said, “Imagination is the Divine Body in every man.” Of course, just as we sometimes begin to see the world through a secular lens and neglect the supernatural (AKA divine) forces in our life, Ueland says our creativity is “inhibited and dried up by many things – by criticism, self-doubt, duty, nervous fear which expresses itself in merely external action like running up and downstairs and scratching items off lists and thinking you are being efficient; by anxiety about making a living, by fear of not excelling.”

This brings us back to the first tip again: Try not to be so focused on what your child writes that you gloss over the fact that she is writing and trying to listen to her inner muse. Otherwise, she may start to think of writing as a chore instead of a means of listening to the Holy Spirit and a way of expressing her “creative power.” (One exercise that’s helpful is to have children write their own prayer to God. I still do this sometimes and occasionally, I’ll go back and read something I wrote and I’ll think, “Whoa! That was the Holy Spirit talking, not me!”)

• Use a timer with reluctant writers. If your child seems reluctant to write, tell him you’re going to set a timer for five minutes (or whatever time you deem appropriate given her inclination to write, attention span, etc.) and have him free write. This means your child should write whatever is on her mind. There are no rules other than the fact that she must write until the timer buzzes. She can make a list. She can describe the way the pencil feels in her hand or the weather outside. She can write a poem or a song or write a prayer to God like I mentioned above. What she writes isn’t nearly as important as the fact that she’s writing (again, what I said above). The more your child uses his creative power (by writing what’s on his heart and mind instead of constantly completing formal writing assignments), the more he’ll have.

Writing will also get easier. Think of creativity in terms of an athlete. An athlete has to train and warm up his or her muscles to play at the top of his or her game. Likewise, writing exercises like free writing will help your child strengthen his creative “muscles.” Of course, even the greatest athletes play a bad game every once in awhile. Writer’s block is sometimes inevitable, but your child can work through it by free writing or perhaps clustering.

If you're not familiar with clustering, here's how it works: In the middle of a blank piece of paper, write down your starting concept (any word your child wants) and circle it. Now, draw several radiating lines from that center, and put concepts relating to your starting concepts. Circle each of those. From those circles, radiate even farther out and put more relating concepts. The "cluster" of connected ideas starting from a central concept is your finished product. Kids can use these ideas as springboard for a story or a poem (or even a play). You can also cluster an individual character in your novel to learn more about her or even a setting or theme you want to explore.

A mini cassette tape recorder also comes in handy for writers. I use one during interviews and then often transcribe my notes. However, I also find it’s useful when I have an idea pop into my head that I don’t really have time to develop on paper or at the computer. I’ll “say” an idea into my recorder. This is particularly helpful for children who are still struggling with their penmanship. Maybe they write slowly and this frustrates them. Encourage them to “tell” their story first into a tape recorder and then to write it down after they have their thoughts organized. Similarly, a child who writes something but later has trouble ciphering her scribble might benefit from writing their story and then immediately reading it out loud into a tape recorder when the story is still fresh on her mind. Then she can re-write it perhaps more neatly later. Here’s a tape recorder that’s under $20 at Amazon:

• Read great works. By exposing your children to great literary works, you’re not only showing them what it means to tell a timeless story, but you’re allowing them to see beauty. This will not only help them to be better writers, but better human beings as well. Laura Berquist, an expert on classical education, says, “If children love the beautiful, they will love truth, as truth, when they are older.”

As Dostoyevsky once said, “Beauty will save the world.”

• Give them a space to write. Writing can take place anywhere. I encourage kids to carry notebooks to jot down ideas because you never know when inspiration might strike. That said, it’s also helpful to have a space for your aspiring writer that is his own – a place that’s off-limits to younger siblings and even to you. Maybe it’s her grandfather’s desk that’s in her bedroom. Or perhaps it’s outside sitting by a creek (as a child this was my favorite place to write). Ask your child where he or she feels the most inspired and allow him or her to write there in private.

Art Credit: DiscoverySchool.com

Poetry Analysis

If you saw the following lines from a poem by Grace Nichols, what would you guess the poet was talking about?

Tall and blue
true and open

So open my arms have room
for all the world
for sun and moon
for birds and stars

Yet how I wish I had the chance
to come drifting down to earth—
a simple bed sheet
covering some little girl or boy
just for a night

The correct answer: The sky. (The poem's last lines read "...but I am sky/That's why.")

A 7-year-old's answer: God

I didn't "see" God when I first read this poem. I, being the perceptive adult that I am, saw the sky, "tall and blue." But when I read it again after hearing the child's interpretation, how could I not see him? God is true and open. His arms are so open they have "room for all the world."

Even the sense of yearning, the longing to come down to a little girl and a boy took on a whole new meaning for me. God did come down to earth. He became man for all of us. Like the sky in this poem, he was personified so that we would all come to believe in him and to love and serve him. His Precious Blood saved us all. His creation - the sun and moon, the birds and stars - are all around us. I can be so dense though. I am often blind to him and his sacrifice. But to a 7-year-old, God is everywhere - in a poem about the sky, in the white blossoms of a dogwood tree that she describes in her own poetry as "dancing fairies in the air leaving fragrance in my hair." To a child, God is.

Why I Write

Today I gathered around a kitchen table of a friend’s with four pint-sized wordsmiths. A mom in my homeschooling co-op invited me to come over because her son had apparently decided he wanted to be a writer after we did a creative writing exercise together. She wanted me to tell him what he could do to cultivate his craft – write, write, write and read, read, read! So I sat there with this budding writer and some of his peers and we talked about some of the practical sides of becoming a writer (e.g., good college majors for writers), how we can become better writers (e.g., keep a journal) and most importantly, why we like to write.

J. wants to write fiction to entertain people. He said it makes him feel good to see people enjoying a story he has written. C. likes to write to God. She’s only 6 and she shyly opened her composition book and showed me a prayer she wrote – a beautiful, simple love note to her Creator. I love you, God. I want to give you gory. (I tried not to smile when I saw how she’d spelled “glory.” One of the easiest ways to squash a young child’s creativity is to make him or her self-conscious about their spelling or anything else.) H. , who’s almost 8, says writing makes her feel better. “It helps me with my feelings.” Right you are, wise, little one.

There was one reluctant writer in the group. “I don’t like to write. I like to draw. See I can draw,” he said, showing me an impressive doodle of a rocket he’d just finished. It was later revealed that it wasn’t writing itself that bothered him, but the act of writing. He felt his rusty penmanship prevented him from writing what he really wanted to. “I’m too slow,” he said. I suggested he buy a small tape recorder and say his thoughts aloud and then transcribe them later. Or, I told him he could create rebus stories. That way he could use both drawings and words to communicate his thoughts.

I’m passionate about writing and so were these kids. Growing up, I was fortunate to have people who encouraged me to write. I started keeping a journal in 1986; I was six years old. I showed some of my old journals to the kids and they giggled at my sloppy writing and ubiquitous misspellings. I wrote, “We’re mooing” instead of “We’re moving” and “Sheetie is getting big,” instead of “Sweetie is getting big” when I was referring to our Lab puppy’s growth. I also fed "cartits" instead of carrots to Shadow, the horse I rode at horseback riding lessons.

At one point, C. said she loved to write, but that she wasn't sure if she should do it because her writing was really messy. I pointed out, “So was mine,” and showed her another page from journal filled with chicken scratch.

I told the kids that as a child, when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always included “writer” in my top three list (my other two career aspirations were actress and horse trainer). I got my first byline in the second grade when I wrote a story about a plaque detective who climbed into the mouth of children and swung, clutching strands of floss, from molar to molar like a periodontal Tarzan. I'd recently seen the word "neurotic" somewhere and used it completely out of context, describing this plaque monger's work as "very neurotic." My teacher (she was not married to a dentist) loved the story and entered it in a contest. It won, was published and I was hooked.

I want these kids to be hooked, too. I don’t want this passion to die. Even if J., the would-be author, decides to be an engineer instead of a novelist, being a good writer will only help him. Writing is a skill that helps you move ahead in any career.For a brief period, I was in charge of perusing resumes and cover letters to fill a job I was leaving. I was amazed by how many smart people could not write. It can come in handy when you want to become active in politics and write a letter to a senator or file a complaint for bad customer service as well. I told the kids this and encouraged them to write a page a day in some kind of journal. The words didn’t matter, but the act of writing did. They must fill one page with something – it could be fiction, a recount of the day’s happenings, a poem, a letter to a friend, anything that was made up of words.

“And when you’re writing,” I added. “There are no rules.” This made them smile. A subject with no rules! They didn’t need to worry about grammar, paragraph structure or spelling. Not now. Nothing must stand in the way of the creative process. If you start force-feeding punctuation and grammar and other "rules" of writing to fervent scribes too young, too soon, you’ll only make them begin to hate the writing process, or in the very least, they’ll start to self-edit and their creativity will be lost in the frozen, graphic structure of “perfect” syntax.

“Do you want to write something now?” I asked.

“Yes!”

So we did a characterization exercise. In less than five minutes, we developed a character named Fred. He was a 10-year-old boy with brown hair and big feet. He loved to bungee cord jump, but he was deathly afraid of motocross. He worked for the government. Don’t you dare ask how a 10-year-old can work for the government. Set aside your adult logic for just a moment, please.

Then I told them they had to write about this Fred guy. “You may find that your story stops being about Fred and starts being about the orange that started talking to him when he was preparing a snack,” I told them.

They looked at me like I’d lost it. “Remember, there are no rules,” I reiterated.

Then they started to write.

Minutes later, H. asked me if she could read me her paragraph. In only a few sentences, she explained that Fred helped his dad with government projects (see, she didn’t let him being 10 keep him from important work). In addition, she immediately created conflict. Fred’s dad was now missing and he wanted to find him. “I’m hooked,” I said. “I want to know more.” And I did.

She beamed. H. had also written “Fred is a maroon.” One of the other kids asked her what she meant.

“It’s a reddish brown,” she explained.

“Yeah, but what do you mean?”

“Fred is a maroon,” she replied. Like, duh.

I loved this. To her, Fred was a color.

During a prior creative writing class, J. wrote about the adventures Nerd Boy and Sidekick Kid, both of which had a flatulence problem. Another child wrote about a superhero who was horrible at flying his spaceship and often crashed into things. He created such a likable character and was so fired up about him that he filled 10-plus pages about this clumsy and unlikely superhero.

Seeing these kids’ passion for writing and their uninhibited imagination has been a real gift. It’s reminded me of a time when I wasn’t worried about writing for editors or getting published. It reminded me that although I've gotten paid to write PR materials, advetorials, features and essays, fiction is my first love, my real passion. It reminded me that a character can be a color if you want it to be. There are no rules. There are no rules.

I’ve been asked to lead a creative writing workshop/club for homeschool kids. I am humbled by this invitation, but I’m also really excited about it. I’m hoping that my creativity, which these days is too often stifled or self-edited by my worries of what others will think about how I write or what I write about, will feed off theirs. Above all, I’m hoping I can help these children, raw with wonder and imagination, to fall in love with writing and the creative process just like I did with the encouragement of my parents and some teachers and professors of mine. (Thank you, Mom and Dad, Mrs. Isaac, Mrs. Guy, Mrs. Melvin and Dr. Hollifield!)

“Why do you write, Mrs. Wicker?” J. asked.

“For all different reasons,” I answered. “Sometimes I write an article to educate or to inform. I write my blog to chronicle my motherhood and to help me grow in my faith. I keep a prayer journal to force me to meditate and talk to God instead of getting distracted and wondering about what I should make for dinner when I should be praying. Sometimes I write to inspire, to complain or to sort out my feelings. And sometimes, I write just because I want to.”

I should have added that that’s the best reason of all.