Words open doors

Updated with live link; see below

It starts with an idea. If you’re lucky diligent, the idea grows and morphs and attaches onto other ideas…and so it goes, until you have something worth writing about.

It starts with a blank page. If you’re lucky diligent, the page becomes populated with words that grow and morph into sentences and paragraphs…and so it goes, until you have a piece of writing.  

It starts with one reader. If you’re lucky diligent, that reader, over time, multiplies into others…and so it goes, until you have many readers, some of whom are friends, some of whom you don’t know and are not even related to. 

The more you nurture ideas and fill blank pages with words and send them out into the world of readers, the better chance you have of being read and of finding more readers. 

Self-evident, of course, so what’s the point? There are three: 

One: Ten and a half years ago, I had a personal essay published in The Globe and Mail, which was a lovely unplanned achievement for me. Tomorrow, January 5th, I’ll have a second one published in The Globe and Mail, which will be a major long-planned achievement for me — one that’s taken almost eleven years to reach. And without you, dear Reader, I would not be there yet. 

Two: Since I first put up this blog in 2018, you have been reading what I have been writing, so I have been writing more routinely and so the ideas have been coming more fluently and those blank pages have been filling more easily with words that become writing worth reading. And so it goes. And along the way, my skill is polished and my confidence grows, such that I say, What the heck — why not? Why not try The Globe again? Why not submit a piece to a professional editor at a national newspaper and see what happens? And so I did. And without you, dear Reader, I would not have done it yet. 

Three: Tomorrow, when my personal essay is in The Globe and Mail, pat yourself on the back for the role you played in helping me get it there. THANK YOU! 

Words open doors: When we say them and they are heard. And when we write them and they are read. This is how we tell the stories of our lives. This is how we shape the story of our life. Never underestimate the power of words. To quote Margaret Atwood, "A word after a word after a word is power." And she, with that quote, now grace a Canada Post stamp, so who knows where I — or you — might end up. 

Read the essay here. You'll need to be either a subscriber to The Globe and Mail or to sign up for a limited-access free account. 

———
Land acknowledgement: I respectfully recognize that I live on the original lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.

Photo by Danielle MacInnes via Unsplash.com