My Father, My Inspiration for Writing

I write.  I always have.  My earliest (and fuzzy) recollection of my own personal creative writing was a journal that I kept — I believe a Laverne & Shirley episode inspired me to start one.  It was an episode where one of the two characters was writing in her diary how the other was particularly annoying — and I thought I would write about my sister in my diary as well…

My writing stems deeper than imitating characters on TV though.  I owe a lot of it to my father, my inspiration.  I loved reading his typewritten letters to me written during a long and sad separation between us.  I loved reading the articles he wrote for the newspaper that he worked for as well.  He is a retired journalist now…

He sent me these 2 photos taken early on during his career (ca. late 1980s).  Whenever I read his letters, I always imagined him typing away, pouring his heart out… Those typewritten letters are now replaced by emails, instant messaging and social networking (it took a LOT of convincing him to join the 21st century though!)  I do miss the tactile sensation of typewritten letters and receiving and opening a letter.  Nonetheless, I still love reading them, I still collect them, and I am still inspired by his writing…

Journalist, typing away…

Journalist, resting…

Happy Father’s Day, Papa Dearest!

Late Entry: 2012 Mission

I realize it is no longer the first of the year, the day that most resolutions for the year are made… But this is a late entry and it is not about resolutions — it is about a mission.

I started the year with the usual:  good food, good wine, and great company.  The one element that I added this year was writing my first entry in my Q&A A Day 5-year Journal.  My friend and I found it during one of our shopping jaunts and we thought it was a great idea to start it together during our New Years Bash.

I’ve always loved to write, but I’ve strayed over the years.  I’ve started many a journal only to find it discarded either from lack of time or motivation and, truth be told, maybe a hint of fear that I might uncover something about myself that I don’t want to acknowledge. So when we found this lovely little journal, I thought it would be a perfect way to get back into writing.

As the title suggests, it asks a question each day of the year for the next 5 years.  One question a day — I can deal with that.  A quick peruse through the journal to see what kind of questions I’d have to answer and I found that they were agreeable.  My friend is a blogger and keeps journals so this is more of the fun variety for her, but it’s more of a “first day back in school” kind of experience for me.  In fact, writing my first entry gave me butterflies in my stomach.

“What is your mission?”  Not such a simple question… But it is a rather appropriate one.  It could be just semantics, but stating your mission is more appropriate than making resolutions for the New Year.  The former implies greater intention than the latter — or maybe the latter just has a bad reputation… Regardless, I did think about this thoroughly and I came up with my 2012 Mission:  To be fearless and To move forward — in other words:  To fight inertia.

Inertia:  the tendency of an object to resist any change in its motion.  How often do we find ourselves in a comfort zone?  Why change when things are in just the right place?  A few years ago, I found myself unexpectedly feeling the need to fight inertia.  I somehow made the decision to leave a job I absolutely loved and was excellent at doing and found myself with a post-graduate clinical degree four years later.  It was a tough 4 years, but I am reaping the rewards now.

So I find myself with the need to fight inertia once more and this time it involves my writing.  Although my Q&A journal only consists of a question per day, it has definitely helped to push me into writing again.  I suppose that starting this blog is just the natural progression of things, albeit a rather huge step.  I don’t know where it will lead and I don’t know how it will go (although I have a general idea) but I think that it will be a rewarding adventure.  Let’s see how it goes…