Writing is...

"Writing is by nature a dream- a conscious dreamer." -Carson Mccullers. Wikipedia tells me Carson McCullers was an American novelist, short story writer, playwright, and poet. She understood the depth and craft of the writing process. I found her quote in about five minutes on Pinterest, but it stuck out to me for a reason. Writing is perhaps the most creative and artistic device we as humans hold. With words, we are able to paint pictures. We are able to pass on stories- to draw in the minds of others that sit reading halfway across the world 20-something years from now. Writing can surpass both time and space. It can be translated, unraveled, analyzed, and dissected. Within words there's meaning, and take a collection of words and you have a new meaning. Over the weekend I was able to speak to two of my closest friends, Angelina and Anna, and my Mother. I discussed what writing is to them as individuals. It was unanimous that writing is a creative process that flows from our personal perspectives onto the paper with our pen as our tool. My Mother added, "It's a way to carefully construct beauty to our desired liking." For my best friends, writing happens most often in school. For my Mother, typing out information at work is her most used form of writing. However, all three of these woman write in personal journals as well. I pressed them for more about the journals- as this is the most relaxed and natural state of writing for them. This is where the conscious mind runs and we run with it. Writing for personal use, for all three of them and myself, is therapeutic. It happens at a moment of inspiration. Anna said, "Sometimes I will feel so inspired to write that I write for pages and pages, other times I go without writing (in her journal) for weeks." What intrigued me is what differentiates that moment of inspiration? Why do we chose to write at any given moment? My Mother added, "I write when I need to work through thoughts." It is her own skillful therapist that she can visit at will. Overall, we all dislike writing when it is limited and structured- whether it be by work or school. Unanimously it is agreed that writing and composing are both tools we use for self expression. Hearing from these perspectives helps us to recognize that writing, words, and language, are all beautiful tools for creation. It all starts with a thought, and then we can watch those thoughts materialize into reality (as we can literally do it ourselves!) We envision, we create, and then the vision is seen before us. The pen is our paint brush and each person- Michelangelo.