FIRST THINGS FIRST

 1) ESTABLISH A REGULAR WRITING PRACTICE

I used to write. A lot. I mean, I never had a book deal or best-seller-that-was-made-into-a-blockbuster-movie. I never met Oprah or Reese. I never received any prestigious awards for my musings.

But I did have a blog. A journaling practice. And a consistent email letter. I wrote about my life,   my perspective on the world, my hopes for the future, and maybe some jokes thrown in there. Anyway, people liked it. I liked it, too. My writing practice wasn't much, but it was enough.

The most wonderful thing about writing is that you can really discover who you are when you write consistently. Or I could, anyway. Many years ago, I sort of lost myself. I was spending my life running around and jumping through hoops, trying to meet other people's expectations. Then everything I had been working so hard to accomplish fell apart, despite all my effort. And I found myself floundering. I had no idea what I wanted or even who I was anymore. 

So I started to write. 

At first it was just a bunch of steam-of-consciousness babbling that went round and round. It had no clear purpose or point. A brain dump, really, just to get the circular thinking out of my head and onto the page.

As time went on,  I found I could think more clearly, and write more purposefully. And eventually, blogging became a writing playground. It was fun. It was a place to explore and try new things. Also, a place to make friends. 

Best of all, I found a voice again. I found my way back to myself, my goals and dreams and how I wanted my life to unfold. All through writing. 

I'm almost embarrassed at how easily I dropped the practice of writing. Like- "Oh, hey! I'm better now! I don't need to do this anymore."  I don't think it works that way, though. Writing isn't like college where you graduate and move on. I believe it's more like brushing your teeth. If you want to keep your pearly whites, you have to brush consistently; if you want to keep your sense of self, you have to write.

Which leads me back to Thing 1of the 52 Things. (I feel like there's a Cat in the Hat joke in here somewhere that I just can't grasp) Getting back into a consistent writing practice - journaling, blogging, and writing to friends and family - is top of the list for this year. 

I know I'm in here somewhere, I'm gonna write my way back out.