I have been intrigued by the power of words for a long time. The story is that as a toddler I did not talk much, but one day a fascination with a light switch in my Aunt Darlene’s living room introduced me to a whole new world. I discovered that words had power. “Light?” Light switch off. “Light.” Light switch on. “Light.” Light switch off. “Light.” Light switch on. My Aunt said that prior to that moment I rarely spoke and afterwards, and to her dismay at times, I rarely stopped. Words. There was something about words.
As a young person in elementary school, books gained a special place in my heart. I remember reading in the corner of my room, each page taking me into the lives and worlds of others. Playing with friends outside was wonderful, but just as exciting was the time away with words on a page that showed me though I was in a room alone, I was not alone at all. Words kept me company. Spoken words. Read words. Written words, including my own.
In remembered rapture: the writer at work, author bell hooks writes, “…there are writers who write because we need to make sense of the world we live in; in writing is a way to clarify, to interpret, to reinvent…We do not write because we must; we always have choice. We write because language is the way we keep a hold on life.” I also write to make sense of my world, not only the one in which I live, but of the one that lives in me. I write to become. I write, and often struggle to write, to be the woman, the preacher, the daughter, sister, friend, the thinker, the artist, the writer I have seen in glimpses here and there. I write because in some ways I know not much else to do. I write so that I can agree with God, and with who I sense God has made me to be even when I am the one who is most puzzled by journey and the context in which I must travel. I write to become.
My hope is that as you read and reflect and comment on the writings of this blog that you would find in it nuggets, small treasures that will aid you on your own journey to become a more whole, healthy, and fully lived you. I pray that in my becoming here in the open, that you would find yourself becoming too!
Becoming... 