Writing Keeps Me Alive

“Time and tide wait for no man.”


Geoffrey Chaucer

Make use of time, let not advantage slip.


William Shakespeare

“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”


Benjamin Franklin

Okay.  Time to get to work.  Last month I created a goal to have 150 blogs by my birthday.  This month my goal is to reach 175 by the end of the month.  I’m already behind.  I’ve written only three new blogs since the 1^st of the month.  Once the pressure was off, I relaxed, maybe a little too much.  Now it’s time to get to work.  Since today is the 10^th, I have to write about one blog a day with no breaks.  I don’t like that I created that pressure for myself.   In fact, it frustrates me, but here I am and it’s time to get to work.

It’s hard getting back to work.  How easy it is to fall back into old habits.  On top of that, I’m still not sure what to write.  This is how it goes, isn’t it?  I keep writing, I keep letting my fingers hit the keyboard until something comes up. 

I really love this though.

I love sitting here working, letting the words and ideas come. 

I love the spiritual part of this, being a vessel for something greater than me. 

I love the physical feeling of my fingers moving. 

I love the emotional aspect of it, the love I feel every time I sit down to write. 

I love the mental piece of it, the thinking I have to do. 

I love writing. 

Some might say that the writing block is a curse.  Maybe it is.  But right now I feel very good just doing this.  There are few things that feel better to me.  I feel like this is the best use of my time.

I know that I discovered my purpose last month, while I was actually in it.  I believe my greatest purpose is to write. (http://robertf71.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-revelation-epiphany.html)  This is where I am the calmest, the quietest, the happiest and the most peaceful.  This is where I am truly myself.    The only other places I feel like this is when I am with people I love and when I am helping someone on an emotional level.  These are the easiest places to be.  Most things feel like work…not writing though.  Writing feels free and relaxing and like it’s the place I’m supposed to be.  It is the activity that calms me most. 

I’ve been called an extrovert, (and I am) but I love the introverted nature of sitting here and creating something out of nothing.  I wonder if this is how God felt when He created the world or how He feels whenever He creates a new life.   To me, writing is an amazing privilege.  I get to co-create with God. 

Here’s my perfect life.  I get to live in my little house on the beach and I get to write every morning.  Every morning.  And while I can’t have all those things yet, I can write every morning.   Every morning. 

One of the results of writing these blogs has been the eye-opening realization of what’s really important to me.  I’m learning what my priorities are and how I want to spend my time.  I’m tired of wasting my time.  It’s not even my time anyway.   It never was.  It’s God’s time.  He has just given some of it to me as a gift.  And I don’t know how much He has given me. 

There’s a story in the Bible of a rich man whose land is very fruitful.  He has so much that he doesn’t know what to do with it all.  So he decides that when he wakes up the next morning he will tear down his barns, build bigger ones and live easily.  He plans to keep all his wealth and eat, drink and be merry for the rest of his life.    Unfortunately, that is the rest of his life.  He dies that night after God calls Him a fool. 

God did not call the rich man a fool for being rich.  This is not a socialist parable.  The reason the man was a fool was because he had been blessed with good land, something he had very little control over, a gift, and rather than share his produce or even sell it, he decided to hoard it.  He could have used his blessing to bless others.  That’s what upset God.

This is why I need to write – if I don’t, then my life is over.   Writing keeps me alive.  Oh, I don’t mean that I will suddenly die of a heart attack in the middle of the night.  What I  mean that without being in Purpose, my life has effectively ended, no matter how many years I have left.  That’s why I write – to enhance and preserve my life.

There are other things I need to do and they all have to do with Purpose.  I am here for a reason, maybe a few reasons.  Writing is one of them.  That’s why I do this.  And every time I do, I feel a little happier and a little more alive. 

Now reread everything I’ve written here and replace the activity of writing with your own Purpose.  That is what is keeping you alive.  That’s why you have to Get Started and Keep Going.