Why write?
It’s Mr. Moon’s fault.
My grade one teacher, Mr. Moon, had a practice of encouraging his students to make up little stories. Frequently, students would line up in front of his desk explaining the characters and the plot line they had crafted. As they babbled out some script of a storyline, he would scribe the simple sentences into pre-made paper pages. He would then add stick illustrations, based on the descriptions provided, before stapling the pages into their construction paper cover. The best part? On the back of the ‘books’ he would add a small little copyright symbol and write two words next to it: Moon Press.
It was the best. It was my most favorite thing about grade one. In fact, I think it’s the only thing I remember about grade one. I was so proud to be published by Moon Press.
And then life happened and between grade one and about age 35 I only wrote sporadically. Rarely for pleasure.
But writing was always here waiting for me to return.
I’d like to tell you that once I took the leap into writing and publishing it all became easy, but life seems to be full of endless starts and restarts. Change is a constant experience and it will require us to hang in the balance between the known and unknown more often than we would like.
Finding my way back to writing many years after first being ‘published’ by Moon Press was how I found my way back to myself, and it is how I continue to find my way through all of life’s experiences. It’s how I make sense of things, how I connect to what matters most to me, and how I find the truest version of my lived experience.
And so now I am a writer. Sometimes. When I feel like it.