Thursday, September 6, 2007

Inspired to keep on writing

Within recent weeks I've read about writers, established writers with websites and newsletters and a few who have written books, lament that although they achieved so much, yet, they have not been published in a newspaper. Somehow, it seems to be a big thing for them - a major accomplishment.

Each time I read this comment from these writers that I admire, my heart skips a beat and my stomach turns. Why? Because I have been fortunate and blessed to have achieved my dream to write for the Trinidad Guardian. Since in the days when people complained that it was cumbersome, I longed to see my name and maybe my picture within its pages on a regular basis.

The opportunity first fell in my lap as a four-month stint in 1999. You may well imagine the thrill. Then, as I have shared before here, when I decided to leave my job, I went on the prowl for a weekly column. And, well, you know, the rest is history - one year old.

I write about this today because I received an email from someone who read my column for the first time last Sunday. He called my article "profound, a masterpiece" - well....

Anyway, after sending off a reply, I opened a newsletter I subscribe to and the editor wrote a lengthy note about all the things she had accomplished in her writing career but still haven't been published in a national newspaper.

There went my heart and my stomach again.

Most times I see myself as being new to the writing world. I know that I downplay my accomplishments and my successes. But it seems that I have only traveled a very distance and I know I have so far to go, so much more that I want to achieve.

Still it is wise and useful to stop awhile and survey the landscape upon which we stand at the moment. If I do that, I'll have to say that I sit in blessed spot right now, today - here at my desk, doing what I love, and one of the places that I'm doing that is in a national newspaper.

Except for my own laziness and tendency for procrastination, there is no room, not even a crevice for complaint in my life.

And in honor of that, I keep digging deeper, working harder and smarter. I keep writing my truth in my words. With gratitude I keep on this path that stretches before me.

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