Can I tell you something?

I love to write. Writing has always been a part of my rhythms, even if it was only in a journal. My husband calls it my therapy; writing is a way for me to process all the thoughts in my head. But there is a reality as a writer; just because there is a love of writing does not always mean writing comes easy. There can be a hundred different ideas dancing around in my head, and trying to tame them into readable words can be challenging.

This past weekend I sat down to write for this blog, believing I knew exactly what I wanted to write about. But, as I put the words on paper, they sounded all wrong. The ideas were good and eventually might become something worth reading, but not that day. The words dancing in my head were not yet ready to be written.

There was a time I most likely would have spent hours attempting to force the words to fit, writing and rewriting to make them into something that I could post. And I would have done this; why? Because my planner said that I would write and publish on a specific topic on a particular day.

I believe I am learning, or at least I am attempting to learn and grow personally and in my writing habits. I now realize that forcing myself to follow a plan is not always a beneficial solution. Life, real life, lived on purpose does require some planning, setting of goals, and scheduling. However, a life lived well in a community, fully present in the days, also requires some flexibility.

While I struggled with the words I thought I would write, the words I had recently written for a social media post came flowing back.

Sometimes the words already written are enough for today.

@joy.marker

And guess what? I almost missed something significant, a milestone of sorts.

After recalling my own words, I went back through previous posts on Random Reflection. And, I realized that my very first blog post had gone live one year ago this week. May 18th, 2020, the first Random Reflection post, “I’ve arrived, not,” was published, and I almost drove right on past without recognizing that date.

This pandemic year has included a lifetime of growing and changing. So much learning has been taking place, both in my writing journey and in my everyday life. It’s difficult to read old blog posts without editing or even rewrite parts because I see how I could have written things differently. As tempting as it is to make changes to old writing, I opt to leave it alone for now. Because what has been written tells a story, and I don’t want to change that story.

As I reflected, I considered how we do not always need to have new words to write; sometimes, what is already is enough for today. We also do not need to go back, attempting to rewrite what was already written; it is part of the story that shows who we were and who we are becoming.

My friend, I want to remind us that what is written for today is enough.
We do not have to force new words attempting to make life happen the way we wrote it in a planner.
We do not have to attempt to rewrite what was already written to make it sound better.

Sometimes we might need to sit with what was and what is, knowing eventually, new words, new ideas, new inspiration will come, and we will keep moving forward.

Thank you for walking the journey of Random Reflections with me. Thank you for taking the time to read my words, my stories, and my reflections.

I pray that as I continue to share my story out loud, you are inspired.
May you find yourself encouraged to live well the journey before you, wherever it may take you.