How has writing positively influenced my life?
Hmmm.
This is the million dollar question, and I sat with it for a long time, unable to put my feelings into words. Not a good sign.
I figured, when I came across a writing contest, on a writing resource site known as Positive Writer, that I could easily write a blog post about:
How Writing Has Positively Influenced My Life,
with little to know trouble.
Well, here it is (deadline approaching fast) and I still had not written a thing.
I always did respond well to last minute pressure – so here goes.
Quick answer is I don’t know. How do you explain those things that have the greatest influence on your life? How do you explain the things you love? You just do.
Then I thought harder, dug deeper, and realized something: this is writing we’re talking about, so I’d better try anyway.
Where would I be without it? How would I have coped with everything, all the crap life can bring? Conversely, how would I have fully expressed my gratitude for the beautiful things in my life, the amazing stuff I must never take for granted?
Without writing I would not be the woman I am today, that’s for sure. I would have become lost in the darkness that my vision loss can sometimes produce.
Writing came along, not from a very early age, but at just the right moment in my life. It came on slowly, but it grew, as a way for me to perfectly express all that I had locked up inside.
An outlet, of course, but a gift I have been given: the gift of the written word.
As I remember the shape of the letters on the page, back when I could still write by hand, I am all the more thankful for technology and the computers, keyboards, and typing skills I learned. Home row is my favourite place to be, to place or rest my fingers, as I speedily move them over the letters of the alphabet.
Writing has been nothing but a positive way for me to make sense of my world, as I say on my blog. My blog and writing are my world. They are everything positive I have found.
All the images I still recollect, after my remaining vision began to fade, they are still spinning around in my head. Sometimes I can’t make them stop. Writing has given me a way to release some of that, so it does not overwhelm me completely.
It’s the art on the canvas and the music to my ears. Writing makes life tolerable and bearable. It has taught me so much and always, it’s there for me. It’s a constant friend by my side, one that is always there to help me out of the funks or the bad days.
I don’t know what I was doing before I was writing, but I know I was meant to find this positive influence, as a way to do good in the world. I am a better person because of the positive effect writing has on me, every single day.
Those three words: writing, positive, and influence – they are all uplifting and valuable. When something has the power to do all that writing has done for me, I am positively certain I will be influenced by writing for a long time to come. If I can take that positive influence and spread it around, even a little, with my writing – well, what more could I ask for?
Her Headache 