I was just asked by my awesome new friend SARK to write about why I write. Now mind you, I write every day. For hours. Writing is what I do. I've written three books, countless magazine articles, and over 350 blog posts, in addition to the private journal writing nobody sees. Writing comes totally naturally to me. And yet, faced with this task, I found myself paralyzed. How do you write about writing? I mean I'm a big fan of Anne Lamott's Bird By Bird. And she does it so brilliantly! But I struggled. Then I muddled through. This is what came out.

From the time I was six, when a family friend gave me a leather-bound blank book and invited me to write in it, I have been a writer. I was offered my first publishing deal when I was 11 (I turned it down -- they were my private stories, after all. Sheesh!).

Grounding

Spiritualism

I know to an extent, I've shared my beliefs about God here on Owning Pink. If you've missed those posts from me in the past, let me just warn you I'm about to bust out the "spiritualism." People from every religion speak about TRUTH. When it comes down to it though, in order for it to be true, don't we all have to believe it (or at least feel that it could be true)? What I am going to discuss in this post is something I think can be found somewhere in the writings of every religious organization. Not everyone will chose to embrace it, but I'd bet if they were open to it, they'd find confirmation of it very easily...

I'm Only Human!

We all want a special place

As infants and toddlers we begin to learn the ways in which we can get recognized. In some cases it’s cooing and smiling, in other cases it’s crying and screaming. We watch the reactions of those around us and we act accordingly so we can have our own valued role in this exclusive group known as family.

How many times have you filled out the form at the doctor’s office and lied? Everyone raise their hands (Bueller? Bueller?). Yeah, me too. And I’m a doctor.  Why do we do this? Hey, there are some very personal questions on these forms!  And you want your doctor to like you and not judge you.  You may be engaging in behaviors you know are risky to your health but don’t want to face. You may have secrets you’ve never told anybody before and don’t feel like sharing now.  You may be too embarrassed to mention something.  You may be afraid your partner or your boss or your mother or your insurance company will find out something about you you’d rather they not know.  I hear you.