Expression and Discovery

What do you enjoy most about writing?

Writing for me is a way of bringing to form concepts that are bouncing around unnamed in my thoughts. As the words flow, sometimes I am surprised by what I discover and the old/new patterns that are arising unbidden. Other times I am startled to see a cohesion in the bits that are now coming together on “the page.”

Not all thoughts lend themselves easily to expression. That is when some of you poets out there really shine, infusing the beauty and almost unsayable into a richness of meaning. Carefully crafting your words (by you, I mean “poets”), you speak in intentional and nuanced arcs of the grace and love and pain and angst of being human.

Writing is working at coming to grips with the jumble of dancing ideas playing in my unconscious. It is releasing the voice of the as-yet unknown in the air so that it may be heard and seen. On some days, it is an expression of a vulnerable, messy struggle that still festers, hidden from the light. On other days, it may be the coming together of many disparate thoughts into a whole, to be examined and refined.

Words are so limited but words are what we have.

Writing is a challenge, particularly if the writing is intended for audiences beyond the self. How do I communicate this idea in a way that is clear to me and the reader? Words are so limited but words are what we have. How do I find and say/write the words so they express what may seem unsayable? Do the words I am using have the same meaning for you as they do for me?

Take, for instance, the word “God.” I have already made a statement by leading with a capital letter as opposed to lower case. You, the reader, may have positive or negative associations with this word that already arise when I use it. Of which God am I writing? Of which God are you assuming I am writing? All of that already creates a perception in you and I as we read. Depending on how well you may know me, you may assume you know what I mean when I say any given word.

To write for self and others necessarily asks me to recognize that no two people will read what I write in exactly the same way. It is challenging (improbable?) for readers to deeply listen for the communicator’s meaning without first overlaying their own. I find myself constantly “judging” what I read based on what I think I know and my overall perspective. If I am not self-aware enough to realize that is how I am reading, I am either nodding in complete agreement with ideas that resonate and/or getting angry because the writer is “wrong!”

Writing gives expression and clarity and discovery to me as a writer, helping me to grow in self-awareness; also, it allows me to test my ideas in a concrete space. Giving expression to those ideas allows me to see if they make sense to me; if I share my writing, I can discern whether the ideas make sense to others. Until recently, I have mostly written for me in the privacy of my journal (a wonderful practice I must say-journaling). Obviously, now I write here which is a less private space. Time will tell if this particular expression, a blog, is enjoyable.