Do you remember hearing this before a band-aid was pulled off when you were a child? Well I am not so young, but I feel it applies for me today. I have wanted to write a blog for some time. My first excuse was that I did not know how to set one up. My wonderful friend from Society Children Book Writers and Illustrators of the Carolinas (SCBWI Carolinas), Joan Edwards, came over one day and helped me with that roadblock. Thank you, Joan!
However, after she left I kept staring at the blinking cursor seeing nothing but a blank page and hearing only cricket noise. I wanted to write something meaningful, something that would make people want to come back to read week after week. I assumed that meant perfection. So I did what I do best and began to research on how to write your first blog-I have obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) tendencies when it comes to research for my writing, craft ideas, looking for ways to stop procrastinating by doing too much research, etc. You don’t even want to know how long I searched for the band-aid image!
Finally, I decided it is best to just go and write it. And like ripping off the band-aid, I will rip off my defenses and open myself up to the readers.
I chose Creating Through the Pain, as my blog’s name because it describes the last 13 years of my life. I had a teeny little blood clot that morphed into Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD), a chronic neurological pain disease that started in my left leg and has spread now to the right foot and both hands. As a result, I had to switch from my corporate to my more creative side. Eventually this led to my family making a geographical move we never thought we would. Please understand that not every unexpected event led me happily to a change. Actually most of them had me kicking and screaming because there was pain (physical and emotionally) and no immediate payoff was in sight for quite a while. I had no way to prepare or research the options on which path would be better—did I mention I was OCD about research? However, I can look back on the last 13 years and though it is not the path I ever thought I would take, I am happy where I am at this moment-that could change tomorrow or even the next hour but for now it is good.
All of our circumstances are not the same, but hopefully you and I can share how we each nurture our creative side and push through life’s unexpected twists and turns along the way. So here I go, 1-2-3 -POST!
I would love to hear from you! Please share your unexpected event that led you down the path to creativity.
Creating Through the Pain 