500 Words – Writing Today

I have been struggling with this writing thing.  Writing 500 words a day isn’t working really well.  I feel the desire to write, but then I also have a desire to work on my art.  The balancing of the two during the week when I am working full time is not happening.  So I will do what I can when I can and not worry about it.  I use much more ink in my drawings than I do writing, so I wonder if a scratch of ink on paper could be considered words.  After all I am creating a story in the pictures.

If a picture could be translated into words what would it say?  Would it tell about the prayers that were said for the person the picture was created for?  Would it repeat back the words that were floating in the back ground as the ink was laid down? Would it record the tragedies of the news or the happiness of the song that was just played?  Would it record the thoughts that can’t be organized into words?

As I draw the art that I make, if it is a request by a person for something special, I am always thinking about and praying for that person.  I visualize the colors they like, I imagine their faces as they find the hidden things that are in the pictures.  Each of my pictures contains a heart.  The heart represents the prayers for that particular person.

The pictures I am drawing now are for a children’s book.  They all contain a heart.  But these hearts are different. They represent all the children that will be reading the book in the future.  People I will never meet.  Prayers for them that they will never know have been spoken.  It is like a little secret part of me will be held in hands that will never know that they were thought of in that way.  I am in awe just thinking about it.

The physical act of writing isn’t that difficult, you just sit down in the chair, scoot up to the screen, put your hands on the keyboard and start tapping away. It isn’t the physical that is putting up barriers, it is the mental.  The thought of pursuing one more creative challenge when the energy just isn’t there, is daunting.  I have stopped several times during the typing of these words just to collect my thoughts.  To try to organize them.  To find the right word when there are so many floating around in my brain.

Take the word daunting, it could have been depressing, confusing, draining, discouraging, and there are so many more.  But I chose daunting because the antonym – the opposite of daunting is encourage.  Take courage in your journey.  Take courage in the words you write.  Let the words you find floating in your mind encourage you to put them to paper.  The words while they may come from you were never truly meant for you.  They were meant for the person reading them.  The one that you will touch unbeknownst to you.  The one person out there that really needs to read them won’t get the chance if you don’t put them on paper.

So, I have come to a decision in my writing.  I am going to do what I can when I can and not feel guilty when I would rather pick up and pen and scratch some ink into a picture.  Those pictures are telling a story too.  They are just as important as the letters that make up this post.  Just so you can see why I am torn between the two I am going to add a picture here.

This picture was drawn as a house warming gift for people my husband knew.  To me they were complete strangers, but because it was important to my husband, it was important to me. It turned out to be one of my favorites and if you look in the middle of the pot you will see the heart, made in layers to cover the new move, the changes taking place in the home and the happiness that would be felt by the people that were moving into their new home.

How many words would you count in that picture? More than 500?  Less than 500? Just kidding, there have to be close to 5000 words there. Have a great writing week.