Someone asked me last night why I like to write. I don't have a good answer for that. What I can tell you is that when I read something that I think is beautiful, I sometimes think to myself that I could have written that. I had those thoughts, I know those words. So why not me? Maybe that is naive, but I don't care. Even if no one ever reads what I write I think I will be happy knowing I wrote it down. I actually like to read words that I have written. I enjoy seeing them on a page. I love the way they jump back at me and tell me what I feel.  I love to wonder what those words might make others feel. There is no experience like it.

Of course that is not the whole story behind my desire to write things down today. There is more. I haven't always liked words, at least not the written words. Well, to be honest I didn't like the spoken words either. I have always been quiet. I never liked attention and I never tried to be the center of anything. I was awkward that way. But I think all those years of being that way is what drives me to write today. So many missed opportunities to express myself. So many things I wanted to say, but didn't. I can't go back and say those things now. Those chances are long gone and they will not come again. But I do think there is something to be said for bringing those missed opportunities to light. You may not be able to go back and change things, but you can bring those things forward a bit and, in a way, change how they affect you in the process. No one is going to do it for you.

I am like all of you. I have to make a living. I don't have all the time in the world to sit down and punch keys just for the sake of missed opportunities or because I enjoy it.  So when I do write I try and make it worthwhile. I write about things that made an impression on me. It doesn't matter to me if those things are sad, happy, or scary. It only matters that they moved me in some way. Sometimes they moved me to laugh, other times to cry. I find now that the real test of an experience is, - will it move me to write?

I am not a great writer. I don't know all the rules.  I don't write about great things. No one will ever throw money at me to write something. My words don't move people to change their lives or build statues in my image. But I write anyway. I write hoping that everday I get it more right than I did the day before. I write hoping to feel good about doing it. I write hoping that whoever does take the time to read my words smiles, laughs, and cries with me. 

And if you have read this far then you will fulfill one of my biggest reason for writing. I write so I will never be alone.