I didn’t write a book…I just put what I wrote in a book...

"I didn’t write a book…I just put what I wrote in a book"

As I flipped through my journal this morning…

I saw this quote that I wrote at the top of one of the  pages

It was significant on this day, as it made me stop…reread…and think about it

And the fact that it had a box drawn around it…

Says to me that it was significant at the moment in time that it was written

It was a reminder for me of how my process of a writer began…

I didn’t sit down with the intent to write a book and didn’t have a reason for writing…

I just did…it brought me comfort…gave me peace and ultimately turned into purpose

I have journals filled with poetic expressions and other writings

And simply extracted some of those writings into published works…book after book

Publishing isn’t something that I desired to do…but was an assignment that I did not want to do

My experience is that when there is something that God puts in your heart to do…

He doesn’t leave you alone until you get it done…peace comes on the other side of getting it done

I can remember my mom writing and receiving letters to and from relatives who lived in and outside of the country

I still have some of those letters filled with family history…as they gave updates on each other and other family members

Writing was an important means of communication and it documented some of our history that we still have access to…decades later

I was young when my maternal grandmother transitioned to the other side of Glory…

So I don’t remember much about her…but because she wrote a book and wrote letters to a cousin in California

I feel like I know her…what she thought about life and how she moved through it…not narrated by another…but in her own words

There is no question that my grandmother wrote from her heart…as you feel a range of emotions grip you from the pages that she penned…you can feel her heart

My children didn’t get a chance to meet my grandmother…but they are getting to know her heart…through her book, “There is Something Within”

I and anyone who knew my Aunt Juliette…was blessed…some of her grands were able to know her before she transitioned to the other side of Glory

But as they grow…the pages that their grand and great-grandmother, a psychiatric nurse…

Penned throughout the pages of “Faith Through Psychiatry” will remind them of who she is and what was in her heart

What have you written…that no matter what is happening in the world and in the lives of those you love…

Who may or may not be born yet…but will always know you…through words written by you…narrated by you…from your heart

Others can tell our story…some will get it right and others…not so much…intentionally or unintentionally

We don’t just tell our stories through penning, but through the lives we live

But when we document our own stories and what’s in our own hearts…

There it is…our stories…told in a way that lives forever…from pages to hearts…and hearts to hearts

The way I see it…we have a choice…we can let someone else write our story or paint our picture…leaving it up to interpretation

Or we can write our own story…paint our own picture…so that it is what it really is