I'm convinced writing will save us.

That, and a vacation every three months.

Dear Reader,

I’m convinced writing will save us.

Not just me, the writer, but you.

Besides therapy, and sometimes prayer, writing is the thing that frees up all that headspace, brings clarity to calamity, makes room for the cluttered soul to finally, mercifully, breathe.

I do not mean you must be A Writer in order for writing to save you. I mean that the act of writing itself, of taking pen to paper, of fingers to keys, is enough. It it is enough to simply get the words out, even if the words are ugly, or don’t make sense, or are grammatically incorrect. Being A Writer and writing are, thankfully, not mutually exclusive, and we need to begin treating writing as an act as necessary as exercise, sleep, or regularly flossing.

For when we write all those words down, all those words that describe all those thoughts that are roiling about in our heads, the soul relaxes its grip, even momentarily, on the tendrils of anxieties. With those thoughts now living upon the paper, instead of in the knots of our stomachs, the soul settles.

Today’s Prayer

Lord, please help me find the courage to write, even for five minutes. Please free me from the pressures of self-censorship or perfectionism, and allow the thoughts to simply flow. Even if I throw the paper away, even if I delete the document. I want to glimpse what the practice of writing can do for me.

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