MY WRITING JOURNEY
I am a newbie in this business of blog writing. I thought long and hard what I should write about. I have no problem writing fiction, creating stories of love, murder and mayhem. So why am I finding it daunting to write a few paragraphs to engage an audience? So I guess I’ll start with my writing journey to give an insight about how I came to be a writer.
Ever since I can remember, that’s going back some forty plus years, I wanted to be a novelist. Unlike most children who day dream of being a famous pop-star, I used to spend countless hours role-playing that I was a famous author and pretend I was signing my books to a long line of eager fans.
Funny how life seldom turns out the way we day dream it in our childhood years. I had shelved the idea of being a writer by my mid-teen years as I developed irrational fears due to a perfectionist personality type. I believed that I wasn’t that good at writing that whatever I wrote -would be embarrassing as the work would not be perfect and people would laugh at it. These ideas, created on baseless grounds, led to the point that I would procrastinate writing assignments at school and later at university. Sad really, since I always managed to secure good marks when I finally forced myself to complete the work.
These irrational beliefs changed for me when I turned thirty-five. Like some catharsis, it happened at the most difficult time of my life, when I had lost my precious father to cancer. After my father passed away I visited a psychic/medium during this period of immense grief. I guess I was searching desperately for some answers or reassurance that I could connect with his soul. After returning to work I entered a New Age shop to browse through some spiritual books during my lunch-break, when I noticed a sign for psychic readings. I immediately booked for an appointment for the next day only giving the sales assistant my first name.
That next day, once more during my lunch break, I rushed to meet this psychic who turned out to be the most amazing and insightful woman I have ever met in my life. From the moment I slid through a heavily-embroidered velvet curtain I stepped into a tiny cubicle where a tall, attractive woman with thick, blonde hair gathered in abundant locks sat behind a small table. She took my hands and introduced herself as Michelle. Without letting go of my hands she asked me to sit opposite her and calmly told me my father was there to tell me he loved me and that he was OK. After my flood of tears and handing me a dozen tissues, she went on to describe his cancer in detail and told me he was fine, had made a lot of new friends and enjoyed listening to classical music with his old friends who are there with him. My father’s passion was classical music as he was an accomplished musician, playing several instruments, including the violin. When she stopped talking about my father (and for the sceptics, I did not say one word during the entire hour Michelle spoke) she asked me a question. “How is the writing going?” she said. I said to her that I’m not a writer. Her response was, “Well you are going to be a published author with many books.” Again I would like to ask a question to you, my reader: did the psychic plant the seed in my mind or was this part of my destiny of which she had a brief glimpse. My father always used to say to me to never stop dreaming and to work hard to achieve my dreams. Thank you dad for your sound advice, I only wish you were here to share this moment with me but I know on that incredible day, you came to tell me to follow my life-long dream.
I would love to hear people’s opinions or if you would like to share your stories of cathartic moments in your lives, that would be great. My next blog will continue about my writing journey.
Nadia Kehoe 