All quiet on the northeastern front...

Our landlord had some updates to do on our apartment, so we had to "clear out of dodge" for a few days.  Hence, I'm also clearing out of here for a few days, since we're visiting family and hopefully doing some vacation-y mini-family stuff as well (or as best as can be done, with a 1 year old).

In the meantime, though, I'll leave you with another L'Engle quote that I've been pondering today.  But first, a very abbreviated background of *why* I'm thinking about all these quotes about writing, and who we are, and what we are meant for...

Before college, I wanted to write, and did write, often.  I filled journals with thoughts, I wrote poetry and short stories, and I turned to the fictional friends of my right hand - Emily, Anne, Vicky, & Meg - to help me feel my way through the angst of adolescence.  In college, I wrote term papers, and received good grades, along with lots of encouragement from my professors; I also privately wrote my way through some heartbreaks that were pivotal to forming the person I am today.  I went to graduate school for a brief stint, taught English as a T.A., dropped out due to the complete misery of being too far from family, friends, and my boyfriend (now husband), but kept writing.  After college, I finally published a handful of meditations in a magazine and a few poems, but life got in the way - a whirlwind of engagement, marriage, and new baby temporarily ceased the flow of words, and only recently have I started to put pen to paper again.  But I'm trying to listen to that renewed impulse, which is part of what this blog is about.... and so I'm also reading again, all my favorite authors who taught me that story can show the way to truth, and reading some of those authors (like L'Engle's) own thoughts on writing as well.  So for all of you who have that same creative impulse burning inside - perhaps her words will resonate with you today as well.

"My husband is my most ruthless critic. ... Sometimes he will say, 'It's been said better before.' Of course. It's all been said better before. If I thought I had to say it better than anyone else, I'd never start. Better or worse is immaterial. The thing is that it has to be said; by me; ontologically. We each have to say it, to say it in our own way. Not of our own will, but as it comes through us. Good or bad, great or little: that isn't what human creation is about. It is that we have to try; to put it down in pigment, or words, or musical notations, or we die." L'Engle, A Circle of Quiet

Now - back to quiet I go.  But before I do - a big thank you, to my blog friends, for listening to my attempts to work writing back into my daily life :)