Why Write?

So, why do you write? You might find the reasons familiar or funny and maybe even rings true.
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I write because I have had good English and Literature mentors who taught me phrases, sentences, paragraphs, structures...and made me realize words do have rules but writing can bend those rules to communicate better. I am not one to grunt about traditional grammar but finding ways to communicate with words might become a problem. Now with more people inclined to prose and indie arts, I see no reason to further my need to explore how to use words  in an unorthodox way indeed. People have open their minds by often reading words that allow them to think they can in the most unusual way.

I write because my thoughts are worth being written and read about. Not because I am wanting attention, but rather it is fun to see how people would react to an alternate universe that my mind is actually capable of. Ideas are gateways to conversations and the sharing of ideas make me fuzzy and all warm inside. And like-minded people are actually so hard to find, even harder than finding that one true love. Because you can love someone most of the time but you cannot think like someone all the time. And talks with a like-minded person is so engaging you can forget your topics just because you are such having a darn time to keep track of the wonderful things you talk about. 

I write because imagination can come alive in words. Award winning writers tend to have good creativity in wielding words to create worlds that can take you places. And yes, imagination set with good writing is a good free ride to anywhere you might like to go. Writing is a good medium to tell a story because words are universal and universal is a prism of perception that most people can connect to - however they understand it. And when you write so good, a fandom usually emerge and you find yourself people who believe in your characters, story and know that what you thought possible can be.

I write because I was born to. Cliche and heard so many times, I can hear your eyes roll. I cannot tell you how I started writing on the get go. But I can only tell you this. i have done mundane and crazy things in my life, mostly out of randomness and inconsistency. But writing is the one thing I cannot live without. I do not know how my parents made me and who the heck in both side of the family writes, but I do. Maybe a predetermined flaw in the genes might have caused this unending itch to put words together and try to make sense. Writing. It is the one thing I can do in whatever state of life I am in.

I write because I am not good in self expression in real life. I tried visual arts when I thought I was a hot mess but I still ended up writing anyhow. Visual arts was one I can express myself partly, but writing can tell me about myself more than any other artistic or creative medium I have tried. Writing is my escape to negative brooding and over thinking. Because writing is sharing expression and if it can help release someone else's emotions and notions, then it becomes a tool for the soul to help touch someone else's life.

I write because there are stories and insights that can help people. People who read some of my public or private works have connected with my writing. And it felt like a service to these people to let them reflect and ponder their own lives with my words. Some writing might be for technical and sometimes boring manuals and such but it helped people understand how things work. More creative writings entertain people too. But touching writing can inspire people to do something in their lives and that is the best reward for any writer to have.

I write lastly, for myself. It might be self serving to say but writing is my own therapy. All this craziness and energy inside me cannot be contained by the drudgery of my daily life. A part of me will always yearn to inspire and become a story. And this is what writing do to me. Keep me aware of my own voice and help me spread that tiny bit of what I might tell someone to the real world. Writing is my own self conversations with the world. And I am crazy enough to know judgement and achievement does not always go together but at least I put it out there. Validation is only a plus to the inner peace writing does for me.

So why do you write?  

The Company You Keep

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When you are left with the least company you usually meet, you get to rediscover who you usually forget.

When you grow older, you get to terms that you must be alone once in a while but you still dread becoming lonely. Friends are like your soul sustenance and keep you feel outside of yourself in the great big world. Their value is understated but you know without them, your world is a bit weary to live on. Your dependence on their existence is so familiar your life would feel a lack in that space they have filled individually. 

The people we are fond of usually have similarities in who we are. They can tell you good and bad things about the world - and yes, even about yourself - but they remain beside you at all times. And somehow, they always find a way to make you laugh and cry almost simultaneously the reasons why they are in your life does not find an answer at all. 

But how about the people you randomly meet? How about the strangers on the bus looking at you without uttering one single word. As human as you are, you know that if you do not give something of a worth, they do not matter at all - at least to you. The perspective you gain from different personalities who you cross paths with can influence you so subtly, you would not notice unless you pay extra attention.

But as the universe has some applicable laws no matter how cosmic, these people who do not matter to you at all has somehow found their way into consciousness. You are connected to them - be it at the same time you see each other on the cafe at lunch breaks or the guy that reads in the newspaper stall before you reach work. You do not know them, but you recognize them and your routine would not be the same without them being a part of it. 

So, do they matter at this point? Even if you haven't shared drinks or exchanged numbers yet or do not even bother to say hello?

You see, they can remind you of that one person you always have by your side but you do not acknowledge - yourself. You have been told to always thinks outside yourself to be able to become humane. But does ignoring your sense of self, makes you more noble?

It is a tricky question to answer. When you say being selfish can be deemed bad, but not knowing yourself is foolish - you are stuck. Your efforts of finding the id and ego work together can be challenging. 

But if you get to spend more time with yourself and feel like you are outside looking in, you can doubt how well you know yourself. They say if you cannot keep your own company bearable, who can you spend your real self time with?

Can you look at your own shadow without wincing at what can stare at you back? Is there something about yourself that you like most or least? Is there something about you that you have not settled with?

Being introspective can help you ground yourself once in a while. You might not like yourself totally, but you can learn to accept what you are and what you are not. 

And by doing that, when you look at people, you can see they are all like you. Just finding out who they are by living the life they know. Getting lost, ignored, bothered by everyday life and neglected philosophies are all but human experience. An attempt to answer the most important question to ask yourself:

"What am I here for?"

Finding A Place for Everything

Credits: Photo edited using Photoscape - Original Photo 

It has been a long two years since I dabbled with a bit of blogging. Since then, excuses have found their way into my oh-so-busy life but strangely, I never found it in my heart not to write in those spare in-between.

And since that two years also, I return here in Blogger willing to take up the commitment to become an avid blogger to create a real blog and yes, practice actual writing and throwing it out to the world to share and maybe get a voice out there for someone to read or hear. Blogger will be my mouthpiece and the one thing that can possibly house my everything. And by everything I mean the swimming ideas that are insistent in my mind unless they get written and published somewhere. So its a working partnership and so far, I think it can be a good one.

When I decided to write since the third grade, I know that I would have to write differently. I know that writing then would be an integral part of my sanity - my own therapy sessions with myself. A dangerous routine, really, especially when I discovered caffeine can be a good companion beating deadlines and juggling life. But some material did go out fine when I am in the writing moods (which I really would love to have more if you ask me) and consoling a long day with black coffee.

And to start 2013 with a better habit, this is one of the many blog posts that can launch a long term goal in my mind - to actually become a blogger and
more so a writer. Some of these posts have been published in my Social Network sites.

Hold your breath and begin again. My old soul knows how writing is a place here it can be cradled and rejuvenated. In between the words and lines and in suspended time when altogether they make sense for different point of views. It is gratifying to find a place of rest to just enjoy being with ideas and embracing potentials. So yeah, here it goes.

Image courtesy of Bitstrips