Why do we write?  To inform, to tell a story, to leave a legacy for the next generation and more to come, and for many other reasons.  I say that writing is therapy for the soul.  The written word in a heartfelt poem is like the tear running down your cheek; it is like the cry, or the laughter, immortalized forever (that’s why you should mind what your write).

Writing provides an outlet for the creative spirit, and for any spirit, to express the deep feelings of the soul, the yearnings and the epiphanies, the dreams or the nightmares, the happiness, the sadness …  The simple action of taking a pen in hand (or any writing instrument) is an act of freedom, of expression – a catalyst.

You may argue that music has the same effect, and it too, soothes the spirit and elevates your soul.  But music without words is introspective.  It is only thru dance and movement that it tells a story – and movement becomes word.  Then it becomes the power of the written word – in a song, in a musical note that you can read.

Writing exercises the mind, and gives free range to the imagination.  Fiction is a good example of this.  Creeds, positive affirmations, all relate to the power of the written word.  It is as old as our existence, in one form or another.  It was the thing that God told Moses to do, when he gave him The Ten Commandments – a base for our society’s rules.

As writers, we hold a powerful instrument in our hands, an instrument to edify or to destroy, to bring growth, or to hinder it, to move readers (or to bore them to death) – an instrument to glorify creation.  By writing we appease ourselves, we choose to enter into a world that is only ours, or to remain in reality.  To write is to refuse to cease to exist – to give wings to your soul, to heal wounds, and restore the heart.