No short cuts, I guess

I have always wanted to be a writer and fantasized about writing on various subjects – fiction and non-fiction. I always thought that one day, when I had saved up enough to sell my shares in my business, then I would be able to start and write – breaking new ground, changing lives by my words of encouragement and just bringing faith to people at a new level. But it’s a fantasy I guess that I need to grow out of. It never magically happens. Like anything, one has to produce and practice, practice, practice until one day the light goes on, the words hang together a little better than before and the “whole” clicks together. To see that in somebody – when they have become really expert – not just good – is something always to appreciate and wonder at. I read somewhere once that there comes a level when we are jealous of somebody who is better at something than us, but then there are those who do that something so much better than us that jealousy disappears and we merely retire and marvel in awe at their skill and thrill at such proficiency. I feel that way with Henri Nouwen, and H. D. Thoreaux and so many countless others! So if there are any people who ever read this, you are witnessing me at the very beginning of the beginning of somebody who is learning to write. And like any novice, it is seldom very pretty – more often than not, clumsy, but hopefully, like one who is learning to walk, I may endear myself to you long enough that you may still be with me when I am able to walk more confidently and with greater skill and when I may be of more use to you.
"If you can speak what you will never hear, if you can write what you will never read, you have done rare things." Henry David Thoreau