I’ve had a burning desire to be a writer ever since my mother died about 1½ years ago.  But it wasn’t until I voiced that desire in a support group meeting one year ago last week that my desire started to become more of a reality—emotionally on the inside and visibly on the outside.

Since that day, I have received one confirmation after another.  Coincidence?  Some might think so, but I prefer to believe that God is directing me down this road for His bigger purpose.  Here are the highlights of my writing adventures over the last year:

It all started when a friend forwarded me an email about an ongoing memoirs class.  I decided to go—just one time—to check it out and to see if this was really plausible.  I felt very awkward in the class and totally out of my element.  I was the only first-time attender that night.  I struggled to do the in-class exercises.  During one of the exercises, I stopped writing and physically left the room because I thought my writing was so inadequate.  By the end of the class, I was on the fence about coming back and stayed after to talk to the teacher.  That was the best thing I could’ve done for my writing.  She loved what I wrote and encouraged me to stick with it.

A few days after my class, I found out that Pedro, our host son from Spain, who’d been sending me his original piano compositions for the last few months, had been keeping a secret from me.  When I told him I was going to take him into a recording studio as a gift for his 18^th birthday, he confessed that one of my favorite pieces he played in our home the summer before, “Portman”, was actually his composition.   This was a shocking, yet welcome revelation.  The story that I wanted to write already included Pedro and his mother, Rosa, and now his music was becoming intricately involved in the story.

One week after learning about Pedro’s music, I got a request from Steve Arterburn, author and founder of New Life Ministries and Women of Faith, to interview me.  I am an avid supporter of New Life and was asked to be interviewed for their monthly CD that is given to ministry supporters.  This was another pleasant surprise and totally confirmed that God wants to use this story.  The CD was published in August 2011.

Me with Steve Arterburn at a local New Life Ministries event, July 2010.

A few weeks after the interview, my church asked me out of the blue if I would consider writing devotionals based on the sermons.  I had never thought about doing anything like that.  I prayed about it, wrote a few samples and joined the devotional writing team soon after.

While I was writing devotionals, I returned to the writing class so I could work more on my memoir.  I attended the weekly classes, did my assignments and got valuable feedback on my pieces.  In September, I started my blog, “MakingMeBold”, and started attending the monthly Northwest Christian Writers Association meetings.

A few days after my first meeting, I received an email with a request to submit a story about mother/child healing relationships from Cladach Publishing.  I knew when I saw it that it was tailor made for my story.  But life got in the way and I didn’t immediately respond to the request.

What happened next?  Stay tuned to “Writing: My First Year, Part 3” to find out where my writing adventures led me next.

Have you ever had a burning desire to do something different?  Did you follow that dream or bury it deep inside?  I’d love to hear your story about your dreams.