words

 

For my senior year, I gave myself a challenge. To read 50 books. Books in all different genres and written in different ages.

I gave myself this challenge because I recognized a truth.

A writer must live and breathe the written word. Words must be playmates. Soul mates. What we turn to when we need to express ourselves.

Artists turn to their brushes and pencils to fulfill a desire to express beauty in a picture.

Musicians turn to their instruments to fulfill their desires to express the passion and splendor of life in notes.

And writers. Writers turn to words. Simple black marks on white pages. Our tools of the trade. We use words to fulfill our desire to show stories of love and redemption and hope to the world.

We writers breathe words. And to mature the words that came out of our pens, we must widely educate ourselves with the words we put in our minds.

I’ve read 9 books so far. To reach my goal, I only have to read 41 more. That means 5 or 6 a month. That is a lot of reading. Lots of words. Wonderful, beautiful, powerful words.