Letting go

I remember sitting at my desk years ago, alone in my college dorm room, staring at the typewriter’s unmoving keys beneath my fingers and the blank paper in front of me.

I kept wondering where the words were hiding.

I didn’t understand yet—it took years to understand— how writing works. 

How the words won’t come until I begin typing or writing, moving my hand across the page, pressing my fingers on the keypads.

Words are shy. 

They need to be coaxed out of hiding. 

They need to be teased gently into the light. 

They’ll refuse to reveal themselves until you begin moving your hand. 

Once you make that commitment and draw the first letter of the first word, writing becomes like breathing.

You take a breath, then another breath, and the next letter, the next word, will follow.

Let go of expectations.

Let go of what you think you should write.

Let the words come in whatever way they want to come. 

Remember you can always revise the words after they’ve made their way onto the page. 

Start by moving your hand. 

Allow yourself to believe in the mystery, the not knowing where the words might take you. 

Trust the words to know the path they need to take, and follow the words to wherever the path leads you.

Let yourself be surprised. 

Stand aside. (Hint: Get out of the way.)

And open yourself to whatever gifts your pen brings you.