Are you living a ‘more than’ life?

 

It catches me off guard at times: I mention in passing I’m a writer and the listener asks, Oh! What do you write? That’s when a marmalade-striped kitty catches my tongue and a brief pause touches my lips. I’m working on a couple projects, I say. The next query follows: What kind… anything published? At this point I don’t know where to begin—no published novel, but yes, several magazine articles—and I start to act almost apologetic for ‘posing’ as a published author. Because while my peers within the writing community celebrate recent successful book launches, as well as sought-after literary awards, I still work toward the goal of writing more than: more than a to-do list or a grocery list, more than a blog or a commercial trade article. Yet, each time I communicate through words, I stack a building block one atop the other. And I’m happy because I can call myself a writer. Because I write.

What makes your life the ‘more than’ kind?

Image courtesy of Stoonn at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

No (wo)man is an island

[Image credit: Evgeni Dinev]

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend’s were.
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
~ John Donne

I need community — the group at church or Yoga, my small office, the friends I handpick or my family — a place I belong.  People who believe in and support me, the ones who provide the strength I draw upon when times are tough and who prove to be my biggest cheerleaders when life is charmed.  The older I become, the more I cannot imagine being alone for an extended period of time.  And I’m glad I don’t have to be.

What does your community look like?