One’s original call often contains clues for the way you are to go when you have lost your way.
I started writing oh many, many years ago. I was praying about what my next move should be, and was setting my sights entirely too low.
I heard God say, “Apply to Oxford University.” I was living in Madras, India.
I asked, “And how will I get the money to go there?”
And I heard a reply, “You’ve got your pen, haven’t you?”
And I started writing poetry in an ecstatic rush. 8 poems I remember. I probably don’t have them any more, and probably wouldn’t be proud of them if I did.
A little later, I entered a national creative writing competition, and won the first prize.
So I started writing as a gift from God.
And then tried to do it with my own strength for many years. Focusing on prizes, praise, money, recognition…
And it never went the way I hoped it would.
I took a break from writing for nearly 4 years to establish a family business, a publishing company.
And had the greatest difficulty in returning to writing. Writer’s block, or maybe a plenitude of distractions.
I was able to return to writing through a renewed surrender of my life to God, a request for living waters to flow through me, and repenting and letting go of unforgiveness, and of sin revealed to me.
I was able to write again as easily as I did at first, and with the same joy.
Writing for the joy of it, not worrying about what editors or publishers or critics thought.
And that revitalises me when I get tired and writing palls. I remember how I will get recharged: By returning my writing to its giver, to write with his strength, not mine.
To be a conduit for the living waters of the spirit of God.
Read my new memoir: Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India (US) or UK.
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My book of essays: Wandering Between Two Worlds (US) or UK