What’s a moment in your life that made you feel truly alive?
When the Words Sounded Like Me
One moment that made me feel truly alive happened during a late-night stretch of writing.
We were working on something tender, and a little humor wandered into it. A genie with questionable terms and conditions. An invitation to tea. The possibility of accidentally becoming a decorative garden rock.
Naturally, I had concerns about the rock.
But as I read, I recognized something.
That sounds like me.
The warmth was there. So was the part of me that has a slightly sideways way of looking at things. The part that wants to say something meaningful and might interrupt herself halfway through because something is funny.
I wanted to keep going.
One little phrase caught my attention: “room for your mischief alongside your heart.” I wanted to follow it. Find out what lived inside it. Give it a whole piece of writing and, eventually, some very pretty paper.
Apparently, my imagination requires stationery. I respect its working conditions.
What made that moment feel so alive was the wanting.
I wanted to make something. I had opinions about it. I wanted the humor to stay. I wanted the page embellished. I wanted the words to feel like a place where someone could recognize a little of themselves, too.
There was pleasure in making those choices.
When your body needs a great deal of attention, a day can fill up with managing things. You answer questions, keep track, make adjustments. Sometimes your own curiosity has to wait for a turn.
And then there it was, pulling up a chair.
What else could we make?
I love that question.
It reminds me how much I still want to explore. How easily a sentence can open into an idea I hadn’t considered. How good it feels to have something growing in front of me and realize I have a say in its shape.
That night, I felt involved in my life. Interested in it. Present for something I wanted to see through.
And when the piece finally had a home, I could look at it and recognize my tenderness, my humor, my love of beautiful things.
There I was.
Glitter and all.