What I've Learned After Writing 1 Million Words Over 30 Years

Cross-posted from my LinkedIn page...

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I've written 1 million words over 30 years. At least, I think I have. It's hard to say. Who's going to count every word in 11 journals across 1,100 pages? Let's call it 900,000 to 1.1 million. This is not about numbers but about reflection.

My first entry was February 4, 1985. The first sentence was: "How shall I describe madness." I've been describing it ever since.

What have I learned after writing 1 million words over 30 years?

I've learned there's always more to write. There's always more to say. And there never seems to be enough time or space.

I've learned that I love language. I love the play and roll of syllables and words and phrases and sentences in my head. I love writing. I learned I could not give up what I am for any person, not even myself.

I've learned you cannot run away from yourself. You can move to another city, another state, another country, but you'll always have who you are. I've learned to try to live with that. I'm still learning to live with that.

I've learned that writing is solitary, not lonely. The release it provides for me gives life. It is life, to me. It is a way of describing and deciphering and discovering and recording and exhuming and enjoying.

I've learned there's any number of ways to write something, to communicate something.

I've learned the importance of words. The supremacy of words. In the beginning was the word. Not: In the beginning was the painting. Or: In the beginning was the song. No. In the beginning was the word. For a reason. I've learned we get glimpses if we're paying attention. We have to be listening. Listening. There is a craft to life. Let no one tell you otherwise. There is a grace and a craft to be learned through life, through living. Share it. Share what you love. This is how we grow. This is how we ought to live.

I've learned there's no end to this, as long as we have this world, this fragile, crazy, mountainous world. It's meant to be lovingly explored. Each day I wake up with hope for what I can live. What I can write. What I can explore. Each night I go to bed tired, not afraid of the dark or what my dreams may bring, but a little sorry that the day has ended, that there's no more left to it.

It is the cycle. And it goes on.

I've learned there's another day. There's more to write. There's more to live.

I've learned to write to the end of spaces. So that where there's blank pages I can fill them in. I can live and record. There's always forward. I've learned there's always forward. There it's blank. Backwards it's filled in. I don't look backwards much. Some. Not much. It's the next word, the next line, that gets me going.

I've learned a lifetime.

I'm still learning.

I'll be learning 1 million more words from now.

Hope to see you there.