I count the usual suspects when counting my blessings, good health for myself and my family, a warm home to live in, a car that works, good friends, etc. etc. I am trying to remember when my sister-in-law Denise (Hi Denise, my most loyal, and perhaps only, reader) started changing people’s lives including my own. The procession is never ending. It just happened again yesterday. She brought a friend she met at a bookstore to a writing event and I could literally feel the surge of electricity as it left her friend and radiated throughout the audience. It was magical. Allow me to explain. It all started a long time ago in land far away. I think it was Skokie.
When I was growing up I knew my brother was a brilliant writer. I remember reading his homework for the sheer joy of seeing words and sentences perfectly strung together like fine pearls. Perhaps that was another reason I never felt comfortable trying to become a writer. How could I ever live up to being the sister of someone I thought was as great as Dickens or Hemingway. Why did I think I had to be as good? (Please refer to recurring “good enough” theme in other blog entries.) Luckily my brother not only knew how to pick the perfect word, he knew how to pick the perfect spouse, a woman who would bring out the best in our family. She just does that with everyone, brings out the best in them. I jokingly tell her she is a cheerleader, but it is so much more than that. I have seen her work her magic with so many people and I feel lucky to be one of them. You see, I had forgotten I wanted to be a writer. Oh, I always wrote in my journals, but it was more for my own mental health. I had stopped thinking about writing as a possible profession of any kind. I took a class in the late 80’s. It was part of a continuing adult education program at Northwestern downtown. I managed to write rough drafts for three short stories, file them away and quickly stopped writing after that. Probably because someone in the class told me she thought I was one of the best writers in the class. I usually run in the opposite direction of any type of encouragement or compliments.
About 10 years ago my sister-in-law decided she was going to start writing. I do not remember how or exactly when she decided to take up this new hobby. She was talented in so many ways. She can play two instruments, piano and flute, she can cook like a professional chef, she is a magnificent gardener, and no one decorates better than Denise. Yet, she started sending me things to read. Then she told me she ran into someone who told her about a woman who teaches writing out of her home and does free workshops at local bookstores. Denise asked me to join her at a Barnes and Noble bookstore at the Village Crossing in Skokie to go see this woman, Nancy Beckett. All of our lives would begin to change for the better. Denise and I started going to Lakeside Studio to learn from Nancy. And learn we did. For the first time in my life I had found a real “Teacher”. Denise also found a friend and a soul mate. Over the years she and Nancy have encouraged, inspired and motivated each other to new heights. Denise is a published writer having appeared in two major magazines. Nancy wrote and acted in a fabulous one woman show featuring a back up posse of three women characters including one based on Denise. Nancy continues to successfully impart her knowledge at Second City and Columbia and has a new book, Branches featuring the writing prompts she uses in her classes. Of course a blurb by Denise is on the back of the book!
I started this blog because I thought it might help me find a way to make writing more than just a hobby. Perhaps I can turn it into a way of life and a way to make a living. Wouldn’t that be remarkable, if I ever got paid for something I wrote? But my greatest accomplishment is I found a way to accept encouragement, and I have Denise to thank for that.
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