Thinking About…
Living a life that “means something” is a thread that runs through my thoughts most days. Why do I do what I do? Where should I place my energy? How can I use my time towards things that are worthwhile?
The things I can not change. The choices I’ve made. The goals I aspire to. So much to think about!
Woven among those thoughts is the idea of dealing with the life I’ve been given. Maybe these are two sides of the same coin. Being proactive about the choices I make that affect my days. And yet learning to deal with all the things that life hits me with. Things I wouldn’t have chosen, had anyone asked me.
I came across the following commentary by Leroy Sievers, a journalist who chronicled about his life after receiving a cancer diagnosis. Sievers passed away on Friday, August 15, 2008, and though I admit to not having known his name or read his “My Cancer” blog until today, his words spoke something powerfully to me.
(These excerpts are from a commentary, “Funny the Things You Think About,” by Leroy Sievers that aired on NPR’s Morning Edition, February 16, 2006)
“I don’t have any great insight into death, but maybe I’ve learned something about life. It takes courage to get through life. The courage of doctors and nurses who can work magic with their hands. The courage of those keeping a lonely vigil at the beside of a loved one. The courage of the ill fighting with everything they have, not just to cheat death, but to live.
I’m not spending my time thinking why me, though. I don’t have the time. I think about the old saying, “We aren’t given the burdens we deserve, we’re given the burdens we can bear.”
http://www.npr.org/blogs/mycancer/2006/02/commentary_funny_the_things_you_think_about.html
So what does all this have to do with writing? Writing takes courage. It’s about living in the moment. It’s about “doing the next thing.”
Much like the E.L. Doctorow quote about writing a book being “like driving a car at night…,” so is living the life of a writer. I don’t ever really know if what I write will end up between the covers of a book, but I keep writing, keep dreaming, keep moving…
