I knew I wanted to be a poet the moment my grandfather told me I could make a wish while blowing out burning candles on a cake. “I wish for the power to make wishes come true,” I wished. The idea that fire, breath, words, and cake combined gave me such power transformed the world for me. I wanted that fire, those words, even more than I wanted that cake.
I chose a life of writing. It is a life of faith. I make no distinction between a writing practice and a spiritual one. That wild quantum field resounds with language, and the more I write, the better I can hear it and listen to others.
Writing and prayer, writing and healing, writing and meditation– these all are ways of leaning into emotion and experiencing first hand how they change as we write. They transform through the creative process, drawing on our many experiences to find meaning in our current difficulty or long buried grief.
The blank page or computer screen is an invitation to evolve as well as communicate. It is the candles burning on the cake, waiting for us to transform our reality with words.
Laura Hope-Gill 