I am launching a new category today on my blog – Life Happens
In this section, I hope to bring to you stories from my day-to-day life that are sometimes funny, sometimes sad and sometimes inspiring, just like life is.
I figured an apt point to start talking about my life and the various memorable encounters that made me what I am today would be to share with everyone how my writing journey began.
I rediscovered my love for writing thanks to my dearest friend and one of the most creative, intelligent and warm people I have met in my life – Lakshmi.
Each year that passes by of our life brings with it a review of what was and what can be. Each year forms a new milestone in this journey of lifeand brings with it events that shape us, influence us, change us and ultimately make us what we are. Whether it is a triumph or a tragedy, a success or a failure, a new love or a new hate, joy or fear – every life experience makes us grow a little more with every passing year. Physically, mentally, spiritually.
2016 was one such year for me. This was the year I rediscovered a passion that had been waylaid, lying dormant in the embers of a long-forgotten interest. I rediscovered writing.
The last thing I had written before Lakshmi reminded me of how well I used to write in my school days (we know each other since our first day at school all those decades ago!), was a book about my father and his battle with cancer. A book which is close to my heart and waiting for the day I am ready to publish it to a wider audience. A book which I started writing when he was on his deathbed back in 2009. A book that I finished penning when my own mortality challenged me in 2010.
Six years had passed since then, and I had quite forgotten how I felt when I wrote. Until Lakshmi, persistent as she can be, kept pushing me to write for SiyaWoman. I started with an article about my mother, and her absolute refusal to talk on the phone for more than a few minutes. Happy to say my mother read it and makes an effort to talk longer on the phone these days! I then went on to write several articles for SiyaWoman, gaining confidence and experiencing a profound sense of accomplishment with each new article.
In April, I wrote for the SiyaWoman contest and won second place. In September, I started my own blog. In November, I published my first book. From strength to growing strength, as the saying goes.
This journey of rediscovery has come with a whole lot more than just beginning to write again. I learnt so many things as I wrote post after post, story after story.
I rediscovered love and emotions when I realized that my family and friends are my biggest source of inspiration for my writing.
I rediscovered hidden talent when my sister and her daughter began to draw beautiful illustrations to go with the stories on my blog. More recently, I began to dabble in zentangles and I have been drawing the illustrations for my posts since. I highly recommend it as a pastime to de-stress yourself and produce beautiful artworks at the same time.
I rediscovered friendship and unconditional acceptance when I reconnected with school friends, some of whom I hadn’t met for over twenty-five years!
I rediscovered empathy, trust and humility when my friends shared their stories of tragedy and triumph and honoured me with the privilege of writing about them on my blog.
I rediscovered sadness and perspective when I found how powerful written and spoken words can be, that sometimes one sentence can come close to destroying a family.
I rediscovered pain and creativity when I challenged myself to write my first piece of fiction, and my characters literally fought within my head to be heard and written about.
I rediscovered family and fun when we all of us managed to align our dates and go on a trip together for the first time.
I rediscovered the importance of health when I had to face and act on some harsh truths.
Above all, I rediscovered myself with all the encouragement and support I got from my family, friends and many readers around the world.
And with all these rediscoveries, I learnt that life will offer many chances to live and learn. All we can do is grab every learning opportunity that comes our way each passing year, and add another nugget into our knowledge bank, which we can then pass on to the generations to come. Also known as – experience.
Author’s Note – This post originally appeared in SiyaWoman. The content has been slightly changed to re-purpose it as my introductory post to the Life Happens category. Republished with permission from SiyaWoman. Link to original post given below:
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