Just had to post this and give it a separate page. Mary, a dear friend and on-going writing student in my home class, read my blog posts about my frustration with the rewrite of the memoir, the fact that right now I’m stuck and avoiding work. She just sent this generous, thoughtful, kind note, which filled my heart to bursting:

Here is my humble suggestion for you – try to stop looking at your struggle and start looking at your successes. Your writing is not the only measure of who you are (in my humble opinion). You have a gift for connecting with people – you empower and inspire, helping people to scour their souls and minds which in turn frees them of demons and angels who lie below the surface. It is so powerful.


Try to work back from your present, instead of forward from your past.
Start with today and then yesterday, last month and last year – then go back to how you got here. Here to self assured, highly engaged mentor, teacher, grandmother, mother and long time friend to so many. You are a traveler, an explorer who came from wandering without goals and purpose, self love or a sense of identity to a driven, self-assured woman who snatches every ounce of what she can in life, each day.


Start with today’s gifts and work backward to the gifts and charms you acquired along the way. Where in your journey did you find the things that make up the Beth of today? Start with ” I am…”


It may do nothing for you but I hope it helps to you to see that your writing flows from many pens beyond your own. You are witness and voice for many who would otherwise be silent. 


YOUR voice may be still for now or it  just may be quiet for the moment. Let it come peacefully; invite it in and listen quietly to its sound, as you do for so many others.