“If we knew each other’s secrets what comforts we would find.” – John Churton Collins
Sunday seems like a perfect day to confess.
- I kinda hate blogging. (But I already told you that.)
- I really hate social media.
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Even though blogging is bothersome to me these days and social media feels like the bane of my existence I still secretly want to be a famous influencer.
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Last year I wrote a book and the manuscript is literally collecting dust in my home office.
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I haven’t self-published my book or tried to get a book deal because the manuscript is not the book I want to write. It’s the book I’ve been told I should write.
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Even though I’ve had articles and essays published in anthologies, newspapers, magazines and on websites and I’ve had poems and short stories published in literary journals I still don’t feel like a real writer simply because I haven’t published a book.
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I used to be a poet.
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I sometimes miss being a poet.
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I was diagnosed with lupus more than 10 years ago but have yet to blog about it.
- Lately, I can’t write about my faith because I feel closer to God at a poetry reading or a Beyoncé concert than I do at church.
- I’m fully aware of the fact that, once again, my body image issues are hurting my writing and blogging career but I have no idea what to do about it because I am terrible at taking my own advice.
- I can’t figure out how to be a great writer and a great teacher even though people have been balancing these two professions for centuries.
- Sometimes I feel as if everything I write, everything I teach, and everything I do is meaningless.
- 2018 has kinda sucked.
- Despite all the disappointments I’ve faced this year in both my personal and professional life I am still hopeful that 2019 will be my best year yet.
What do you have to confess?
You’ve inspired me to do confessions too. Hang in there and know that we are out here, appreciating you and admiring you! You are awesome.
Thanks, Carol!
I want to tell you that your body issues are nuts because you are amazing and beautiful inside and out. But I also know that’s not how body issues work. Just know that you are loved and admired from back here in Kentucky. Keep up the good work that you do. I might do a confessions blog, too. I don’t know.
Thank you for those kind words. And you everyone should do a confessions post. They’re very therapeutic!
So many of these confessions resonate with me, but especially #7 and #8. I remember the first time I ever saw you, the first time I ever heard your voice, you were on stage in the hometown of your heart, reading a poem about Birmingham. And yet in all the hours we have spent talking about writing, I bet we have not exchanged 10 words about poetry.
I used to think of myself as a poet. Now I think of myself as writer. That implies prose — in my mind and in print and on-screen. A few poems have come out of me this year, and each has felt like a small miracle. When I am writing poetry, the forms feel natural, as if I am an animated dictionary GIF for the word fluency. And yet when I am thinking of poetry, I experience it as thinking of calculus or origami or how to build a microwave from scratch. As in, how could I possibly do that? How does anybody do that?
Glenny, you are poetry. This comment reads like a poem. Every time we talk about absolutely anything the words flow from your mouth in verse. I think to write poetry, my friend, all you need to do is just write.
“All you need to do is just write.” Could you please say that to me every day for the rest of our lives? And I will say it back to you.
Better yet, I will listen when you say it. I will even DO IT. At least today I will do it.
Yes! We definitely need to just text or say this to each other every day!
How is it that you always know what’s bugging me? Outside of lupus and wanting to become a famous influencer, you really rang all my bells.
Well, part of a blogger’s job is to be inside the head of her readers. 🙂