Women Who Write | A Place, A Space, A Voice | Louisville, Kentucky This year, Easter fell in early April. The secular side of Easter is concerned with hunting for eggs and chocolate rabbits and filling baskets with goodies that are hidden from view. Writing can be a lot like embarking on an Easter egg hunt.
You start by knowing that you are eager to go on this hunt . . . you want to write. For some it may be poetry or a blog entry; for others it may be a short story, essay or book. You have anticipated the joy you will experience once you’ve created the final product, but you don’t know how long it’s going to take or where to begin.
You may be heading out to look for your story in familiar territory, or you may be in a place you’ve never been. Your own backyard provides stories from your personal experiences: stories of family, friends and school years, first loves and broken hearts. Some of these are beautiful and you are happy to gaze upon them for hours, recalling your joy and happiness. Others are not so attractive—you may have even avoided them for years—you might be wondering if you should pick these up and put them in your basket at all. But then you decide, yes, why not take both the good and the bad?
Maybe you’ve been invited to hunt for eggs in a place you’ve never seen, and it feels like an adventure. You don’t know where you’re going, but it is exciting and you are meeting new people and experiencing so many new things. Even better, because those whom you know best aren’t with you on this hunt, you vow to tell them all about it later.
Writing is like the egg hunt; it is both a journey and adventure. You have to be willing to go there and fill your basket with everything that you find: familiar and strange, wonderful and broken. And you share with those around you and everyone has a better day because of you.
Keep writing.
—Jessica Luetzow