You Are Not Alone

“I feel like I’m not alone,” some of those who wrote me said, and the sentiment changed my life. That’s what’s so wonderful about reading, that poetry and essays make us feel as though we’re connected, as though the thoughts and feelings we believe are singular and sometimes nutty are shared by others, and we are more alike than different.”  ~ Anna Quindlen from “Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake”

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It is exactly this feeling, that you are reaching others, that you are not alone, that we are more alike than different that keeps both Quindlen (who is admittedly a bit more successful than I, being  a Pulitzer prize winner and all) and I writing.

The best writing I have read is something that hits a note with me. Something that resonates. Something that says what I have been thinking. Something that make me part of the world, not apart from it. And that is the kind of writing I strive to do. On a much more limited basis, I have had people tell me that they could identify with the words I have written, that my words made them smile and recognize that they are not alone.

I guess on some level, writing gives me power. Power to communicate what I cannot communicate well out loud. I say often that it gives my lonely voice in the wilderness a place to vocalize.

Bliss is feeling a part of something; something that penetrates the aloneness. What do you think?