This may seem surprising as I sit here at my keyboard typing this, but most people don’t know that I write. To be fair I didn’t really start writing this blog until about 5 years ago, and I really didn’t tell a whole lot of people when I started. It was never my intention to have a huge following so I only told a few close friends and co-workers who I thought might be mildly interested. They were kind enough to humor me and read some of my postings. They gave me some positive feedback and I enjoyed doing it so I continued.

Nobody in my extended family knew about my writing until only recently. It’s funny, those closest to you always think they know you best but yet that’s based upon how they view you from years ago. I’ve always been interested in writing but I never really felt I had the time to do it. I only started it because my son had reached an age where he no longer wanted to spend as much time with me on the weekends. He had reached an age where he was growing more independent and hanging out with his friends and being involved in school activities. So writing gave me an outlet, an outlet to be creative, to observe the world around me, to find humor in odd situations and put my own thoughts to them.

Some of my earliest writings were just observational humor…..I’ve written an inordinate amount of postings about grocery shopping….it’s my belief that the grocery store and the Department of Motor Vehicles are the two places where you see everybody in society, everybody you normally never see in your daily travels eventually ends up at the grocery store or the DMV. Which make them the perfect setting for finding odd situations, odd people and wonderful stories.

I also wrote an entire blog post about my love of Nutella and some interesting facts that I discovered about it. When I first started writing I made it a goal to write something once a month and for the most part I did for the first couple of years. Then I hit a dry spell where I hardly wrote at all and my wife questioned why I had a blog and why I paid for my site if I never actually wrote. And to be truthful I still don’t write as much as I would like. I still have a day job that leaves me too little time and I do kinda like to have a quiet area and be in just the right mood, but lately I’ve been paying attention to the daily writing prompts and I find it helps me to think creatively. At least now I’m writing about once a week.

Instead of writing just observational humorous type stories I started dabbling in some non-fiction. I wrote a Christmas story last year and the few people who read it seemed to enjoy it. Also I wrote a story about my father and the wonderful coincidence that happened to our family after he passed away and the story was published in a faith based book. Not only did my family discover that I write but it gave me more confidence to expose my writing to others. Now I actually want more people to read my blog and my stories. Maybe I’ve been bitten by the publishing bug but I want to try to get more stories published or at least try to publish them myself.

I’ve had a few friends tell me that I have a gift….I think they’re being overly kind but I also realize that not everyone writes, in fact it seems very few people write. I’ve always found it to be comforting. In school I was terrified of giving speeches or even book reports in front of my classmates and even today I don’t do well in front of large groups, perhaps that’s why I drive a truck around. Some of my best writing happens when I’m alone in my truck and my brain is just being creative and open. I often think I should turn on the voice notes on my phone and just let it all tumble out and listen to it later and try to make a story out of it. I think the key to writing is being open and honest…..something that is difficult for a lot of people in today’s society where it’s much easier to create a persona on social media and gain likes and followers based on a false image.

I believe that my writing shows that I’m not afraid to reveal vulnerability and weakness and I think people connect with my authentic nature and that’s part of the reason why they tell me I have a gift…..also they like my stories about grocery shopping.

Hit the like button and subscribe ….I really do want to reach more people with my writing

Peace and Love