It Only Takes One

It only takes one

It only takes one.

If you write, then you are well aware that once we reach the final proof, the final edit, there comes that sense: it is done.

Sure we know that we could continue perfecting the article, the post, the chapter or the book almost ad infinitum but then we’d never get to the next work that lurks in our hearts and in our souls.

So we send it out there, to fend for itself, to find other minds, hearts and souls that may be ennobled, challenged, consoled or persuaded by our words.

Most of the time though, we hear nothing, not even an echo from cyberspace.

Writing is uniquely solitary. Something insinuates itself in us: an idea, an experience, an observation or maybe a character and that thing takes residence until we breathe life into it through our words.

We attempt to re-create the thing and in so doing we can feel Something else taking shape. With the power of our words, we do our very best to make it real and adorn it with Truth. In this work, we are alone; editors, friends and other readers can make suggestions, recognize the need for technical corrections but the essence of the message is ours alone.

Perhaps you have learned along the way, as I have, that you do this work for yourself, the work, the re-writes, the walking away and the coming back until you can say, “yes, it is done.” In the beginning, perhaps you thought you did it for the recognition, for the “applause” but then, little by little, you learn that, no, you write because you must.

Perhaps you have learned that many, perhaps most, will not read it, or if they do, they will misunderstand or misrepresent what you have written, what you have created.

But then suddenly someone shows up, out of nowhere, from across the globe, a distant land to say “Amen”, “Yes, I  understand” or even “Thank You.”

It is enough, it only takes one.