I was stuck, like a block of cement, the compounding weight sat on my head clogging my creative brain waves. Trapped in the corner of a dark room I walked around waving my hand as if I were flagging a taxi in attempts to find the cord hanging from the ceiling to pull down and click the light back on. My light got switched off and frustration set in as I went soul searching in attempts to find what turned if off.

My desire has been to share my story and personal journey through words on the blog, yet I retracted like rabbit back into my den. I went into hiding, back into my comfort. Life was so jumbled within me that I when I would sit down in the silence to write, it became so overwhelming I quit. When the perfect words didn’t flow from my heart eloquently I quit. I strived for perfection–if I couldn’t find the perfect words I quit.
I gave up and decided to become a reader rather than a writer.

Late into the evening I picked up Bird by Bird by Anne Lamont and found myself staring into the mirror as her words reflected back at me. The pages in the chapter called Perfectionism painted my struggle poignantly, “ Perfectionism will ruin your writing, blocking inventiveness and playfulness and life force.”

Yes. Perfectionism was my block. Perfectionism turned my lights off and left me alone in the dark room confused. Perfectionism stole my joy and robbed my story.

I had to go back to the why–and I asked, Katie, why write.

I don’t write for perfectionism.
I write because I believe words are powerful–one line at a time-they weave together a connection that helps us find hope.
I write for the one heart that may find encouragement through my pain, my tears, my joy, my sorrow.
I write because we all have a story that is a part of the greater story.
I write because words document a moment in time that have altered who we are.
I write because in the very beginning, God spoke creation into existence.
God used words to create.

Writing is a connection to the God of the universe.
Words are what created you and me.
We were formed by the words of our Creator.
As a skillful painter, God used his words to paint the skies with rich colors and creatures. Filling the air with His word he created this world.
And in this world we find our connection to God through creating–creating with words. We are made in the image of God, God spoke, “‘let us make man in our likeness’… and so God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created.”

I write because I an image-bearer of God.