Taking Stock Part IV - Writing

Paris made us feel alive. The beauty, art, history, and constant activity. The girls and I loved to think about who walked before us in many parts of the city. Les rois, royalty, painters, sculptors, famous thinkers, scientists, and of course, famous authors. Yes Hemingway, but many others from different walks of life: Colette, Nancy Mitford, Edith Wharton, James Joyce, Camus, the list is endless, writers coming to Paris to work on their craft with the fortunate ones, succeeding.

I try not to make New Year’s resolutions as I have never been good at keeping them. I made one this year: to write, as much as possible. To take advantage of the time I had in Paris. In February my Travel/Memoir writing class began. This is what I was searching for: my writing life was born. Inspiration was all around me; women from all walks of life, from different countries with amazing stories to tell. Stories of heartache, loss, and survival. Challenges that come into our lives and force us to fight, persevere and build character. Women with feelings and thoughts that needed to be put down on paper, some as catharsis, others to share their deep emotional experiences. Our common bond was that we all wanted to write about these experiences, whether happy, sad or angry. We all wanted to work hard, get our thoughts and emotions down on paper, properly. Do it right and make our writing worthy of our experiences. I came home from my first class aching to get going. I was stirred by these lives and by our instructor, who was energetic, motivating, knowledgeable and passionate. I ached to find a rhythm, to get into a schedule and to get creating. I could sense my groove was somewhere in the room, I only had to reach out and grab it. I just had to get writing.

The key was that in Paris, I had the time. While the girls were in school, I wrote, I went to classes, I read, I discovered and I wrote some more. I got into a groove that I am trying desperately to maintain. Now back in Calgary, I'm working on finalizing some of my Paris essays and hope to soon find a home for them. I can say that my writing goal was surpassed in Paris. What an opportunity I was given. Indeed, this one can definitely be checked off the list. √.