Thank you, Kristine, for this opportunity to share following our podcast chat.
When Kristine asked, I said sure. I’m not one to turn down an opportunity. However, mere moments after agreeing to write a post I immediately thought, “whatever will I write!” and thus the panic set in. Panic is not a friend to authors and writers, but emotion is!
Emotion allows the author to pull you in, but writing isn’t just about evoking a feeling, sometimes it’s about escaping one too. It takes time to sit inside that emotion and write it, causing deadlines to sneak up on us if we’re not careful.
Entering the third week of October, I suddenly remembered I was supposed to get the blog post to Kristine! I thought I’d missed the deadline. Too busy wrapped up in my emotions, my mind off on a walk-about and me sitting in the dust wondering what just happened. Somehow, I lost a week. It’s not unlike staring at a blank screen or sheet of paper for hours.
Kristine’s guidelines to me were, bookish and authory. Which makes me bouncy! I get to write about three things I love!! Books, Authoriness and Momma! If you listened to the podcast you know that in 2018, I released my first book; The Possum Palace and Other Redneck Tales. This book was written for the most important woman in my world, my Momma.
She’s more than just my Momma though. She is my very first best friend, one whom I would be forever lost without. We are so close that sometimes she is as irritating as my sisters can be! Especially, those mornings when she blasts through the door singing Red Red Wine!
She knows all my secrets, all my shortcomings, and all my strengths. The scary truth is, I also know most of hers and sometimes y’all, I have to remind her that she’s my Momma! Cause, I just don’t need to know some things! What I do know is the love in this uniquely quirky relationship runs deep and wide. Deep and wide.
Anyway, I’ve been thinking a lot about that family of Possums I wrote about. The ones that lived under the trailer we once lived in. Those things sure scared the dickens outta Momma and we had a lot of laughs because of them. Watching her squeal, run, jump or slam doors to get away from them won the Entertainer of the Year award, let me tell you!
I imagine those creepy little critters were pretty scared though. That poor Momma Possum was just trying to protect her babies and keep them warm, like any Momma worth her salt would do. But what on earth were they doing in town of all places!
One thing I’ve learned is, there comes a time in every Momma’s life when her babies need to step up. Grab a towel in one hand and an empty laundry basket in the other and catch that creepy critter! Then put it back out to pasture, so Momma can come on down outta the sink and breathe again.
Life is like that. Full of gaps that allow all kinds of Possums the chance to climb into your home and stir up a heap a trouble. My Momma is having a season kinda like that right now and y’all, I’m some kind of worried about her. She’s far too precious to me. I wish you could read my heart and maybe you’d understand the depths of all I feel.
She is my greatest inspiration and all I can do is pray that something I write during this troubled season will bring her comfort. To me that’s what writing is all about, gifting the reader your time and love. Letting it fill in all the nooks and crannies around every gap and if only for a moment, kiss the hurt away.
Words have power.
Stories have power.
The power of escaping and the power of healing.
Use them wisely. Stand in the gaps and let all that you feel pour through every word you write with the strength and fierceness of a Mother’s love. Because that is the greatest gift of all; Love.
Listen to Renea Westlyn's podcast episode here.
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