Scribo, Ergo Sum

Taking a page from René Descartes’ eternal quote of Cogito, ergo sum, my mantra is now Scribo, ergo sum – I write, therefore I am. Let me begin with a photo that I shared the other day:

When I sent this around, I referred to it as simple blessings, but a friend pointed out that there’s nothing simple about this shot because of the journey that brought me to that moment. And she was absolutely right. In fact, you could even say that this photography was 56 years in the making, and what a journey it has been! All the trials and tribulations, stumbling blocks and false starts, people loved and lost along the way, and the uncertainty of it all converging into a single image. Here I am, living the dream, facing the great unknown and armed with hopes and dreams.

One of the paths that has led me to the great here and now is my writing. I have always dreamed of living Beatrix Potter’s life, alone in the hills surrounded by nature and the characters of her books. I may not have conversations with rabbits, ducks, hedgehogs and frogs, but I do have cats and of course my leading men in the books. What else could I possibly want? If you haven’t seen it, I recommend the 2006 movie Miss Potter with Rene Zellweger so you have a better idea of what I am talking about.

I spent 55 years in huge metropolitan cities, constantly surrounded by people, so you would think that the hermit life would drive me bonkers. This lifestyle is not for everyone, that is for sure and you have to really want it otherwise it is easy to fall into a depression up here, especially during cold winter nights. There are times that I don’t speak face-to-face with another human being for four or five days. Sometimes an entire week will go by when the only one I spoke to was the baker who comes up every Saturday morning! This is why phone calls, text messages and video calls mean the world to me!

My writing is at the core of my being, regardless of whether I am processing thoughts through the blog or navigating my way through a manuscript. It is my world and I will not let anyone else tell me otherwise. This blog is as personal as it gets, and those of you who have followed it over the years, know that I have poured my heart and soul onto these pages, sharing tragedy, joy and laughter along way, holding very little back. If you have subscribed to it, then my heartfelt gratitude goes to you. If you receive it via email, I thank you for the effort and the time you take to read it and keep up with my latest adventures or convoluted thoughts. If you receive a link manually from me via chat, it is because you are part of an inner circle that I really need to share the entry with – but I do encourage you to please subscribe nevertheless because I don’t send all the entries manually! The bottom line is: my writing mirrors what is in my soul, just like my photography. Reject my writing, and you are effectively closing the door on a huge part of my life.

Why am I going on about this? Well I was told some months ago that my blog is annoying and that the whole concept of blogging is too impersonal, and they want nothing to do with it. Instead, I should write them a personal email and tell them how I am doing. Wow. That was a slap in the face and I felt rejected as a person and as a writer. Of course I immediately stopped sending the blog, and I certainly didn’t stoop down to write an extra email about what I had already written about. I am too much of a diva to do that.

Therefore, I leave the choice up to you from now on. I would love for all of you to continue being vicariously involved in my life through the blog, but I don’t want to be accused anymore of forcing it on you either. The blog entries will always be here for you to browse through – both Cherry and I welcome visitors from near and afar to read about our latest interactions and misadventures.

Scribo, ergo sum.