The Writer Awakened

    Water takes a long time to boil...especially when you watch it.  I don't know why I kept watching my writing water and it wouldn't boil.  It took talking to Dan Tricario, author of The Zen Teacher, for an hour only to have him say, "Susie, I am not sure you want to hear this, but I think you are a writer."  Why did this wake me up?  How odd.  For some reason, it just turned a switch in me.
     Now all I think about is how each detail could be a story...something to write down.  I have felt this urgency to write from time to time in my life.  Perhaps it really started when my mother contracted CJD, the human form of mad cow disease.  That 61st year of her life and the community involvement in her dying process has been a story waiting to come out.  Next, I have written letters to my daughters, now 9, 11 and 14 almost monthly trying to tell them all about their childhood and the small details in between the everyday breaths.  I felt an urgency to write after my friend Aracely's beloved sister, Mari, died of cancer much too early.  I was lucky enough to spend cherished hours with her right before her death.  I wrote Mari's children a letter from Mari's point of view to console them.  In times of crisis or intense love, I feel it is what I can give.
     I am actually in awe of this process.  All I needed was for someone to really believe in me and say, "You are a writer."  How simple and yet how powerful.  It is almost surreal for me.  It was like Dan was both giving me permission but also pushing me to see what he saw in me.  I have had people tell me along my path that they thought my writing was good, that I should pursue something in writing, but his words were different.  "I am not sure you want to hear this, but I think you are a writer." I decided I do want to hear it, Dan.  I do want to let the water boil.  I want to get my thoughts on paper.  It fuels me and frankly, that's what being a writer is about.
     Now I clearly see how our careful language can ignite the passion to write in our students.  The simple sentence, "You are a writer."