An Addendum "To God"

Anne Kellor shared these thoughts with me after reading "To God." They have given words to something I have been trying to negotiate and they flow easily and naturally from the last point of the last post. We are all moving water, flowing from one point to another, dwelling long enough at one eddy to let our hearts be altered, then tumbling on.

It is important to mention that I know Anne from graduate school. She initiated a Creative Nonfiction Collective after our graduation that I am a part of: five women writing honestly from their lives, responding, critiquing, and submitting what we've produced.

Here is what she wrote:

"Yes, yes, yes.
I too have long held my writing to be an essential part of my spiritual path and expression. That said, the longer I've committed myself to the process and the deeper I've gone in my craft, the more I want to share my writing with others, to have it reach people, be a part of a greater dialogue. So I don't think it's an either-or situation-- either you are writing for 'success' and publication, or you are writing for yourself and God; I think that for many, or some of us, it's both, and both feed into each other and are important. Balance is key. That said, our essential connection to God through our writing is what I believe must guide our intention and drive-- as opposed to clinging to success. That's what will keep drawing our writing deeper, and the deeper we go, the more potential we have to write powerfully and affect people through our writing. Reaching people won't necessarily happen of course unless we have the marketing and submitting perserverance, connections, all that, and even then, you never know. Which is why of course, we can't ever lose sight of our core intention and love of writing for writing's sake."