The spell was cast

It began with a gift, a Kris Kringle from her niece. A diary. Illustrated with whimsical sketches and small quotes. How was she to know then where it would take her? On opening it she discovered the words that started her off on the journey. A quote by Oscar Wilde, an author inhabiting her ‘to read’ list,

“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train.”

And the spell was cast. The door was opened and she looked further through the diary discovering its delights. First came a page for listing dreams for the year. An immediate invitation to her imagination and every line she filled with pleasures to be had. Next came the practical section of a week to a page, small boxes waiting for important dates and events to anticipate, a little section on the side for taking notes. And finally, the week to a page. Oh what beauty, five lines for each day, empty now, but waiting for her words, and how they came.

The pleasure in each day was the moments she sat down, diary in hand and embellished the day on those pages. Inspired by Oscar Wilde’s words, mermen and elves appeared, fantastical endeavours were recorded amongst gentle recollections of pleasure and moments shared with the loves of her life. As the words flowed onto the pages of the diary the strength of the spell gripped her tighter and she found descriptions and phrases forming in her mind desirous for life.

These insistent words found their way onto a document where there was room to move. Here she began writings of past and present happenings, comfortable, poignant, sentimental and grateful. Pieces that questioned and mused. Through these words she celebrated and honoured the events and people who inhabited her life and gave space to the characters who had appeared in her diary. She began a series of pieces and imagined them as a blog open to share with others.

Two friendships blossomed in her life that year, creative men, bright and clever who brought playful language into her days through clever texts and strange and wonderful letters. Encouraging her writing and exploration of words and expression. She was surprised at the delight she took in these communications which left her always with a smile on her face.

And then she found herself enrolled in a writing subject after four years of theory and empirical studies. She hadn’t intended to do the Writers in Action course. It had come into her inbox and was deleted without a thought. But needing a third subject to complete her degree she had been encouraged by a friend and enrolled with some trepidation.

Although she had always been a writer of letters and small snippets here and there, looking back she wondered over the many things that had happened to stimulate her creative writing that year, and she smiled as she began her first blog. “Hello. Hello? Am I here yet? Can anyone hear me?”