If you are a writer, a poet, quiet despair screams in my ears if I am not writing. Words roll around in my head. I notice quilts, a tumbleweed dancing across the road in front of me, or a marble laying by the step in an old homestead and all of a sudden, I hear the start of a poem or a story.
But I push writing to the back burner–many of life’s demands crowd out the time I have set aside to write. Who’s to blame? When I was working, I had an excuse. Now retired, I have no excuse.
Why do I do this? Why do I avoid the very activity that breathes oxygen into my spirit.
I have to write; the need is as strong as food or drink, but then I get busy and don’t. The result is starvation of my soul!
Today I am writing–sitting at a coffee house in Cedar Crest, NM after an energetic Zumba class. I sip on a Peppermint Mocha and breathe deeply. I started a new poem about quilts. I am revising and editing my book about grief.
The words tumble out–and the world is right! Sweet and serene!
Published by Larada Horner-Miller
Larada Horner-Miller is a poet, essayist and accomplished multi-genre author who holds a bachelor’s degree in English, with a minor in Spanish and a master of education degree in Integrating Technology into the Classroom. She is the accomplished author of eight award-winning biographies, historical fiction, memoir, and poetry works and three audiobook’s plus three self-published cookbooks.
Her most recent book, Was It a Dream?: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry is a finalist in the Global Book Awards. As is our book released last year, Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir.
Horner-Miller has also been a past national presenter at the Women Writing the West Conference and is currently the creator of Memoir Workshops for others who want to share their family’s legacies through words.
Larada and her husband, Lin, enjoy being nestled in the mountains above Albuquerque, New Mexico, near the village of Tijeras. When not writing books, this passionate, energetic, and enthusiastic woman loves to spend time kicking up her heels at square dancing gatherings, traveling, knitting, and reading.
As co-manager of her family’s southeastern Colorado ranch, she enjoys spending time exploring her family’s historic ranch and reminiscing with her brother and his children about their mom, dad, and granddad.
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