January 15, 2015

Dear M,

You have been shutting yourself off from the world lately. You had slacked off writing due to situations surrounding you, and your perceptions have changed somewhat. Life goes on.

Remind yourself that you’re a writer and that life is showing you what to write about; jotting down ideas makes you excited to jump back into writing again. Yes, forgetting is easy, but that’s not who you are: a writer who quits. Believe in yourself, and never forget you are a writer.

We hide in our corner of the world while people everywhere are fighting for their lives; it’s in the news. Elaina and Colleen have touched upon some things within the last few weeks that make me think about how each of us women are mothers, and we grieve for the families on the other side of the world who have lost children.

I can empathize and try to put myself in their shoes, but their viewpoint is different than mine, and it is a cultural thing. However, we women can be only who we are deep down, a person despite being a mother, too, and in some cases—like me—both father and mother to our children. So, as mothers, we push our little ones into the world with ideas all their own, and they become who they are as adults. It’s hard to watch when children going against what they have been taught. Some of us are not too far off the beaten track from our grandparents’ lives; some lives differ vastly in a way we will never understand. It depends where you live.

So as I hide out in my little world, I am once again eager to write and to watch the words form on this page.

Don’t ever stop being who you are, M. I pray for the mothers and fathers of this world going through hard times right now.

There’s only one ‘You,’ and you as a mother or a father can make a difference. Write to your children and to your grandchildren. Life is changing, sometimes for the better, depending on where you live; don’t forget to ‘BElieve in YOUrself’. We can’t be anyone else.

Love,
M.

To read more of Mary’s letters, click here!