I have noticed this tendency in me to brush off people when they tell me, “Oh, that’s wonderful. You are a writer.” This usually happens when I tell them that I write every single day, that I am a writer at heart, and that I have a few novels published on Amazon. I laugh it off.
“Oh, no, I’m not a ‘real’ writer. I don’t have ‘real’ novels published, by ‘real’ publishing houses, and I am not recognized by the literary world as a ‘real’ writer.”
Of course, I have realized that this is all nonsense. I never say this exact thing to someone else who tells me they have a novel published or they are writing a blog. If they are writing, they are a writer to me. I realize that people unnecessarily put random criteria on these things.
I’m only a writer if I have a book published by a major publishing house. Or I am only a dancer if I appear on a dance show or in a dance troupe. I am only a musician if I have an album and fans. I am only something if I am recognized by hundreds of others for it. And perhaps, also paid hundreds of dollars for it. Preferably millions.
You Are a Writer – You Are Something if You Love To Do With All Your Heart
It’s a weird idea I came up with, during a meditation. And it goes like this. I am a writer. I am a writer, not because I have been recognized by any of my peers. In fact, I am a writer, because I love to write.
I love to write with all of my heart. I wake up every day and I think about writing. Writing is the first time that comes to my head in the morning when I awaken, and the last thing I think about before I fall asleep.
I love to write so much that even though I do a hundred other things with my day, no one actually knows that I do that. Because I always start off every relationship and conversation with the topic of writing. Or at least, I would in an ideal world.
Let’s give ourselves permission to be what we are, even if no one else knows that we do it.
I have a mild confession to make. I think of myself as a dancer. As a matter of fact, I call myself a dancer in my own company. No one else knows this. I dance every single day. On my own. I love to dance. Absolutely love it. I wake up every day and I dance for a little bit while I brush my teeth. Whenever I have music playing in my head or through my earphones, I dance.
I can’t help myself. I have to dance – dance as if there is no tomorrow, dance as if there is only today and only this moment.
In my head, I’m a dancer, even if no one else knows it or believes it. Isn’t that what life is all about?
Let Yourself Be Whatever You Want – No More Random Criteria
If I really thought about it, no one really knows I dance. People might know that I LOVE to dance, but no one really sees me dance every single day. I dance in the privacy of my own head, and my apartment or bedroom. It’s just me, and the music. Just such a beautiful connection that it makes me tear up.
I don’t need anyone else to know that I am a dancer. I am one. Even if everything else about me is stripped away, my job, my name, my family, I’ll still be a dancer, because I am a dancer at heart. My heart is a dancing heart. It doesn’t like to do anything else when the music plays.
When the right kind of music comes on, my heart dances, and along with it, my whole body dances. I have to go along with it. Now when people ask me, ‘Do you like to dance?’, my reply will be a twirl, a bow, and a resounding yes.
Have I been on any dance shows? Have I danced with any troupes or dance groups? No! I haven’t. But I am still a dancer.
I want you to do the same. If you love to knit, and you knit at home, and you knit every day because you love it so much, then you are a knitter. Nothing else needs to be said or done. No other qualifications need to be bought together. You are a knitter.
Go rejoice in that fact, and let yourself be a knitter, without too many other regulations, ideas, or prohibitions.
