Sure, I like my boyfriend, but my other love is writing!
By Shelley Widhalm
When it comes to a romantic holiday like Valentine’s Day, do you think about your other love?
I do, though I’m not cheating on my boyfriend—I happen to love him and writing both. Valentine’s Day is about declaring your love for your love as in “Be Mine,” giving valentines to friends and enjoying all the different presentations and forms of chocolate. And it’s about the other loves—passions, hobbies and jobs.
This year, I’m showing my love for writing by setting aside at least a half hour a day, now that I got rid of a heavy burden on my schedule. I think of this time as a gift.
The Valentine’s Day tradition of giving gifts and exchanging cards developed out of Saint Valentines. Several Saints called Valentine are honored on Feb. 14, a day that became associated with romantic love during the Middle Ages. Traditionally, lovers exchanged handwritten notes and later greeting cards when they became available in the mid-19th century.
Today, greeting cards and notes are a way to share sweet thoughts with friends and lovers. The written messages in them can be saved, reread and kept as physical proof someone is thinking about you. They’re also a way to spread love.
Here are 7 Things to Love about Writing
- Writing is a way to figure out what you really think or feel about something.
- It’s a way to play around with words and language.
- It’s a way to improve your understanding of words and the best ways to get your message across.
- It’s a way to express yourself, using your intelligent and creative minds at the same time.
- It’s a way to make connections with text, memory or experiences that you might not otherwise make by thinking or talking.
- It’s a way to tell stories and disappear into another world, where you don’t see the page and can’t tell you’re writing.
- It’s a way to be whoever you want to be and do whatever you want to do, going places and doing things you might not do otherwise.
Writing is a Perfect Match
It’s interesting to find out what it is you created after spending a few minutes or hours on a story or essay. It’s a process of discovery from seeing your thoughts written out. It’s a sense of accomplishment from meeting a word or time goal. And it’s reciprocal, because when you give your time and energy, you get back notes, then a rough draft and finally more as you keep working. In other words, you’ve found your match.