Day One
Let me tell you what my first love has been.
Long before dance, for which I had an all too short, yet deeply passionate, love affair, broken up only by the presence of a very damaging experience/entity in my life at the time. And, way before I found out what music could do for me, spiritually, emotionally, and soulfully...
I found the word.
And, no, I don't mean The Word, as in the biblical sense. (trust me, I'm the last person to be seen in a church. They're still trying to put out the burning embers from the last religious building I walked into)(not really, but that would make a helluva a story).
I mean the word. As in the written word, the spoken word.
Growing up, this was where I found shelter and comfort. I felt more safe within the letters of words than I ever felt on the outside of own my apartment, or even in my own skin.
Most people think photography was where I began, but they would be wrong. That love came later, at the third half of my life.
For me, and for as long as I can remember, the word has always been by my side, my life's blood that flows through my veins spurring me onto another good writing day.
My heart actually swells just thinking about it. (see? It's true love). How could something so simple and so small have so much impact on a person? Be so big and so powerful as to have the potential to bring down tyrannies and build up change?
Yet, it does.
To me the word and I are tethered to each other like skin is to muscles, and blood is to the inside of an artery or vein.
As with all things that will inevitably change you as you grow, our first encounter was an accident.
It had more to do with me being bored and not having anyone to talk to, on account of those sitting around me were still doing their classwork, than anything else.
I believe it was second grade (I know, kind of late to be falling in love but, in my own defence I had played the field before this. Yes, I was a literary whore for a time). The teacher offered up the idea that to kill time I could go to the back of the class and choose a book to read until the bell rung. Up until now, I've only known books in the context of homework. The notion that I could read a book for pleasure was little more than a revelation to me!!
If I remember correctly, I do believe it took a little coaxing on my teacher's part to get me to even go near the bookcase at the back of the class!
But, to see me with a book now, no one would never believe this...! (I, literally, NEVER leave my house without one.)
And of course with the love of reading came the love of writing. These are my foundations, my soul's chariot, tethered to an unstoppable star as it streaks through my life.
To lose either is to lose myself...
Long before dance, for which I had an all too short, yet deeply passionate, love affair, broken up only by the presence of a very damaging experience/entity in my life at the time. And, way before I found out what music could do for me, spiritually, emotionally, and soulfully...
I found the word.
And, no, I don't mean The Word, as in the biblical sense. (trust me, I'm the last person to be seen in a church. They're still trying to put out the burning embers from the last religious building I walked into)(not really, but that would make a helluva a story).
I mean the word. As in the written word, the spoken word.
Growing up, this was where I found shelter and comfort. I felt more safe within the letters of words than I ever felt on the outside of own my apartment, or even in my own skin.
Most people think photography was where I began, but they would be wrong. That love came later, at the third half of my life.
For me, and for as long as I can remember, the word has always been by my side, my life's blood that flows through my veins spurring me onto another good writing day.
My heart actually swells just thinking about it. (see? It's true love). How could something so simple and so small have so much impact on a person? Be so big and so powerful as to have the potential to bring down tyrannies and build up change?
Yet, it does.
To me the word and I are tethered to each other like skin is to muscles, and blood is to the inside of an artery or vein.
As with all things that will inevitably change you as you grow, our first encounter was an accident.
It had more to do with me being bored and not having anyone to talk to, on account of those sitting around me were still doing their classwork, than anything else.
I believe it was second grade (I know, kind of late to be falling in love but, in my own defence I had played the field before this. Yes, I was a literary whore for a time). The teacher offered up the idea that to kill time I could go to the back of the class and choose a book to read until the bell rung. Up until now, I've only known books in the context of homework. The notion that I could read a book for pleasure was little more than a revelation to me!!
If I remember correctly, I do believe it took a little coaxing on my teacher's part to get me to even go near the bookcase at the back of the class!
But, to see me with a book now, no one would never believe this...! (I, literally, NEVER leave my house without one.)
And of course with the love of reading came the love of writing. These are my foundations, my soul's chariot, tethered to an unstoppable star as it streaks through my life.
To lose either is to lose myself...
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