My brother and I are talking about our childhood via email. It strikes me that as a child I wrote poetry. But also, I loved variety shows on TV, especially comedians. And so I wrote some excruciatingly funny things about motherhood. Up until my daughter got cancer. Then I was forced into tragedy, like it or not.

Lucky for you, the reader, my love of entertainment leads me to write in a certain style. I want to grab your attention, not bore you. For life is boring enough. I have often said I don’t mind whether I make you laugh or cry. Thinking is not that important. Thinking is for grownups. And it is the child in me that writes.

It is the child in me that is writing to my brother but also to you. Life grabs you by the short hairs and won’t let go. You have to take notice at some point. Apparently I was a stubborn case and had to have writing forced on me. I wasn’t social but I was interested in the spiritual path and that is walked mainly alone.

I write alone but I put it out there for anyone that cares about their inner life. Outer life has a way of taking care of itself. But the inner life is often neglected today. If you take a close look at your mind, it vanishes! Into thin air. But it is back in a nano-second, isn’t it? We have to train ourselves to watch it.

I watch my mind so much that it dislikes me intensely. It wants me to remain its slave. It threatens me with all kinds of serious business when I should be just acting like a child. So I write and let the child in me emerge from its jail cell.

Here she comes now, free of the mind. She loves the silence as much as she loves writing. She is waving at you.

Vicki Woodyard