Briefly: I’m fond of finding new ways to express what my heart needs to say

When I learned to write, my words were speaking purely from my head. I was a smart kid and I thought I knew everything. I learned to write well enough to express my ideas. Then I learned to write factual news and sports and features in a style which newspapers wanted. But something odd eventually happened. About seven or eight years ago, I learned to be vulnerable and open — and the words I wrote started coming from my heart instead. That was transformative for me. But while the head is satisfied to make a point strongly one time and move on, the heart needs to keep speaking, over and over, as its emotional depth runs over. Because of this, I constantly find my heart needing to express love and longing and hope and other things, but I find that I’ve said these things before — and I can’t imagine someone wants to hear them again. Then I remember the words to a beautiful song by Terry Scott Taylor about speaking truth from the heart. He wrote, “Love is a question mark. Life’s in a shadow box. God hides himself sometimes inside a paradox. And there may not ever be anything here new to say, but I’m fond of finding words that say it in a different way.” My heart overflows with love and need and longing, and I have no choice but to keep finding new ways to express what my heart needs to say. Again and again. Because it never goes away.