At ten years old, I realized writing helped me figure out life. I was in the fifth grade and my family had just moved. I was the new kid at school and felt out of place. I’d left an old-fashioned two-room country schoolhouse with five students in my grade, four girls and one boy if I remember correctly, and my new school seemed huge. Like I’d hit the big city. Or more accurately, the big city had hit me. And it hurt.

On my first day of school, a boy asked me if I was a virgin. I was Catholic and said, “Of course not!” I thought he was asking if I was a saint, like the Virgin Mary, Jesus’s mother. I already knew I was a sinner, not a saint. We weren’t even in junior high yet. That boy was advanced. Suddenly, I was the most popular girl at school until the miscommunication between us got worked out.

It was a painful week, which led to a painful month, that turned into a painful school year. Most of the kids at this city school knew a lot more about life than I did. I’d moved from a farm far out in the country to another farm far out in the country, but now the one hour + bus ride to my new school took me to town, instead of to the safe little country school I’d loved. The grace of it all was that my fifth-grade teacher Miss Panerio was fresh like me. Bright-eyed and beautiful, this wonderful, young teacher took me under her wing. We bonded that fifth-grade year. And somewhere in that bond, Miss Panerio discovered I loved books and encouraged me to write my own stories. So I did.

My first tales were about loss. And learning how to live again after life took a digger. My protagonist had to figure out how to make new friends, find a new road, and forgive those who wounded her. Just like me. I was writing to heal. And writing to live. I just didn’t know it yet.

My mom recently found several of my first books. In cursive. With illustrations. I no longer do my own illustrations. I think you can see why. Haha! Art is not my groove.

But I have other gifts and dreams I’m better at than art. During our Writer’s in Bloom retreat last month, I shared a dream I have with my author coach, Alice Crider. “I’m thinking about doing some Write to Heal workshops. People often ask me to help them with writing, but my life is just too crazy for one on one sessions right now. Maybe I can put together some mini-retreats. I know I write out of my wounds. Writing helps me figure out life. And release my pain. Maybe I can teach others how to figure out their lives by using writing as a tool to discover what’s really in their heart, why it matters, and then how to move forward. I want others to experience healing from writing the way I have. But I don’t want the workshops to be heavy. Writing can be full of light. I want to make these mini-retreats fun.

“What about Write to Live?” Alice suggested. Alice has been teaching writing workshops for years. She’s also a certified life coach. I loved Alice’s idea of a Write to Live workshop, so we hashed a plan to do it together. https://www.mungerfamilyvineyard.com/events/write-to-live-workshop It’s happening at the end of this month. If you live in northern California and think you might be interested in the workshop, head on over to the Munger Family Vineyard link to sign up.

Last night I was blessed to do a book signing and talk with a group of young moms, who like me, were so ready to gather and grow again with others after a year of lockdown. It was so fun to hear people’s stories and share my own. Stories help us know each other and ourselves. Stories are worth telling and writing them down helps us remember what we’ve learned along the way. My dear friend and pastor’s wife Tonya Smith accompanied me for the evening. Being with friends again after the long stretch of quarantine is such a gift.

If you are able, we’d love to have you join us on Friday evening March 26th, from 5 to 8 pm at the winery. Two more of my writer friends are coming to help. Macki Smith, the sweet, successful blogger of Ten Thousand Little Hours and The Peace-Seeking Mom from Mississippi, and Judy Gordon Morrow, a fabulous nonfiction editor and gifted devotional author with over thirty years experience in publishing. These friends are pretty amazing and ready to help you live to write. Hope to see you there!