My Passion

Originally Written Between 2013-2015   

Chocolate.  The end! 

Actually, I do have another passion.  It all started in first grade.  My teacher, Miss Eicher, awarded me with the blue ribbon for printing!  Printing turned into cursive in 4^th grade and I kept on writing.  Mostly in a grade-school girl’s version of “journaling” – called My Diary.  You know…… the one with the key?  The one that you thought really hid all of your secrets?  That is, until you found out that your little sister could open the lock – without the key – and read everything you had written.

I went through at least three diaries before that phase ended.  Then, I was hooked on reading and writing book reports.  I was good at summarizing the story; but, never giving away the ending.  

I had a couple of “pen pals” and for the life of me, I can’t remember their names or even where they lived.  My fifth-grade teacher, Miss Simon, evidently had a fellow teacher in another state and they arranged for each class to pick our pen pal’s names out of a hat.  I wrote and wrote and wrote throughout the whole school year.  My pen pals didn’t write to me as many times as I wrote to them.  Not interested, I guess.  So, once school was out in June, I stopped writing to them.  I’m sure I was missed.

Are you getting an idea as to what my passion is, yet?  I’ll give you a couple more hints.

One year while still working at Medtronic, I had the privilege of writing articles for our division’s newsletters.  My boss was the Chair of the United Way Campaign for the entire organization and because he traveled all the time, I got to write his speeches from him.  He had a huge Spanish accent so I don’t think anyone really cared what he said – it was just a joy to listen to him speak! And, when I worked for Turnquist Paper Company, I was a member of Executive Women International and on their board as Communication Director.  Therefore, I wrote their monthly newsletter.

The other day, I was looking for some Minutes from my townhome association board meetings.  We’ve been living there for 12 years and for nine of those years, I have been on the Board as Secretary.  My last term ended in May and I wanted to make up a really nice book of Minutes for my predecessor.  I found three binders in a bookcase in our bedroom.  But, instead of old Minutes, I discovered all of the assignments, tests, and term papers that I wrote in college.  I had even saved the teacher’s comments on each assignment.  I then spent the next two hours reading my papers.  It was fun reading all of the teachers’ glowing comments on what I wrote.

My reason for keeping all of that memorabilia?  I guess I wanted my kids to know another side of their mother – one who actually read the classics and found all sorts of symbolism in each one.  One who loved writing personal experiences and viewpoints for her speech classes.  One who wanted her children to see that their “old” mom at age 50 could earn a 3.85 average in college.  My BA was in Written Communication.

I didn’t really realize that writing was a passion for me until my best friend died.  You may recall that a couple of weeks ago, our topic was “best friends” and I read the eulogy that I wrote the night my best friend died.  Writing my thoughts and memories about Judy was the best therapy for me and helped me through the grieving process.

I wrote the eulogies for my dad in 1998, my mom in 2003 and my sister-in-law in 2007 – each time pouring out my love and feelings – which enabled me to remember them all again when I re-read what I wrote.

And, then….almost three years ago, Norm and I discovered a new church.  We sat next to Lyle and his wife, Carol. Announcements were made at the end of the service and one of them said that the church’s writing group would be meeting on Thursday at 7:00 PM.  I asked Carol (who was a stranger at the time) if she could tell me a little bit about the writing group.  Well, it turned out that she and Lyle were members of the group and she told me all about it.  That group only met once a month and, unfortunately, I had previous commitments for the group’s next two meetings.  When I finally did attend and read one of my stories, Lyle turned to me and suggested that I might like to also join a weekly writing group that met every Monday from 1:00 – 3:00 in the Coon Rapids city offices.

So, thank you Lyle (and Carol) for introducing me to this wonderful and creative writing group!  I absolutely love coming here every week.  I love the challenge of writing Haiku and having the opportunity to quote “work through” bad memories by writing about them and coming to terms with what happened.  I love writing about the many humorous things that have happened to me or my family.   I’m not good at writing fiction and so I enjoy and envy the ease in which Abby is able to write her stories.  I also enjoy and am amazed at how Jo, Helen, and Joan can write such beautiful rhymes and poetry.  I could go on and on about each one of you and how I admire your talent.  That’s why I come back week after week…. because we all share the same passion to write and we share and learn from each other.

Now, I have to share with you part of an email I received a couple of minutes ago.  I happen to share a birthday with two other colleagues from my last place of employment, Fairview Health Services.  And so, every June 10^thsince I retired, I email my “birthday-mates” and wish them a great day.  I happened to mention to them that I was spending the afternoon of my birthday attending my writing group.  This is what Sarah wrote back to me:

“The Writers Club is right up your alley.  You were always so good writing eulogies and speeches for folks.  You should write a book someday and get it published.  You have such passion for it.”