Dear Readers,
I’ve been away for a while. I have thought about you often and miss you. I’ve wondered about your well-being in this year of so much illness, struggle, and upheaval. I have prayed for you. Truly, I have prayed for you, especially those of you whom I know have suffered greatly due to Covid-19, for both health (physical and emotional) and economic reasons. I think it’s fair to say that everyone has been impacted in some way.
And here you are … you’ve made it to 2021!
Maybe you’ll have to drag yourself over the finish line at 11:59:59 on December 31, 2020. But, by God, you’ve made it through this most challenging of years. For me, that’s true, quite literally. It has only been by God’s constant provision of hope and strength that I’ve managed to keep it together and, in fact, flourish creatively. The increased stillness and quiet, imposed first by stay-at-home orders and then by continued restrictions and health guidelines, did wonders for my production. Nothing like having nowhere to go and no one to see to take away all of my excuses for not keeping my butt in the chair to write. And I learned something about myself in this year of Covid-19 — that I could commit myself to something and stick with it.
Three years ago, in December 2017, I completed my first semester in the MFA program in nonfiction writing at Goucher College. Then I took a break, returned in July 2019, then left again. In January 2020, I rededicated myself to finishing the MFA program and getting my graduate degree, and went on complete semesters two and three in 2020. Next Monday, January 4, 2021, I’ll start my fourth and final semester and will graduate in May.
I’m far from alone in the “increased creativity” category for 2020. I’m blessed to know many creative people; many are writers. Two of those friends found agents in 2020; a handful of others are on the verge of finding theirs. One friend scored a book contract. Many have started their own newsletters and websites; another friend had an essay published in The New York Times. And these folks I know who write—they all have thoughtful, compassionate, important messages to share … messages which the world, during this time of so much anxiety and fear, needs to hear. I look forward to sharing some of their work with you in 2021.
I look forward, as well, to a more consistent presence in your inbox via my newsletter. I’m grateful for your readership. Throughout the upcoming semester, I plan to publish Tesstimonial at least monthly. I hope it can continue to hold some meaning for you throughout the coming year.
As I prepared to write this newsletter I opened up my copy of The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern Word, by Lewis Hyde, which I highly recommend. The final line of the Introduction provides, it seems to me, a worthy rationale and compelling reason for any of us to take the unsure step of putting our work out into the world. Hyde writes:
“I am not concerned with gifts given in spite or fear, nor those gifts we accept out of servility or obligation; my concern is the gift we long for, the gift that, when it comes, speaks commandingly to the soul and irresistibly moves us.”
Fellow writers – let this be our call, let this be our gift to the world, in 2021: stories that speak to the soul and move the reader.
(Photo Credit: by Denise Jans on Unsplash)
May God bless you and yours abundantly with happiness & health in the new year!
Love,
Tess
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