It's All In My Head

In recent weeks I’ve had a lot of people ask me where I come up with the ideas for this column. Usually, my response is something to the effect of “just things I think about,” or “the things in my head.” Some are perplexed that there could be that many things I things I think about on a regular basis. Others, like my other half and those who know me pretty well, will often joke that they would never want to be in my head, and regard it as a bit of a scary place.

Fortunately for me , I’ve come to terms with this “scary place” in my head and have actually learned to embrace it. This week, my topics ranged from “This Needs to be Said,” which right now, it really didn’t, to “Why in the World?” A question that will need to be saved for later, and then settled into “It’s All in my Head.”

There truly is a lot in my head right now. I have a lot of concern for many people at the moment. Several are dealing with health ailments and have been in the hospital. Some have been dealing with grief at the loss of a friend or soulmate. Some are facing the choices of closing their businesses or finding new ways to make their businesses work. Some are struggling emotionally with things they don’t know how to handle, and yet others are fighting through. Personally, I’m facing a lot of deadlines this month and am getting ready to start my teaching circuit next month, which will have me on the road and away from home more often until October.

Then, there are the things happening in Lincoln right now that make me want to scream things from the mountains, yet I refrain, and keep these things in my head, for now.

In recent weeks, I’ve also had several people wanting to know my process for writing this column, and have even offered suggestions for topics. I’m grateful to those folks and their ideas. Sometimes their suggestions won’t show up as topics here for months - not because they aren’t good topics, but because it takes me that long to process them, or have a strong enough feeling to write something on them.

My process is pretty simple. The thought or subjects that repeatedly come up in a week are usually the ones that get the most thought. Snippets of ideas to write about make their way into my head. From there, they go into a notebook of ideas and notes about the topic that live there too. So, really, it’s not all in my head.

Sometimes, I share some pretty personal stuff about myself. Other times, they are just about things I feel strongly - or not so strongly - about. Most always, they start with a question and my need to find or share answers about it.

When I was in school, writing and being a writer was something I always wanted to do and be. It’s a wonderful time in life when you’re young. You often have no fear of being right or wrong, and you’re brave enough to just go after the things you want. I wrote short stories, started novels, won writing contests and had some of my work published - both as a teenager and again in my 20’s. As I got older, writing went on the back-burner and my self-doubt about whether I could write crept in. For more than 20 years, I became too worried about what others thought of my writing to actually write. For that many years, I felt my writing wasn’t good enough to be seen.

Thank goodness I was prodded into getting back to my writing a few years ago. I once again feel like I’m doing something I was meant to - and more than that - something I truly love.

Now, I’m a writer of many things. Currently, I write this column, put out a quarterly 20-page newsletter for the Montana Association of Weavers and Spinners, serve as a guest author on various blogs on wool and fiber arts, have had articles published in trade magazines and am in the throws of getting a children’s book finished and published.

Of all the things I currently write, I can honestly say this column is one of my favorites. Other than having a deadline, (something I’m known to dislike) “From my Perspective” offers an opportunity to share ideas and hopefully give readers a chance to see things from a different angle. Several of you in the community have reached out to me after a particular column to let me know how much you liked or appreciated it, or have even written to offer me a different way to look at something.

Sharing thoughts and ideas is important. Being open-minded enough to see things in different ways is really important. Doing what I love and making a difference with all the things in my head is one of the greatest gifts I’ve been given.