Is Your Writing a Word Picture?

We drove through Montana yesterday. The clear sky stayed with us all the way and made the mountain ranges a brilliant blue with bright white snow covering most of them. Row after row of peaks emerged with each bend turned. Mesmerized, I felt as though I had become part of the landscape. Yet, how insignificant I was.

For a few moments, I thought how trivial my pursuits must be. The pull of the manuscript edits in my head disappeared. The unfinished novel in my computer file lost its allure. I wondered why any of us could bother with such dreams in the face of such creative magnitude. What is the use of producing my feeble words of wisdom? How could it possibly make any difference in this magnificent world?

Then a question came to me. What if the great painters of the ages had laid down their brushes? How would I ever know what the Eifel Tower looked like? How would I ever be able to envision the castles along the Rhine river if someone hadn’t taken a photo for others to enjoy? Or how would I have ever felt the welling of a song in my heart if I had never heard anyone sing?

Think of all the emotion art evokes in the human spirit. I could be living in total ignorance of what I had missed if someone had not stirred my soul with a song, portrait or a picture—or words on a page. Those things take me where I can’t go myself.

So there is my challenge. Will I count myself among the nay-sayers, or will I pick up my pen and write what may very well become a portrait to open the eyes of another? Can I let my words be the eyes someone desperately needs in order to see the beauty of life? If only one is awakened to something new and glorious because I write, then that’s enough for me.

I am fortunate to have seen so much of the world. I’d like to show others who are less traveled a picture of life as it could be.