Launching Paper Poetry’s Gratitude Workshop
Those Four Simple Words
The four words that told me I could fly
‘The beginning is the most important part of the work.’ Plato
Easier said than done, Plato!
And easier said in retrospect with the beginning already tucked safely in your hip pocket and you’re off flying along whatever path you’ve decided to pursue.
I didn’t have the benefit of retrospection in August 2020 when I decided to bite the blogging bullet and publish my first article on Medium. Prior to that my blogging experience, if you can call it that, was limited to Facebook and LinkedIn posts. I’d be the first one to admit, I had no idea what I was doing. And to take that one step further, I had no idea of what to write about. In fact, that was the title of my first article, What do I write? — the perennial problem of how to begin.
For someone who didn’t know what to write about, I managed to knock together a 9-minute read! Nine minutes!! For a first post! What was I thinking?! 😆
But in all honesty, I’m really proud of my first article. It’s a genuine expression of me — including being wordy!! I cover a lot of territory in this one piece, with a sizeable portion relating to my experience as a speech pathologist working with students with language-learning disorders.
I was being totally realistic when I wrote, ‘I have no grand illusions of the article being an instant success. I expect no accolades. No claps. No comments. No followers. No curation.’ However, as you can see from this next screenshot, the article’s done better than I expected and still gets the occasional look in — albeit more external views than internal.
Fan club 💫
51 claps from eight readers (including two family members who were press-ganged into it! 😆), two comments and a couple of highlights! That’s a whole lot better than nothing! 😊
While I’m exceedingly grateful for each show of support, there’s one person in particular I want to acknowledge publicly — right here, right now. That person is…
✨ ✨ ✨ John K Adams ✨ ✨ ✨
John K Adams
John was the first Medium writer to engage directly with me. He did that when he left a comment on my first article. Four words. Four words that had a profound effect on me. Four words that gave me the kick start I needed. Four words that told me I could fly…
‘You are a natural.’
I have no idea how John came across my piece but I’m so grateful he did. John writes mostly fiction, often of the clever, witty, play-on-words variety. Here’s a couple of his recent stories inspired by another witty writer, William Shakespeare. Please give them a read and introduce yourself to John if you haven’t already connected.
Thank You, John
To my knowledge, writing stories that reference Shakespeare is as close to writing poetry as John gets. I’m hoping, then, that he forgives me for expressing my gratitude to him in a poem — free verse, not Shakespearean sonnet!
‘You are a natural’ Those four simple words were all that it took to tell me I was off and away
Those four simple words made my heart soar, gave me confidence to fly on the wings of an eagle
I can’t thank you enough for having gone out of your way to encourage a novice like me to believe that I AM a writer
Thank you, John, from the bottom of my heart for being the person you are and gifting me with your kindness.
© Carolyn Hastings 2021
Launching Paper Poetry’s Gratitude Workshop
As writers, we all have our stories to tell, including the one about how we got started on Medium and who was there to give us a helping hand. You’ve just read my story. Now it’s your turn to tell yours. We would love to hear it and for you to share it as part of Paper Poetry’s latest endeavour — the Gratitude Workshop. You’ll find all the information you need about the workshop right here —
