Experience

I love reading about what others that are on the same path that I am on have experienced.
(For this post- said path is referring to my Christian walk- though it is quite imperfect and stumbling.)

It's my opinion that not all authors have 'the answer' to the life struggles we all face;
However,  I see myself as  somewhat of a 'wisdom gleaner', so if somebody wrote a book on a subject relevant to what's going on in my life; I read it, and analyze it, and pick it apart, and take from it what applies to my life.... after I've made sure it checks in A-okay with my spirit... AND the Bible.

(unless I'm reading a book about how to grow the perfect tomato plant; no bible referencing or spirit-checking needed there)

One of my favorite "if you're a woman and you're married" books is called:
"For Women Only" (what you need to know about the inner lives of men)

Shaunti Feldhahn did an OUTSTANDING job researching for a fiction novel she was writing, and ended up with so much profound information that her research turned into NOT ONLY an incredible novel, but also a brand new concept for a whole other book.

In Shaunti's  book (For Women Only) she blew my brain up when she explained that

  "men would rather feel 'alone and unloved' rather than 'inadequate and disrespected'."

Furthermore!!!  She touched on the fact that some men noted a challenge in choosing between the 2 choices, because both  (unloved and disrespected) appeared to be "the same option".

     This brings me to my point.

I don't know what I'm doing as a writer.
I have no credentials.
I didn't go to college.
I've never taken a writing class.

I started blogging because I wanted needed to write.  I needed to process.  I needed to get my impassioned thoughts out in front of me so I could backspace and delete and reorganize them to the degree that they made sense.

 Passion is what makes what I do fulfilling.  When I become passionate, I write well.  When I "try" to write, I write horribly.  I need to be thinking about or reflecting on something to get what I want to say onto a screen and have it make sense.


Somebody once said this:

"You don't have to write about something that you learned from an experience.... just write about the experience."

I had no clue what he was talking about.  He said something in English, but it went into my brain as Greek.

Experiencing and learning are the same thing.... right?  When you experience something, you also learn something, don't you?  

I do.
Do you?
Is it just me?

Shaunti experienced the grueling task of research   upon research   upon research as she wrote her novel.

From her experience- she gained so much wisdom that it poured a new passion in her to write another book.
From her experience, I was able to glean from her wisdom.
From my experience reading (and learning from) her book, I'm now able to teach my daughters....
And they'll teach their children...

Experience is to LEARNING as being Disrespectful is to being Unloving.