A writer I follow on Medium, Jonas Ellison, recently started an, “Ask Me Anything” feature, so I took the plunge and asked him about starting a blog. My question was this:  “I want to start blogging but I can’t seem to come up with any sort of overall theme or direction — how do I do that? Or can I just stumble along and write whatever until I figure it out? Should I call my blog whatever?”

I reached out for help from Jonas because I like his writing and the topics he chooses to write about. I highly recommend his Higher Thoughts posts (https://medium.com/higher-thoughts/on-going-in-the-right-direction-a18a5dc07f6e#.u062u4wx0). As a writer, parent, and plain old human being, it seems every post of his speaks to me, often about the very thing I’m struggling with that day.

It took him a while to respond to my question. In the meantime, I decided to simply start the blog anyway, even though I didn’t feel ready and didn’t feel perfect (read about it here).  I had posted maybe four or five times to my blog, when I received an email from Jonas letting me know he had published his response to my question.

Everything Jonas said in his post rang true for me (as usual). I felt so validated. It felt especially good coming from somebody I admire. So I sent him an email thanking him, and mentioned my blog. He returned my email with these words: “So glad you enjoyed the post:) I love your blog. You’re a beautiful writer. Please keep going!”

I cried. Encouragement and validation means a lot to us creative types. Art, in whatever form it takes, often comes from a space of vulnerability that lies deep within us, and in the harsh reality of day to day life, can easily be stomped on, never to be seen again. Now I know as a writer I will often face rejection, probably more so than acceptance. But I think as writers, artists, poets, musicians, or just plain old human beings, we need our buddies to get our backs sometimes. A few words of encouragement cost us nothing, and are a huge investment in the fragile creativity of another artist.

One of my goals with this blog is to share examples of artists supporting each other. I see creativity as a life-expanding process. An artist sees the world, and wants to draw attention to the world as it is, or as it should be or could be. An artist asks us to look at life differently, by looking at this painting, or reading this novel, or hearing this song, or even immersing ourselves in a poem. And when we look at life differently, we see the beauty of it, or the cruelty of it, or whatever the artist wants us to notice, and as a result, our view of the world, of life, expands. We see possibilities we wouldn’t see otherwise. We begin to ask questions. Or we reach a new understanding

Encouragement expands our lives and our art, too. Artists don’t create art in a vacuum. We rely on the people and the world around us to feed us ideas (intentionally or unintentionally), and we also need to learn our craft. And probably the most important lesson, the most important part of the craft is to keep going. If we keep creating, we get better. Even if it all starts out boring, or just plain bad, if we keep going — we learn. When we learn, our lives expand even more.

I know a little about rhyme and meter. I have a good grasp of spelling and grammar. I like to dig deep into the meanings and sounds of words. I’m sure I have a lot more to learn. But it’s not going to happen if I don’t keep going. For whatever reason, Jonas picked the very words that speak to the part of being an artist that I struggle with the most:  to keep going.

We all need somebody to urge us on, with simple words or raucous cheers. Life is short. If we hide our knowledge, our creations, our process, we are acting out of fear.  If we share it, we are acting out of faith. Let’s be generous. Let’s hold hands, in reality or metaphorically, and tell each other to please keep going.

Do you have any stories to tell of sharing and encouragement? I would love to hear them. Please share them with me.