Enjoying the Journey

I love to write. There is something so relaxing in it for me. I gather my thoughts through my fingers and words and somehow it seems as though my heart is released. I've been a writer my entire life. I have journals dating all the way back to my first and second grade years. It is my outlet, my creative way of expressing myself.

I take seasons off from writing on this blog, mostly because I just can't share the deep and hard things that are going on in my heart and mind so freely. I realized over the last couple of years that I love and hurt deeply. I am not one of those people who mosey through life. I experience it ... all of it, taking it all in strongly.

My Elijah is very much like me, only a boy and age 7. While we were in Disney, each child had $100 of their own saved up money that they could spend on anything they wanted. It took all of three seconds for Zach to figure out what he wanted .... transformers and Lego's. But Elijah, well he actually came home with half of his money. He wasn't super interested in all the flashy toys and clothes. He found himself a book that he loved and succumbed a bit to the Lego store.

I chuckled at my two boys, so different from one another. Then it occurred to me that Elijah is a communicator, a lover of words, and desperately wants to explain life to people.

I've been working with him for a couple of years on how to journal. We started out simple, I would ask him questions, he would answer them, and I would write them down. Then it turned into, "tell me a story" and I would again, write it for him. It doesn't happen all the time, but enough that he remembers it and wants to re-read what we've written together.

This week I taught the boys how to brainstorm, using the bubble method. We explored all the things we loved about Disney. Then, yesterday, during school, I challenged him to write a fictional story. I was thinking it may be five or six sentences.

I hit a jackpot in that little man! Yes, I did! He wrote half of the story yesterday. Today he worked on some more of it and is still not finished. His eyes are twinkling, his heart is fired up with fun little ideas, and he has already read the beginning half to the entire dinner table last night. I believe my little Elijah is a writer!

Now, I'm quite aware that he is only 7 and we have years to go. But I love finding out what makes my children tick. I love capitalizing on what they love, finding ways to expand and encourage them in those areas. Zach is very much a builder. He can understand things spatially and put things together. Elijah, is a reader, a lover of words, a communicator and encourager. And perhaps a writer! I can't help but hope that this is a bit of a love for him!