It’s more than survival, it’s magic.

Happy May! This week I sited my first oriole and hummingbird. Like monarch butterflies, they survived a treacherous, nearly impossible journey. This proves to me nature is magic.

Last Saturday, I learned how writing is and isn’t magic. At AWP I won a free class sponsored by the Sarah Lawrence College Writing institute. I participated in Jimin Han’s class: “Turning Family Gossip into Short Stories and Novels”. The class was wonderful. We all enjoyed the prompts and shared our writing.

Ms. Han convinced me writing is getting words down on paper and then enjoying the process—the magic. She handed us writing tips, encouraged us, and shared the gold nuggets she learned when writing, editing, and publishing her novels.

I highly recommend the Sarah Lawrence College Writing institute but also recommend brewing a cup of coffee, sitting by a window, and watching the orioles, hummingbirds, and monarchs. If those tiny creatures can survive a treacherous journey every year, no doubt, I can—and will—write.