IWSG: Touching Lives with the Power of Language

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group is a website media business with affiliates to enhance our service to visitors. We are a home for writers in all stages; from unpublished to bestsellers. Our goal is to offer assistance and guidance. We want to help writers overcome their insecurities, and by offering encouragement we are creating a community of support. Visit IWSG to learn more about this great writing community!

  

IWSG posts the first Wednesday of every month. It's a great writer's resource that I'm sure you'll find well worth your time. Be sure to stop by and visit with other IWSG Members.  

Many thanks to this month's co-hosts - Lee Lowery,  Juneta Key,  Yvonne Ventresca, and T. Powell Coltrin!  Make sure to stop by to visit each of them and thank them personally!

Hey Everyone!  Just a quick note to say I'm currently on a short, working mini-vacation so my post is short & sweet this month.  I'll return next month hopefully fresher both mentally, spiritually, and physically while sporting a tan and a renewed outlook and enthusiasm for writing!

IWSG Question of the Month:  

What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?

A thought-provoking question for sure!  The great examples of the power of language are endless.  When I think of the powerful voices of men like the late great Rev. Billy Graham and the masses of people whose lives he changed, my own seems quite small and humble.  But, I'll quickly share one of my first personal experiences of sharing the power of language (as a child) through my own writing.

My fifth grade elementary class put on our school's Christmas play, and I was chosen by our teacher to write a poem about a personal experience involving holiday traditions.  After an afternoon of frustration and non-production, I wandered into the kitchen to find my mother making her family and neighborhood famous fruitcake.  I began chopping nuts, fruits, and candies (mom's secret recipe) and sharing memories and somewhere along the way, an idea began to form.  I could write about one of our family's favorite holiday traditions - the baking and sharing of mother's fruitcake which was cooked several weeks ahead of time, stored in a tin in a cool room, and soaked with wine every few days until the big family reveal, cutting, and tasting.  (It probably should have come with a warning label that read no one under the age of eighteen is allowed to partake!)  

I returned to my room that evening and wrote a long, personal poem about a favorite holiday tradition and what it meant to our family.  It was simply titled, "My Mother's Fruitcake".  And after I stood on the stage and read it aloud to a room full of parents, friends, and family, I received a standing ovation.  I still remember being in awe while thinking, "Wow!  They liked it!"  (My mother cried)  I think the power of language hit me that night in that I knew as people stood and clapped that I had touched them by sharing my heartfelt words on a simple holiday tradition.  I think it's the moment I knew that writing was what I wanted to do with my life - my way of touching lives through the power of language.

How about you?  Share an experience that demonstrated the power of language to you.