I was journaling this morning in front of my picture window, lounging in my hammock chair. It was just after the sun rose, the sky was a light shade of pink and the air was misty. There is always a chorus of birds that sings in the morning, a different symphony every day, but always the music. Looking at my oak tree that sits across the brook and fills my view, I felt amazed at how beautiful everything is in the morning. The tree itself is home to many of the songbird soloists, squirrels, and woodpeckers that are my neighbors. The bark is filled with insect life, thousands of individuals, and the leaves house caterpillars. Each leaf contains hundreds of chloroplasts which take the carbon dioxide we breathe out and turn it into the oxygen we breathe in. Each chloroplast is made up of all sorts of atoms and proteins, a little factory in each tiny spec of green. And I feel that I am alone sometimes! I could really open my eyes this morning, take in my surroundings, and be amazed at what I am a part of. It would be nice if I could take that wonder and amazement into my day, to experience everything as fresh and new and teeming with life and energy. Because I am that as well, I just forget.
● About Me
I wrote and published my first blog post on May 26, 2009. I was about to turn 36 and had been accepted to Mount Holyoke College as a non-traditional student, on my way to completing a Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in Medieval Studies. I had managed, finally, to know what general direction I was traveling. As a self proclaimed voracious reader I knew that I needed a vocation that would allow me to engage daily with words: reading words, writing words, and hearing words. I also needed to eat, so I navigated my way to a teaching position and I began to fine tune my craft. I love to teach and I love my students, but I also needed to continue to hone my own literary technique, voice, and style. I continued my education in order to delve deeper into literature, making connections, and most definitely, writing. I gained more confidence as a reader as well as a writer of both creative and analytical text. That first blog post in 2009 is short, the writing average, and the topic mundane, but as I continued to learn from other writers I began to understand that to become a better writer I needed to write more. Each time I write and release a poem, a post, or a story, I hone my skills. I invite you along for the ride, for this journey of mine as I attempt to wrangle a wealth of ideas and competing directions into an organized freshly paved path to publication. I might get distracted along the way, but sometimes those detours lead us to amazing views and new friends.
Laura Smith Writer 
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