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"I'm me, just me. On good days that's enough. On bad days that's more than enough."
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WHEN I WAS YOUNG,
I filled spiral notebooks with my pencil sketches and stories I had written in big loopy letters with open circles dotting the i's. Words and pictures are the tools I have always used to explore my inner and outer worlds as I try to understand who I am and the place in the world that is uniquely mine.
At the age of 12, I stumbled onto an ad from a publisher in the back of a magazine. With visions dancing through my head of writing a book, I dashed off a letter requesting details. When a fat brown envelope from the publisher arrived, I eagerly tore open the flap. I spent hours reading and re-reading the glossy brochure chockful of tips from the pros about becoming a published author. "Someday..." I promised myself.
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After college, my writing and art took a back seat while I focused on climbing the corporate ladder. One day it hit me: I was trying so hard to be 'one of the guys' I couldn't remember what it felt like to be myself. So I followed the longings of my heart and returned to my creative roots.
I picked up my pen and words spilled onto the page as though a damn had burst. In a sense, it had: I had come home to myself. No more wondering. No more trying this career or that one. I was a writer. Pure and simple. Now I needed to find a place to publish my words.
But the fingers of the Universe were already knitting a path for me to follow. In a Divinely inspired exercise of synchronicity and trust I created a local magazine. I never saw this coming, but sometimes that's best. Especially since, in this case, I knew absolutely nothing about the publishing industry. But people showed up to teach me and things quickly fell into place. I served for five years as the magazine's editor/publisher. I also wrote a column, 'Soul-ar Energy,' which was published in the magazine during that time and for two additional years after I sold it.
While sitting in my backyard one blustery afternoon I asked a seemingly innocent question, "Where does the wind come from?" Much to my surprise, an entire story flashed before my eyes. I immediately jumped up and dashed inside to write it down. Before long I held in my hands the completed manuscript for my first children's book, The Lion, the Wind and Mariah. My dream of publishing a book had come true.
The novelist Willa Cather said, "If you're an artist and you want to get steadily better at your craft, you need to continually refine your approach to telling the truth." Her words go right to the heart of what I attempt to communicate through my writing—the truth, as purely and honestly as I can.
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KATHRYN MARTIN OSSEGE is an award-winning writer and full-time student of life.
She lives in Cincinnati, OH, with husband Greg and two standard poodles, Barley and Angelique. She enjoys spending time with her grandchildren who remind her to observe the small wonders in everyday life.
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