Simple

I'm a simple girl.

Jeans & T-shirts.

I'm a simple girl who loves words -- not just the simple ones, but the complex, mysterious, must-look-this-up-to-know-precisely-what-it-means kind.

I enjoy reading books that require me to use dictionary.com every few pages. (The English translation of Captain Corelli's Mandolin is a great one for that!) I don't necessarily remember all the words I look up, or try to incorporate them into my vocabulary. I think what I'm really after is the meaning, so I understand as clearly as possible what the author is communicating.

I love to see how other people put words together. Sometimes the simplest words, put in the optimal order, paint the most amazing pictures.

I read a sentence, a book, a blog post like that and think, "I want to write like that!" Poetry. And prose that reads like poetry. That stuff stirs my heart.

But when I try to do that, it falls flat. It's hollow and dull and lifeless. Because I'm trying to write with someone else's voice, with someone else's gift. And in the process, I'm devaluing my own. I'm insulting my Creator.

I've been saying forever that I want to be a writer when I grow up, then at some point I started saying I want to be Donald Miller or Anne Lamott when I grow up. But I'm finally learning the world doesn't need another donald Miller or Anne Lamott, they've got the market cornered on them.

*deep breath*

You have no idea how hard it is to say this. (Well, maybe you do.)

The world needs me to be me.

So I guess if I'm making a "resolution" for 2012, its this: to simply be me and be open to sharing me with whoever God sends across my path. (I'll share my three words for 2012 soon.)

The world needs you too. Otherwise, you wouldn't even be here.

(Here's a great post from Donald Miller about What Makes Some People Special. Something to think about.)