by Alicia Dowell

I have been sitting here trying to figure out what to write for the post which I volunteered to write. As of this moment, I am on draft three. I have been trying to figure out the best way to share my love for something and then the idea hit me… Stop trying to use someone else’s voice. Use your own! So, please come hang sit and let’s talk about why I will always love verbal or written words.

From a young age, I have always liked to tell stories. I am grateful for my mom and two sisters who let me ramble to them about far off places I had been or how I could make up a place called “tree heaven” where all these trees had made the best place to climb. I have a great metal picture of it but alas, I grew up in a time where a camera was not an everyday thing. So, you are just going to have to trust me, this was the best place for 10-year country girl. Tree heaven was where I dreamed worlds in to existence with broad stroke of spoken words. This encouraged me to keep with words. Verbal words were where I rocked it. If you ask my mom, she will tell you ever since I was little I would make up stories with verbal words then one day I ended up with an old notebook and never looked back.

From that day forward, I could be found with at least one notebook and several pens. I have been making up stories of written word sharing with just my family thinking one day I would share with the world. These great stories would be written in book form, make me super famous, and keep me from having a normal job. It is okay to laugh about how naïve this sounded. I thought I was going to make it on the first story I wrote. I still have these written words floating around somewhere.

I have no grand ideas of I will be famous from writing a book. Now, I used written word to share stories on my blog and here. For me this is a great way to share my love of words. The stories I share remind me why I love doing this. These stories are from my soul to share my love of words and maybe encourage someone else to share their love of what they hold dear.

Alicia Dowell lives in a little city called, Hope with her college sweetheart and their daughter. She is a lover of gardening, their back-yard chickens, yarn, blogging, Disney music, and photography. By day you can find her working at a state park and by night (or the light of her computer screen) she can be found blogging or on Instagram which is her favorite social media hangout.