Some women on my homeschool forum are taking a 30-day challenge to write every day in April, kind of a “break the lull in writing” kind of thing.  I love this stuff.  But if October taught me anything, it’s that writing (and publishing) every day for a month becomes impossibly hard. You know, life and all that. So I’m taking this April Challenge and giving it a twist, fitting it to where I’m at, answering a pull in my own heart. I tell you here because I’m hoping that some of you will write along.  I’m also hoping that you will tell me to not back out.

Here it is:

Write Brave Words.

In the month of April, write brave words.  Not every day, but often.  As often as you can.  As often as you write, let the words be brave words, courageous words, words of gut and heart.  Let April be its own kind of “coming out.”

There has been this niggling voice in my mind for months now, this voice saying “you have more in you, you have more to say, you have more to offer.  Go there.  Do it.”  If you resonate with this, then you know it feels impossible.  Impossible to break out of the polished boxes, impossible to put a little courage to the words we write, impossible to be brave.  The internet itself is a perfect canvas for image making, and almost without meaning to we can paint images of our lives, our hearts, ourselves that are polished and pretty and right.  I want to find my way out of that.  I want to push and prod my way out of the web like Frodo from Shelob’s lair.  I’m not sure where I’m going or how I’ll get there, or if I’ll end up a mess on the floor, but I want to try.  I want April to be a jumping off point, a “yes” to this thudding ache in my heart.

Of course, I feel afraid.  I feel sticky and clumsy and I think that if I write it, you’ll probably see me fail. But I think you know. I think you know what it takes to do a hard thing, and I think you have that which it requires. In fact, I know you do, because I know I have it too. Let’s all be brave.

“Everybody’s got a story and it’s not the one they’re telling.” –Donald Miller