Crisis of Confidence Averted and Some Heartfelt Thank Yous - #Slice2012

I'm going to make a disclaimer as I write this final slice: I am watching all the Final Four basketball games; currently the Kentucky/Louisville one.  I'm hoping that the phrase, "And one!" doesn't accidentally appear in my writing (a little joke for any basketball fans that might be reading this post).

I enjoy writing, but this past year as I got out of the practice, it got very difficult.  I began to have a very large crisis of confidence about myself as a writer.  I had written exactly 30 blog posts and 1 Choice Literacy post between the months of April 2011 and December 2011.  I'm not sure that's even an average of four posts per month.

Life kept getting in the way and my inability to jumpstart my own writing plans got worse.  As with anything I keep putting off, the longer I went without writing, the harder it became to sit down with a notebook or my laptop.  Nothing positive was happening.

 Then, in November, I got a glimmer of the writer within me when I found out I would be attending a writing retreat this summer.  But July, the time of that retreat, seemed so far away.  What was I going to do NOW?

And then in February, during the Dublin Literacy Conference,  I heard Ruth Ayres speak, and she spoke so eloquently about how we need to live the life of a writer, and that means simply, we need to write.  We need to make time to write each and every day.  As an aside, one of my favorite posts of Ruth's during the Slice Challenge was her post titled, "B.I.C."  Like many others, I assumed she was talking about the pen, but no, she was talking about "butt in chair".  That's what she needed to do to meet some writing deadlines.  Ruth's talk inspired me and I knew it was time for me to try the Slice of Life Challenge.

 When I originally thought about this post, I assumed I would be listing my final reflections about this challenge.  But, as I typed, I realized what I really want to say is, "Thank you."

Thank you to:

 Ruth for her initial inspiration

Kelli for telling the truth, the good and the bad, and doing it with such great voice

Linda, who spread her positive attitude, even while dealing with issues of her own

Katherine because I realized we have so much in common and you introduced me to Daufuskie Island

Cathy for every single thoughtful comment she left for each of us; she helped me grow as a writer

Cindy for typing even while on meds and amusing us all

Julie for all the thoughtful posts about family and being that "old lady" in the fun sports car

Jen for being brave and trying a fiction piece

Nicole for being the kind of teacher that "shows" her students how big a blue whale is

Josie for starting a blog just for this challenge and sharing a love of literacy, kids, and family with me

Carol for sharing the heart-wrenching and joyful story of how she became a family with her two sons

Mardie for being such a determined biker chick

Stacey who loves her daughter so much and it shines through each of her posts

Mandy who is in the middle of assessing 44 kindergarteners and still found time to post each day
Katie D for sharing her love of teaching first graders

Michelle for being my model/mentor for writing poetry; because of you I tried it and succeeded

Ann Marie for writing so beautifully about teaching an adult to read
Laura for sharing my love of Delirium and Pandemonium (how soon can she write the 3rd?!!)

Elsie for writing about the flirty pansies and how we're still parents no matter how old our children are

Deb F who missed me on twitter but still stopped by to leave me comments while I was slicing

Bill, my blog partner, for letting me highjack our blog for the month of March

Everyone else who stopped by to keep me company these last 31 days.

I couldn't have done it without all of you.

It really did take a village to help me become a writer again.

Thanks from the bottom of my heart!!!