Celebrating 1,000 Columns

When I told my daughter that this is my 1,000^th column, she said, “Mom, you should write about Anne of a Thousand Days.” Most folks know about Anne Boleyn, the second queen of Henry VIII. The drama, written by Maxwell Anderson, was my first step into acting at age 15. I was a very shy girl back then. I was also the only sophomore on the Cardinal Mooney State Championship Speech Team. When my coach, the late, great Denny Barrett died of esophageal cancer at age 42, I decided to become a teacher and do what he did: help kids like me find their voice. I know that was God’s intention.

 

When I started writing my column over 20 years ago, I had two preschool children, two dogs, a big house and two part-time jobs, one teaching children’s theatre and one writing a weekly column. I just knew that was what I was meant to do.  I was a dig- in- the- mud kind of girl who wanted to show my students they mattered.  I also had a need to write for my readers each week.

 

The beauty of my rather simple life is, although I won’t be collecting big bucks as retirement draws near, I will have a great deal of satisfaction with having met some of the goals I set for myself long ago.  I loved my students. I was a good mom, or at least that’s what my kids tell me. I had a boatload of dogs, two of which I trained to do therapy work. I wrote a book about one of them. I published feature articles for national periodicals.  And through both teaching and writing, I found my voice.

 

I took a walk down Memory Lane a few days ago, watching Robin Williams perform in one of my favorite movies, The Dead Poets’ Society. Williams’ role in the film, a teacher tells his students, “Find your voice, boys!” It sounds like a simple task when I think about life in retrospect, but in truth, it Is perhaps the hardest task of all: to find what you were meant to be and speak of it with pride and determimation.

 

Over 20 years now, I’ve written columns about being a mother, helping my parents and in-laws find life’s end. I’ve written about teaching and writing, losing friends and loving one another. And no, life isn’t always easy, and that’s why we have God. Because He knows our voices long before we ever utter a single word. 

 

 So thank you, dear friends, for reading my column for 20 years. Thank you for helping me find my voice. I pray in some small way I’ve helped you find yours. 

 

And who knows, if God is willing, maybe I will write another thousand. It’s all in His hands.