The other day I was editing a post I’d written about the dichotomy between gratitude and greed when a similar post popped up from the delightful and lovely blogger, Julia Preston. It wasn’t exactly the same – she was talking about a similar tension between love and fear. But it was close enough that I felt my internal defensiveness spark off instantly. Something like a voice in my head (which is cute because Julia’s blog is called Voices In My Head), “But wait – I’ve already written this. I’m not copying here!”
I know I’m not alone here because I’ve seen other comments indicating that this happens to others. I also have a 4-year-old and an 8-year-old so I know that the roots of being charged with “copying” likely go way back to our childhoods. It hits a nerve with me so that my cheeks flush and I take a mental step back.
When I return to some equanimity, I’m able to interrogate my expectation that I might ever be writing on a unique topic. There are eight billion people on this planet, about 600 million blogs, around 3 million podcasts, plus all sorts of news and writing organizations. If I think about it that way, I start to wonder why I write anything at all.
And then when the pendulum swings back to the center and I remember my values:
- Give credit where it’s due
- Appreciate when you are in good company
- Celebrate that we are all so lucky to be humans here together in this moment
- Know that we each come to a topic with our own personal flavor
Centered in all that is the beauty of writing. It might be similarly themed to something else (I’m thinking of the number of love songs in this world) but it still is valuable as a piece of self-expression.
In this case, it took me a moment to stop being greedy over my subject choice and move instead gratitude that I’m lucky enough to be in this community with like-minded others, like dear Julia. So I linked to her post at the bottom of mine so that others could follow that same thread.
I’ve published a related post on my personal blog: Climbing Out of My Gunk
Please check out these other items of interest:
More about Wynne Leon and her story-telling journey
Workshop about creativity jump start that I delivered with Dr. Vicki Atkinson
Speaking and workshops on leadership through creativity to build resilient teams
Podcast about the how and why of creativity
Articles and corporate creativity resources
Corporate evaluate your team needs for creativity
Individual creativity survey for individuals
My book about my journey to find what fueled my dad’s indelible spark and twinkle can be found on Amazon: Finding My Father’s Faith.
You can find me on Instagram and Twitter @wynneleon
(featured photo from Pexels)