The Letter Keeper

If you want to be a writer, Casey: “I have a few simple rules. Maybe they’ll work for you. First, books don’t write themselves. Every day we show up to a white page. Which means you’ve got to put in the time. If your butt is not in the seat, then you’re probably more enamored with being called a writer than actually being one. There’s a difference. Second. I sweat my books more than write them, and I’m a better rewriter and writer. So just get it on paper. Sounds gross but just vomit it out. You can edit later. But you can’t edit what’s not there. Third, honest trumps intelligence. So tell the truth and don’t use words you don’t understand. Readers can spot a fake a mile away. Last, you are the only you on planet earth. Out of seven billion people, you’re the only one who sounds like Casey. No one else has your voice. So find it and use it.”

“There’s a thing that happens when we start to believe the lies about ourselves, and when we think other people believe hem too. Those lies become our prison. The bars we see through. They hold us captive. Every few minutes it’ll let us up, only to sink us farther the next go-around. A vicious cycle. In my experience, only one thing on planet earth breaks the power of that hand and flings open wide the prison doors: the truth. And until you speak with your mouth, you’re bound.”

“If my life experience had taught me anything, it’s this: the wounds of the past carry a lot of weight when it comes to walking into one’s future, and if anything can rob you of now, it’s yesterday. We are really good at taking the pain of our past and projecting it into our future because it’s what we know, and yet our past has almost nothing to do with our future other than being connected by seconds. That’s it. So we face a choice. Either shine a light on yesterday and expose it, or forfeit the joy of now and the hope of tomorrow. This is easier said than done, but left untreated, experiential pain becomes a fortress in our gut that houses a lie spoken by fear. And behind that fear is an idol of our own making to protect ourselves. This whole thing is a cyclical downward spiral. We can’t protect us. Fear would suggest we can, but fear is a liar. Always has been”