I Write Because I Miss Writing
For contemplative journalers ready to discover what sharing reveals
“I missed writing today,” I told my colleague earlier this morning.
She laughed. “So you’re going to write about missing writing?”
She was right.
As someone who guides others in contemplative walking, I know that movement helps to reveal what stillness often conceals. The same is true for writing. I don’t write to record thoughts I’ve already formed—I write to discover what I actually think.
Writing is thinking made visible.
When I journal privately, ideas stay fuzzy. When I write for others, clarity emerges. Not because I’m performing or posing, but because the act of shaping words for another human forces precision I can’t achieve alone.
This is why I have been writing and posting every day for a month and a half. I am going to limit that to Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, but this is also why I felt a certain restlessness today.
A day without posting something seems odd, as if I have stopped thinking for the day.
My body knows what my mind doesn’t.
Just like walking the Camino reveals truths that sitting meditation never could, writing reveals insights that “just thinking about it” never will. Both require movement. Both require beginning before you’re ready. Both transform you through the doing, not the planning.
Modern pilgrims don’t wait until they have everything figured out. They start walking and trust the path to teach them what they need to learn. This is why I walk.
Writers don’t wait for perfect clarity. We start writing and trust the words to show us what we know.
Tomorrow, write one paragraph about something you’ve been “thinking about.”
Try it.
Notice what emerges that wasn’t there before.
A note on this piece: Consider this an atomic essay, the writing equivalent of a contemplative walk and not a complete pilgrimage. Just 20 minutes of movement. Shorter than my usual posts. Less polished. More practice than performance. Sometimes we need these small experiments to stay connected to why we write at all.
yes exactly! As someone who writes sermons regularly, I often don't know where it will take me until I start formulating my thoughts into sentences for others. Well said!