I was flipping through the Fall 2008 issue of Brain, Child when I read the following words:

“All of my life I’d believed that writing was my calling, my passion, my reason for being, my greatest contribution to the betterment of the world, but that theory of my life unraveled completely when I became a mother. I had a new passion now. A new reason for being.”

I felt a jolt of recognition as I read these words, mixed with regret, guilt, and bewilderment.

But I also felt hope.

After all, I was reading a piece by Cheryl Strayed.

And since writing those words, Strayed had gone on to write and publish the best-selling Wild and, my personal favorite, Tiny Beautiful Things. [Read more…]