Morning Musings July 17, 2022, Sister Friends

Editing is a love hate process for me. Words fall out my fingers raw and unrefined, scratching a vague, rough sketch of an image, living in my head, upon the page. Sometimes, serendipitously perfect, but more often than not needing more than a little zhuzhing to bring the image into focus.

Luckily, I have some discerning friends who are always willing to offer an opinion, and though we don't always agree, they challenge me to up my game as an author, artist and human.

These Sister Friends are brave souls who valiantly face my chaos, and unabashedly share their own. Our relationship is unique in that, unlike so many other relationships between women, there is no competition. We each uplift, encourage, and edify each other as loudly and publicly as we do privately. This is new for me; I tend in to be a bit much for some folks, but these women are here for me in all my me-ness, and they genuinely want my success as adamantly as I wish for theirs.

What do Sister Friends have to do with editing? Well, for me, these trusted voices offer the opportunity to explore not only the words and pictures, but the subtlety of the smoke and shadow that surround them in my mind. I know what I want to say, and they hold me to the high bar of expressing it in a way that is impeccable to my intended message. When I read for others, it is this spirit that I bring with me. The desire for one's truth to be told in a way others can hear and understand.