{"id":852,"date":"2017-04-22T11:31:03","date_gmt":"2017-04-22T16:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=852"},"modified":"2017-07-03T09:18:26","modified_gmt":"2017-07-03T14:18:26","slug":"heart-to-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=852","title":{"rendered":"Heart to Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clarissa takes one of Richard\u2019s hands in hers. She is surprised, even now, at how frail it is\u2014how palpably it resembles a bundle of twigs.<\/em>
\n He says, \u201cHere we are. Don\u2019t you think?\u201d<\/em>
\n \u201cPardon me?\u201d<\/em>
\n \u201cWe\u2019re middle-aged and we\u2019re young lovers standing beside a pond. We\u2019re everything, all at once. Isn\u2019t it remarkable?\u201d<\/em>
\n \u201cYes.\u201d<\/em>
\n \u201cI don\u2019t have any regrets, really, except that one. I wanted to write about you, about us, really. Do you know what I mean? I wanted to write about everything, the life we\u2019re having and the lives we might have had. I wanted to write about all the ways we might die.\u201d The Hours, Michael Cunningham<\/em><\/p>\n

Someone once said a writer needs to write like a cow needs to give milk. The act of putting words on the page, of composing\u2014just that action\u2014brings the writer the same satisfaction an old milk cow gets when her full udder is emptied. I believe this is a true comparison. There is an ache in the need to write, a yearning to\u2014by some combination of insight and capacity and skill\u2014distill into sentences life’s\u00a0wonder, its vastness, its past and present and future.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I feel as if I’ve taken into my own heart the aching heart of every writer whose work I’ve tried to\u00a0comprehend. Perhaps this is the tribal ritual of writers, past and present, our version of pulling a brave warrior’s heart from his chest and eating it. We feast on the fierce originality of those whose tracks\u2014ink on paper\u2014we follow, and thereby we become fierce and original, too.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarissa takes one of Richard\u2019s hands in hers. She is surprised, even now, at how frail it is\u2014how palpably it resembles a bundle of twigs. He says, \u201cHere we are. Don\u2019t you think?\u201d \u201cPardon me?\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re middle-aged and we\u2019re young … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[17,15],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Mo02-dK","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":485,"url":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=485","url_meta":{"origin":852,"position":0},"title":"The Tyro","author":"lsimonds","date":"July 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"tyro, noun, a beginner in learning anything; novice. The Fourth Edition of The Elements of Style includes a section titled, An Approach to Style, supplied by E. B. White - every writer's colleague and friend - who brought us Professor Strunk's pithy little book in the first place. Item 14\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2015"","block_context":{"text":"2015","link":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":553,"url":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=553","url_meta":{"origin":852,"position":1},"title":"Vanity","author":"lsimonds","date":"September 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"(This essay was originally posted in July 2016) \"Writing is very silly business at best.\u201d John Steinbeck I can\u2019t say it any better than Mr. Steinbeck. Recently, I\u2019ve thought about what my answer would be if I were asked, \u201cWhy do you write?\u201d Or, more to the point, \u201cWhy did\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016"","block_context":{"text":"2016","link":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?cat=16"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":392,"url":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=392","url_meta":{"origin":852,"position":2},"title":"Altars and Ambition","author":"lsimonds","date":"July 31, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cAs for man, his days are like grass; as the flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2014"","block_context":{"text":"2014","link":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?cat=11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":829,"url":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=829","url_meta":{"origin":852,"position":3},"title":"Love The One You’re With","author":"lsimonds","date":"March 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Tribe. n.\u00a0a group of persons having a common character, occupation, or interest \"If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.\" Romans 12:18 ESV I recently enjoyed the company of a three year old for\u00a0a few days\u2014the daughter of good friends. She lives in another town,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2017"","block_context":{"text":"2017","link":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?cat=17"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1556,"url":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=1556","url_meta":{"origin":852,"position":4},"title":"In Search of Je Ne Sais Quoi","author":"lsimonds","date":"December 1, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"First and foremost, my heartfelt thanks to Blake Kimzey and Writing Workshops Dallas for inviting me to post on the WWD blog, where this appeared on November 30, 2020 My second novel, Stork Bite, released in November 2020, after eight years of working and reworking it. I had wanted to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2020"","block_context":{"text":"2020","link":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?cat=20"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":268,"url":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=268","url_meta":{"origin":852,"position":5},"title":"Mission Impossible","author":"lsimonds","date":"February 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cBut Jesus looked at them and said, \u2018With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.\u201d Mark 10:27 I\u2019m really glad Brian De Palma and Company brought the wonderful spy thriller Mission Impossible to a new generation. I grew up glued to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2013"","block_context":{"text":"2013","link":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=852"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":858,"href":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852\/revisions\/858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}