I have been writing this weekly column for more than four years and sometimes it can be tough coming up with a good idea.
Each week, I try and search for a topic that affected me, taught me a lesson or inspired me.
Sometimes I’ll have a bit of a rough week dealing with challenging situations and personal frustration, and then I need to dig a bit deeper to find my column topic.
A couple of columns back, I wrote about optimism. That week, I’d been overly stressed out and had significant writer’s block.
It felt like pulling teeth as I typed, and I second-guessed myself the entire way through. I wrote the column, re-read it a few times, and submitted it.
I knew it wasn’t terrible, but I wasn’t overly confident with it. I had a little anxiety over how it would be perceived. I wondered if sa国际传媒 editor and publisher Dave Obee would email me and tell me I could do better, or if readers would do the same.
When Sunday morning came, I didn’t search for my column to see what photo was selected to run with it. I avoided the website because I felt I should have done better.
The tricky thing with journalism is the deadlines. Being a columnist is something I do on the side, on top of working full-time, consulting contracts, volunteering and parenting. When the deadline comes, I need to meet it.
As I sat at home that Sunday morning feeling bad about my column, I started getting emails from readers. Throughout the day I received several emails thanking me for that column.
I had an optimist tell me that they were having a hard time looking on the bright side and said: “After reading ‘Happiness is wanting everything you have’ I became energized to rekindle my innate sense of optimism and hope! Thank you for that!”
Another reader wrote, “Today’s [column] was very timely and turned a gloomy day into a peaceful one.”
The emails legitimately brightened my gloomy day.
I haven’t had a column that I was so worried about in a long time. I was worried that I was going to let people down.
There was something really powerful about people finding merit in something that I didn’t think was good enough.
I am not writing this to garner more compliments from readers, I want to share how I was moved by the sincerity of people I’ve never met.
I am not sure what compelled people to write me, but that day I really needed it.
There are many days that people could use some kind words, and we are not going to know what those days are. The readers who wrote me, don’t know me, and had no idea how my day was going. I was writing about optimism, so they probably thought I was doing great.
I’ve written in the past about the Indigenous teaching that if you feel it in your heart to do something, you need to do it.
The folks who wrote me felt it in their heart and I am so appreciative of their kind words and the support I received from them.
I ended up emailing Obee and sharing with him the back story of my column and the kind emails I received.
In his reply to me he wrote: “A lot of people think bad news sells newspapers. I have never known that to be true, and I have been in this business a long time!”
I do get a lot of really nice emails from readers, and I appreciate it. I also get a lot of not-nice emails from readers, and I know that comes with the territory.
Things right now are tough and a kind word goes a long way. I encourage you to email someone that you’ve never met, who is doing a good job. It’ll make a bigger impact than you know.
