Words are Powerful
Overcoming Challenges in Writing
When I first moved from New Jersey to Tucson in 2009 I continued facilitating writing workshops about the power of words. Meeting Jennifer Laurie Beauchamp, I was inspired by her tenacity to keep writing. She overcame a childhood diagnosis of dyslexia and learning disabilities. She ignored high school “advice” to just get married because she’d never make it in college. She persevered writing, learning, and publishing.
This dear friend and fellow writing colleague Jennifer Laurie Beauchamp sent me a moving piece after one of our workshops in 2011. After living in Tucson for many years, she and her husband moved to North Carolina.
Technology allows us to stay in touch via our weekly Zoom with the Eastside Tucson Writing Room. Over the years, we have talked about the power of words. “Words are powerful” has been my mantra for decades.
At a recent Zoom meeting the topic came up again how we writers use our love of words and the power of words for educational, inspirational, entertaining, and historical purposes.
And Jennifer, who not only at overcame her earlier challenges, but is also a wonder at saving, filing, and archiving her work, pulled out that 2011 piece. Being connected with tenacious wordsmiths is part of why I love writing groups. I am proud to reprint Long Time Ago here with Jennifer’s permission.
Guest Blogger
April 16, 2011
Long Time Ago
Jennifer Laurie Beauchamp
I am a woman who writes within fragments of time. Time squeezed from my job, the vacuum, laundry, dusting, and never-ending commitments. Time is sometimes stolen from my husband, friends, and family. I am always chasing time in the business of my day. Looking for a space to appease the passion I must put down on paper -the thoughts and stories that never stop rambling in my head.
Passions that were there sulking under my skin from my very beginning, mixing with drawings that mingled with little poems on pages in stacks of blank books. Rambling thoughts and captured words tied down in pencil, gathered and mixed ever so carefully from life.
Listening … always listening to words, how they are said, and where they are used. Recording … on scraps of paper a single line from a movie within the soft glow from the screen light, or a phrase in a book I’m reading that captured my imagination. Stopping no matter what I am doing, just to write it all down in my little blank book.
I am a woman who writes with the newfound freedom of a laptop computer. Freedom, now I write anywhere, any time, and any place. Nothing holds me back, always in constant search for those precious fragments of time.
No longer a pause to try to spell a word … I just type no matter how many-colored lines flash on the screen before me. I watch backwards letters instantly dance together to become the word I wanted. Spellcheck has become a very good friend.
Thank you, Ethel, for offering an environment where our “Words are Powerful”! I so enjoyed spending that fragment of time with all the special ladies that were also in attendance.
Sincerely blessed,
Jennifer Beauchamp
“Keep Writing”
15 Years Later and 1900 Miles Apart
I still see Jennifer every Tuesday at the Eastside Tucson Writing Room as members Zoom in from 9 different states to share what’s new/the same/ tough/ exhilarating in our writing lives. Love words? Are you writing? Waiting for something to happen before you write? Join us. Contact Ethel
Ethel Lee-Miller blogs regularly about people, the power of words, and her writing life. She retired after 30 years of teaching, and semi-retired from coaching, and professional editing. Founder of the Eastside Tucson Writing Room based in Tucson AZ, she’s posted 100s of blogs, and is the author of Thinking of Miller Place, and Seedlings, Stories of Relationships. These days she writes to inspire, to connect with folks, teaching about the power of words, gather writers together, and for the pure enjoyment of it. Ethel enjoys teaching, speaking, and storytelling at Odyssey Storytelling, Artists Standing Strong Together, Tucson Tellers of Tales Center for Spiritual Living Tucson, and anywhere there’s a mic or a Zoom room.
Jennifer Laurie Beauchamp lives and writes in North Carolina, always searching and using powerful words. www.jenniferbeauchamp.com Author/Writer/Speaker. Mischief on the Farm; Sheller and Tacky the Cactus Wren; Whose Forest Is It? NEW SERIES: “Roots Tied Down”