There's something interesting about October. I can't explain it, but it makes October special, and it also makes it one of my favorite months of the year.
October is when the leaves blaze like fire and the air begins to cool. It's when the frost first forms on the grass and the sky rains with color. It's when Christmas is but a breath away and the year is becoming old. Candles once again become a treasure as the preparation for cold, cozy days begins. The fireplace is lit for the first time since February and while the walls of the house seem to close in, they also become lined with a sense of warmth and security not held in the summer months. It's letting go of one season and entering another. It's in this month that I feel both loss and gain. Loss in that time is passing, and it goes ever on with every second, October symbolizing just one more year soon to depart. Gain in that over the last year I have grown in skill and understanding, and while I know I don't hold every answer, I'm learning.
I can't tell you why October means all of this to me. It just does. It always has. And one of the last elements of October that makes me feel this way is the creativity.
Something about this month makes me want to build something beautiful. So I start to write. Usually I start a novel without knowing where it will take me. The last time I did this it ended in a completed novel after almost three years. But novels aren't the only things on my mind. I also try poetry, which I usually refer to as 'epics', because they have no pattern, no rhyme, it's just me and the page trying to make something meaningful. Something real.
As winter comes closer, I feel the need to build. To imagine. And it wasn’t until a few years ago that I knew how important the things we create can be. How they can be powerful.
I believe that the world needs more stories. It could be argued that stories are simply a repeat of themselves, that it's always the same good and evil duking it out. But I think that fight between good and evil is exactly what we need more of. In a world that is trying to tear itself apart from Who made it, we, as writers, need to write more. And not just stories. But stories that mean something.
The world needs truth. So write what is true. The world needs loyalty. So write what is loyal. The world needs courage. So write what is brave. The world needs honesty. So write what is honest. The world needs goodness. So write what is good. The world needs real. So write what is real.
Do you know what the most real thing in the world is? Good and evil. That's what everything boils down to, isn't it? That final fight of good and evil, and who stands on which side in the war?
So writers, this October as we prepare for winter, tell stories. Tell truth. Write stories for Him. Write because the world needs it. Whether it's ready or not.