The Elemental Thing

In my current work in progress, I have four characters who each hold a power over one element. Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind. (Well, technically the power holds them. But I don't really want to get into logistics right now.) So I've been trying to study these elements and figure out ways for my characters to use them.

My main character, as most of you know, holds the power of the earth. Therefore, I have been spending a good deal of time standing barefoot in the dirt during all kinds of weather conditions.

I got the chance to stare at a campfire the other night and think about how fire looks and moves and acts. Wind is unavoidable for me since I live right next to a canyon. I also shower everyday, so you can imagine that I'm around water.

The funny thing is, I already have the information stored in my brain. I've spent countless hours (mostly as a child) digging in the dirt, twirling in the wind, and splashing in the water. Yet, somehow my brain didn't really understand everything I was feeling. Mostly because I didn't care; but doing these things brought all kinds of memories flooding back. It made me miss the dog days of summer where I had nothing to do but revel in the natural beauties that surrounded me.

I think most of us miss at least part of our childhood because we can never get the innocent glory of just being back again.

I guess that's why I write. So I can go back to a time when things just where and no one needed a scientific explanation for it. In the world I created, my characters do impossible things; but on paper they sound perfectly logical. (at least to me)

All of us here, even if we aren't writing books or poems, we're writers! We're writing in blogs and e-mails and always thinking about what goes on around us. For me, writing is a way to escape, but at the same time, writing is way to figure out reality.

If something in my life doesn't make sense I just put it on paper and it helps me think it through.
That's why I'm here, rambling to cyberspace. It's so I can try and understand the world around me.

If you don't take anything else from this post, I just want you all to think about why you do what you do everyday. Sure we go to work to make money, or spend a good deal of time picking up toys raising kids. But what are we doing that makes it all make sense?

For me it's writing. Sometimes I forget that this is the reason I write, and then it becomes a chore. Today, however, I'm going to take writing and let it help me remember what really matters.