Christmas and the writer

I tried to finish my Christmas shopping today.

I am a writer.

Someone suggested I could write stories and give them as gifts for Christmas and even suggested that some people in my family have been expecting something like this from me for some time now. This person said that all it would cost me is time. This person does not understand what storytelling is or what it means to me. If anyone did understand they would know that such an undertaking would take much more than just time. I do not just put time into the creation of a story. It takes much more than that.

Maybe what really bothers me is that I did not think of it myself. I have long desired to share my stories with the world. It did not occur to me to craft stories just for my family.
If I did do this I would not be able to write just one story for everyone. It just would not work. Everyone would get their own story. They would not be long but each one would have to be custom written for the person they would be given to.

But the idea is not my own so I can't do it. Maybe some other year I will remember early enough and I will be able to do something like this for everyone in my family. Not just my parents and my sisters but everyone, my cousins, and aunts and uncles and grandparents and even the ones I barely know and never talk to.

But I can't do it this year. The person who suggested it said all it would cost me is time. That one statement made me feel so alone and hopeless that I barely have the strength to write this now.

Maybe someday I will share my stories with the world and someone out there will be able to grasp what the process of writing and storytelling really means to me. But that is not today.

I love Christmas. I love this time of year. I wish more people understood the real reason behind why I do.

The only way I think I might be able to make any of this make sense is to tell you that I believe in Santa Claus. I don't know if he really lives at the North Pole and has flying reindeer or bends time and space to deliver presents. I have never seen these things.

I believe in Santa Claus the way I believe in Superman. I believe in what they stand for. I believe in the things they are meant to represent.

In closing all I can say is Merry Christmas to all.
I hope none of you are alone.