Writing to Learn What We Think

Writing, Opening a Deep Well

Writing is not just jotting down ideas.  Often we say:  “I don’t know what to write.
I have no thoughts worth writing down.”  But much good writing emerges from the
process of writing itself.  As we simply sit down in front of a sheet of paper
and start to express in words what is on our minds or in our hearts, new ideas emerge,
ideas that can surprise us and lead us to inner places we hardly knew were there.

One of the most satisfying aspects of writing is that it can open in us deep wells
of hidden treasures that are beautiful for us as well as for others to see.

– Henri J. M. Nouwen