“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” ― Anaïs Nin

Writing is something so mundane and routine that we barely pay a thought to it before we put pen to paper. But, today I want you to take a step back, clear your head and just think. Think about all the words that are going through your mind. Think about each syllable, each phrase, each sentence. Pay close attention to the pauses, the crescendos and the rhythm flowing from sentence to sentence and page to page. Most of all, allow yourself to be drawn in, so profoundly that you can feel it. Open yourself up in each line and you too will see, like me, the power that the written word holds.

Such too is the extent of its puissance over us that on lonely nights or hectic days, quiet corners or bustling streets, it engulfs us till each word gets etched into our soul. The writer’s sorrows slowly start becoming our own and their happiness, our little moments of joy. We turn each page with greater enthusiasm, not wanting to step away from this world that we created in our minds, only to be constantly reminded of its virtual existence at the end of each chapter.

It moves us till one day we accept its paradoxical inexistence and set out on our own path to find a new ending, a new story or a new world to immerse ourselves into. Whether that path has a destination, a purpose or a cause to be fulfilled and conveyed to others, is relative and perhaps, immaterial. For don’t sentences sound sweeter without a motive sometimes? To write and to be free, that is all that matters.

Often in this very chaos of words, we find a new meaning, hidden between the lines, and interpret it as a bittersweet amalgamation of our own thoughts and desires. And, each piece we write forms an inevitable part of our being that truly depicts who we are. Each emotion felt becomes a surreal memory central to all our experiences. For we believe that words are our elixir and life wouldn’t be what it is without them. So, in the words of Alfred Lord Tennyson, ‘drink life to the lees’ and don’t forget to taste each moment twice.