You're Gonna Hear from Me

Ahem.

"I'd like to thank the Academy…"

No, wait. Wrong speech. Let's try this again.

This has been a very special week for me. The honor of being chosen as skirt.com's Muse of the Week has given me an unexpected opportunity to experiment and grow as a writer. When the very awesome Stephanie Davis emailed me with the offer, I think I lost consciousness for a moment. But I said yes - yes! Yes! - before any second thoughts or doubts could creep in and cause me to get in my own way.

In order to build muscle one has to dedicate herself to working out (or so I've heard) by completing a series of coordinated lifts and movements repetitively. When the five or ten pound weights become too easy to raise, it's time to choose something heavier. This week has been about heavy lifting for me. I had gotten (too) comfortable with my weekly or monthly dispatches. This week's wild and woolly adventure helped me develop stricter creative discipline and helped my mind hunker down (it tends to wander). It has allowed me to take a big risk and talk about subjects that I have never really let myself write about before, or even be totally honest about before. A very wise woman remarked, "We all walk around with our masks and rose-colored glasses on. If only we could just take them off and see what things are really like, that we all are really experiencing the same things at one time or another."

Thanks for reminding me, Mama.

Thank you to Stephanie Davis and skirt! for giving me a place of my own in which to rant, to mourn, to hoot and holler and dream aloud. Your support, encouragement and affirmation has meant more to me than I can fully express.

Thank you to every reader who clicked on this page and went along with me on a little journey, and also to those who commented, emailed, texted, called, or Facebooked me about something you read that got next to you or tickled you or made you remember. A major part of my writing comes from my need to know that I'm not out here tap dancing on the ledge alone, and I appreciate the feedback.

Thank you to the other writers here on skirt.com; there are so many I read and admire that I can't list you all, but your work kind of throws the gauntlet and gives me something to aspire to in my own work.

After a week of gnashing my teeth over what to write, asking myself "Can I say really that? But what if so and so reads it?" (when I should have just put up or shut up), or wondering why in God's name I didn't put on a little pressed powder before I posed for the picture that accompanies the posts...I have to say, I'm sorry to see it come to an end.

It's been a blast and a labor of love. But please believe me: this isn't good-bye.

The best is yet to come.

~Alexis