Moving Forward

by Mike Martin, @mike54martin

It has been a long year for many people. A very difficult one, too. If you have gotten sick, I hope you recover soon. If any of your family or loved ones have passed, I am very sorry. We have been relatively lucky in Canada when we look around the world and I am grateful for that. My family has been spared, but I know many other families that have suffered quite a bit.

The good news is that there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel in terms of vaccines and better treatments for the pandemic that is still raging around us. The other good news is that if you are reading this, you have survived, too. It’s true that there are better days ahead, for all of us.

Despite the pandemic, or maybe because of it, I have written more this year than ever. During our first lockdown during the Spring I started and finished Book 10 in the Sgt. Windflower Mystery series and once I got going, I finished off Book 11, too. Both books will be published in 2021. It felt like I was being given an opportunity. The time and space to do something special, even as danger and darkness circulated around outside, I felt the light of creativity within.

I thought it was important to share that experience with you, as a writer and maybe even more importantly as a human being. The pandemic has given us all a chance to pause and think about what’s most important to us. And then to not just think, but act. Wherever you are and whatever is going on around you, I hope you can find that time and space and take advantage of it. To do something special.

The other feeling I have as I write this in the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is one of gratitude. I have been given the chance to write down my thoughts and feelings and to create adventures that spring from a special place. I do not claim ownership over my fiction writing, copyright, yes, but not ownership. The gift I have is that I can access the creative flow, the places where all stories are born, where they live and where of we listen carefully enough we can hear them being told.

My job as a writer is to simply write down what I hear from the characters who appear in my imagination. A great Indigenous writer who inspires me is Richard Wagamese. He is passed now but he said that he only claims the discipline and dedication. Everything else comes from another place. A sacred place. That is truly the job of a writer and I accept.

I am also grateful to you, the readers and fellow writers I have met on this journey. The writers who have lifted me up and the readers who have allowed my writing to travel the world. Writers need readers to echo their thoughts. Otherwise, it would be pretty lonely inside my head. Thank you.

Two final thoughts as we move forward. What if this terrible time we are surviving is actually a second chance. A do-over. What would you change if you could and now have that chance? And remember that despite everything that we see and hear and feel right now, that this is all temporary and sooner rather than later it will be over. I may be naïve but I am hoping we will come out of this better, stronger and kinder than before. Be safe. Be well. Be kind. The Dalai Lama says to be kind whenever possible. And it is always possible.

Mike Martin is the author of the award-winning Sgt. Windflower Mysteries set in Newfoundland on the easternmost tip of Canada. They are available through Amazon all over the world. He has also written Christmas in Newfoundland: Memories and Mysteries. Here is a link to this Christmas-themed collection of anecdotes and short stories.

You can follow Sgt. Windflower Mysteries on Facebook at

https://www.facebook.com/TheWalkerOnTheCapeReviewsAndMore

Photo credit: Olin Gilbert on Visual hunt / CC BY