Words Can Bring Joy, Peace, Awe, and . . . Inspiration

My friend Joe Kopp took the photo to your right. It's beautiful, huh? Here's what he said with the photo post on Facebook,"I've found a passion in photography. Bob Ross said, 'Look around. Look at what we have. Beauty is everywhere—you only have to look to see it.'" And Joe plans to post one photo of his every day in February to share a small moment of joy, peace, or awe with his friends and family.

I didn't have a topic for my blog day yet when I saw this pop up in my newsfeed; and this photo was so beautiful, I told him: "I'm going to use your photo as some kind of inspiration for my blog post on WOW! this week"

But really, it is not his photo that inspired me today, it is his words.

As writers, we have the power to share a small moment of joy, peace, or awe with our connections every day, week, or month of the year--whether it's through a Facebook status, a tweet or a blog post--you are in control of the message you're putting out in the world. And currently, with all the negativity floating around, that really is a very powerful and precious gift we've been given.
The wonderful thing about being a writer today is that you don't have to wait to get your book published or for a magazine to accept your piece to have readers. We have readers at our fingertips within seconds of "publishing" our words. How are we choosing to use these outlets to share our writing talent? Are we providing moments of joy, peace, or awe?

Whenever I write posts like these, I always feel the need to say that I'm not perfect at the action I'm trying to convince you to take or consider--and here I am saying it again with this post. I don't always think about my message before I post. Although in the middle of writing this post, I'm also literally realizing the great opportunity we have every single day to touch the lives of people with our words; a lot of the time these are people we know, love, and care about. From this day on, I plan to take these opportunities more seriously, and I will add something to Joe's list of small moments.

I want to add inspiration. I hope my words can inspire people to improve their lives, to do something kind that day, or to create words of their own. Joe's words and photo did inspire me! I want to do the same.

May you see, read, or write something today that brings you a small moment of joy, peace, awe, or inspiration.

Margo L. Dill is an author, editor, blogger, and teacher, living in St. Louis, MO. You can find out more about her at http://www.margoldill.com. Her next WOW! online class, Writing a Novel with a Writing Coach, starts tomorrow, Feb. 3. Check that out here.

Beach photo: 2008 near Seaside Florida by Joe Kopp (http://www.joekoppart.com)