We, who are your closest friends, feel the time has come to tell you that every Thursday we have been meeting, as a group,

to devise ways to keep you in perpetual uncertainty frustration discontent and torture by neither loving you as much as you want nor cutting you adrift.

Your analyst is in on it, plus your boyfriend and your ex-husband; and we have pledged to disappoint you as long as you need us.

In announcing our association we realize we have placed in your hands a possible antidote against uncertainty indeed against ourselves.

But since our Thursday nights have brought us to a community of purpose rare in itself with you as the natural center, we feel hopeful you will continue to make unreasonable demands for affection if not as a consequence of your disastrous personality then for the good of the collective.

By Phillip Lopate

This is another quote from the book “Bird by Bird” by Anne Lammott and is a fantastic example of how, if one is paranoid about life, you can use it to your advantage in your writing.

I know a lot of people who want to do many things and certain factors will stop them in their tracks. One of these people may be you. Whether these things are mere feelings that float in and out of your being or external physical factors that stop you then I assure you, you are not alone.

I don’t know if you’ve read my post on imposter syndrome but it happens to a lot of us.

Sometimes, we wonder how we’ve had the audacity to step and do something about something we feel strongly about, without letting the opinion of others bother us!

Well, I truly believe it’s because you were created to do a certain thing, act a certain way, and without answering that call you will then sit down in defeat and submit to a life less colourful. You think you haven’t got a choice. You think it’s for the best. What you don’t think is that it will not leave you alone.

That thing, whatever it may be, will follow you. It will chase you. And you may not realise it at first but it’s the job you can’t turn down, the work you drop everything to complete, the thing that swims in your subconscious at all times.

When you have finally noticed this thing, keep hold of it because it will grow your soul and make you fly in a way you never thought was possible.

Yes, it will give you wings and take you places you’ve never been to ever before. It even has the capacity to enlarge your heart and now when you share it, you can’t help but smile because it’s something so precious and you were looking for it for so long but it was inside you the whole time.

So, I guess this post is about the fact that everyone feels a bit paranoid sometimes and that, if you’re a writer, you can use this information to write something true about it.

If you’re not a writer, you may not get this post!

But maybe something else has been chasing you for a while. Have you figured out what it is yet, let me know by commenting below!

It’s been lovely catching up with you this evening.

Peace and love,

Sidra