Over and Out After Six and a Half Years, by Georgie Tennant

Beginnings can be easier than ends sometimes, can’t they, imbued as they are with connotations of hope and expectancy? Ends are sometimes harder to face, especially as it can be tricky, can’t it, to recognise when it’s time for an end that must be of your own making?

On the More Than Writers blog, people, rightly, come and go. It is an amazing place to hone your writing skills, develop the discipline of regular posting and receive great encouragement for your writing journey – and then step aside to make space for others to do the same. I have been writing for More Than Writers since my first post on 18th August, 2017, a grand total of six and a half years. I remember feeling so grateful, at the time, that a more seasoned writer had stepped aside and made way for my fledgling thoughts. Now I know it is time for me to do the same for someone else.

So this is goodbye from me, and thank you. Thank you to Wendy Jones then Rosemary Johnson, for giving a total novice a chance to find her voice. Thank you to each and every one of you who have liked, commented and shared my posts, enabling me to grow in confidence that my words were worth reading.

For those of you just starting out where I was, six and a half years ago – be encouraged! Everyone has to start somewhere. As I began to write for the blog, scrabbling for new ideas each month, I found confidence to write for the magazine a bit too. This, in turn, encouraged me to apply to be part of the wonderful collaborative books the ACW published for Lent and for Advent. Between that and the wonderful friendships and connections made in my local ACW group and at national events, my confidence grew, leading to the realisation, this year, of a dream – to have a published book, out in the world, which many of you have kindly bought and read. Other things have begun to happen, fresh opportunities, fresh doors to walk through. Have I “made it,” in my writing “career?” Of course not – so few of us will ever feel we have. But am I taking each opportunity, each step, thanking and trusting God for a future that is in His hands? Absolutely!

I am not recalling my journey to boast, or to say, “look what I have achieved,” but to encourage all who tread the path behind me. I had no idea what I wanted to write for a very long time. It was only in the gradual opportunity-taking, connection-making and finding of my voice that things began to crystallise. So, look into the eyes of He who gave you the gift of writing in the first place, and confidently take your next, wobbling steps. Perhaps you might apply to Rosemary for the slot on the 18th March and it might be a date you look back on with gratitude and nostalgia, as I do on August 18th 2017.

Georgie Tennant is a secondary school English teacher in a Norfolk Comprehensive. She is married, with two sons, aged 15 and 13 who keep her exceptionally busy. She writes for the ACW ‘Christian Writer’ magazine occasionally, and is a contributor to the ACW-Published ‘New Life: Reflections for Lent,’ and ‘Merry Christmas, Everyone.' She has written 8 books in a phonics series, published by BookLife and was a freelance writer for King's Lynn Magazine for a while. She writes the ‘Thought for the Week’ for the local newspaper from time to time and also muses about life and loss on her blog: www.somepoemsbygeorgie.blogspot.co.uk. She was recently the winner of the BRF devotional writing competition for "The Upper Room." Her first devotional book, "The God Who Sees You," was published by Kevin Mayhew in March. https://www.kevinmayhew.com/products/the-god-who-sees-you