It’s a funny thing.

You write because you want your thoughts and your ideas to be shared, to be enjoyed. You want to express your mental machinations and maybe share an insight or two on life and things going on in the world.

And you create a platform- a blog- to do just that, to share your thoughts.

You even have a Facebook account, and a Twitter account, so you can hear and be heard.

And then when you sit down to write on your blog, your megaphone to the world, you still keep safe. You write about things that no one will take offense to. You write to keep the approval of others. You write from inside the small box you keep your mind cramped in so that everything you might really talk about is censored heavily before it leaves your head and ends up online.

You write, but you still say what everyone expects you to say- that which is clean and comfortable and agreeable, that which is acceptable to all.

And then you complain that you have nothing to write about.

The constraints are in your head.

Some people who love you won’t like what you have to say sometimes if you chase out your perspective, and lay out your opinions. That’s just life.

At some point, you have to climb out of that box- and it is okay too. Because such a box is a cage to your creativity.

But unlatching the door and climbing out of it is awkward.

In that movement, there is stress. There is tension. There is discomfort. Like in the middle of a good story.

Until you come to the end of the work and find yourself on the other side of it, and you see things a little different. You see things outside of the box, and with the eyes of your heart.

Some write to find comfort. Some write to lose it. Some write to lose themselves, and some write to find themselves.

But no matter why you do it, just write true words, as Hemingway said. “The writer’s job is to tell the truth.”Write the truest sentence that you know.” Write what is the most true for you as you can.

And as C.S. Lewis said, right as clearly as you can. “Take great pains to be clear. Remember that though you start by knowing what you mean, the reader doesn’t, and a single ill-chosen word may lead him to a total misunderstanding.”

If you write the truth you know, with a keen penchant for writing clearly, then what others do with your words is up to them.

You can write to have everyone like you and never write one meaningful thing because you never say anything that comes from deep inside of yourself.

When you avoid the risk that something you say may bother someone you know deeply, you also avoid the risk that something you share might stir, move, or even change someone else’s life.

Truth is still a double-edged sword.

You have to go into the awkward places if you are going to write about people and life. Especially those places that may be awkward to those closest to you.

You have to leave the comfort of the cage.