Sometimes we become so caught up in writing as a project to complete for a “requirement” we forget that the best writing is the kind that moves us or leaves us breathless or in awe. Artists know something that many of us would benefit from knowing: when we create, we bless others by giving it away as a gift of ourselves.

Somehow it seems obvious to paint a picture and give it to your mother for her birthday. It seems less obvious (perhaps never even thought of) to write a memory and send that to your mother as her gift.

One of my girlfriends (who is naturally a very brave person) wrote a little freewrite with me and a few others. She focused on a summer vacation she took with her family when she was sixteen. Her memory circled back to include lots of precious moments with her brother.

As we discussed our memories (both of us grew up in southern California and have a surprising number of similarities in our up-bringings), she realized that the very next day would be her brother’s birthday. She thought, “What if I sent this freewrite to my brother?” Suddenly, she got cold feet and wondered how he’d receive it. She even wrote, “Maybe this would be BRAVE for me.”

A few of us urged her to send it and to see what would happen. So she clicked the send button and waited…

Do you know that he called her the next day in tears? This is a grown man, in tears, recalling a childhood memory through his sister’s writing. Apparently, their mother sat in the background crying too. She got to hear the story of their special summer through her daughter’s eyes and it moved her too.

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Julie Bogart is the author of The Brave Learner. She homeschooled her five children for seventeen years. Now she runs Brave Writer, the online writing and language arts program for families, and is the founder of The Homeschool Alliance and Poetry Teatime.