Faith

Faith. It’s the engine of everything I do. Well, maybe not all the time, but just about anything anyway.

Flipping back in my notebook, I come across the notes for a World Literature class I took in fall 2008. On the last page of the notes, in point-form, I documented the class when we were in a teleconference with Gina Ochsner, an award-winning author. We had been assigned to read two of her short stories,Articles of Faith and Halves of a Whole in her book People I Wanted to Be. It’s been almost two years now, and only the titles sounds vaguely familiar. But I remember her stories centered around the themes of the “good” supernatural forces and magical realism. She believes in ghosts and is superstitious. Regardless of how skeptical I was about the beliefs she held, I enjoyed her stories. Then when she she mentioned that

faith is the engine of her writing

I had no doubt she was going to be a great writer (as if she wasn’t already).

Faith is sure belief and trust. Faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of things even if you cannot see them.

Having faith in what I do, what I want to do, and what I can accomplish is what gets me through the day. I don’t know how anyone can carry on with their life without having at least a little bit of faith. I can’t guarantee that my degree will ensure me a well-paying job. But I have faith in myself, in what I learnt and will learn, and in my abilities that I will eventually get there. Having faith in life helps you to accomplish a lot of things, things which you might otherwise think is impossible.

Yet like how life is unfair, there are times when spirits are weary and your faith can wear thin. When that does happen, doubt starts to settle and your belief and trust weavers. So… what then, what if you do lose faith? You sink really really low… and it’ll probably take a long time to rebuild your faith. That’s when friends and family comes in handy. And hopefully their faith is infectious enough that at least you can take a little faith bug away from them.

Then you can pick up where you left off. Or not, if it’s better to start new.

I’d like to believe that I’m a pretty faithful person. Yet I don’t know if I have faith in my writing. I love using words to express myself. Sometimes they are not the most appropriate, or that they reveal too much. Writing makes me feel vulnerable… when I am indeed writing about what I’m feeling. But I guess I wouldn’t be doing it unless I have at least a little faith. Even the tiniest amount counts. Faith, it’s what carries you and me across the page.