I've accepted a challenge to join a group of bloggers in writing for ten minutes every day. Each day the topic will be chosen by another person. My biggest challenge in this will be the discipline of writing every day and then, of course, finding something to write about on a specific topic.

Today's assignment is to write about something you always been AFRAID to do. What is it? Why are you afraid? Are you considering doing it?

Here goes!

It's interesting to me that people who don't know me see me as a very confident, self assured person. I guess that is the persona I've developed. I do seem to accomplish what I set out to do, I can talk a good story, so I do seem to be confident,

But that's not really me. Inside, much of the time, I'm still that skinny little girl who was afraid no one would ever like her. Over the years, with the help of Jesus, I've conquered many of those very real childhood fears, but deep inside, some of them still rise up and taunt me.

So, to the subject at hand. I love to write. I like to think I have a talent for writing, but I have never really put it to the test. I write my blog, I write letters and snippets of this and that, but to really try my hand at writing, to really dig deep and see if I can do it...that I've never done.

When I retired my brother-in-law challenged me to write a book about the town in which we grew up. He and I talked for hours about the characters who would be part of the book. I thought it should be patterned after Bailey White's, Mama Makes Up Her Mind. I even started one of the essays, but that is as far as it got. I have it saved on this very computer and have gone back to look at it a few times over the past five years, but I'm afraid. There I've said it. I'm afraid.

This exercise has challenged me in more ways than to write for ten. I am seriously considering opening another blog and beginning to post the essays for my book.

The biggest fear in all of this is that, perhaps, I really can't write and no one will like it. That's why I am shaking right now. That is why I feel nervous as I read the comments on my original blog. What if I really, really can't do it?

The timer on the stove is buzzing. WHEW!