I’m a songwriter.

Yes, I am. But the Universe knows it took me years before I finally can say I’m one!

If you’ve read my life story, then you’d know that I began to write songs from the age of 28. It was the first time I could “present” a song with the lyrics and the melody. But in reality, the beginning of my songwriting didn’t start when I was 28 as my father unknowingly supported and seeded my songwriting already from my childhood.

You see, my beloved father was a writer and a poet. I often saw him sitting at his desk, writing something for many hours after work. I didn’t know what he did until I was 11. At that time, my best childhood friend and I came up with an idea that we would write poems to each other. We had a notebook, and one of us would write one poem in the notebook and then give it to the other to write the next poem. Each week, we exchanged the notebook and talked about our poems when we met in the evenings. Those were my happy days. Even though it was a “secret” between us, one day I showed it to my father. After reading a few poems of mine, he opened up and taught me the art of poetry. The rules of rhyme, the rhythm, the choice of words, etc. I remembered to have felt his passion and love for poetry, and that’s also where I knew about his writing. I found it difficult to come up with the rhyme, but I took it all in and applied it to my poems.

It was one moment in life where one couldn’t realize the impact of it until many years later. It was my “practice” of songwriting and the beginning of my exploration into the world of imagination.

I learned about the power of words.
And how it shaped our reality more than we know!

I also learned that words have their own rhythm and to be a poet, I have to learn to listen to it. Not only with my ears, but also with my body. I have to feel it. Internalize it. And let it show me its rhythm without forcing my will on the process of feeling and writing.

It’s a sacred journey. Because when I write songs, it’s not only about sharing a message but it’s highly about diving deeper into the secret and the mystery of Life itself!

Most of the time, I don’t know how it will turn out. Like a spider web. While building the web, the spider probably wouldn’t know about the result, and it would patiently weave one thread at a time. Patience is required, just like the picture that I took from one of my walks in the forest, a spider web with a snail on a twig. It illustrates my process of songwriting perfectly.

In the end, it’s an attempt to uncover the mystery of life, where poetry is a beautiful expression of the sacred journey.

Now I know everything is connected. Most of the time, I only see the meaning backward and not when it’s unfolding. But that’s exactly how it should be; magic, poetry, songwriting, my father, and me. 

Be magical,

Elanor