“The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree,

and in my case, it fell down three branches

and knocked me on the head one day.”

-Keri Wilt (Me)

You see, I am the great-great Granddaughter of France’s Hodgson Burnett. (No pressure right?) Evidently, she’s kind of a big deal in the writing world…writing over 60 book, 15 plays, and 1000 or more short stories. Does The Secret Garden ring a bell? She wrote it.

I wrote a ton when I was young, having stacks of notes, poems, and short stories shoved under the bed in my perpetually messy room. I even had one poem published in my High School’s art book called “Puzzled to Pieces”, which would have made a GREAT country song…and may still.  Mrs. Nealy, my senior English teacher even called the counselor in once after having concerns that my writing was too vividly written for a high school student. She assumed I must have had experienced some of the dark things I had written about, but it was just my imagination…life at home was all in all pretty great.  I just loved to write…about anything and everything.

So, I headed off to college with the intention of getting a Degree in English and a minor in Journalism. I was going to be a writer.

With high hopes, I walked into my English 101 class with stories filling my head. I couldn’t wait to start. My professor had no idea how this one class would change my direction…but thankfully not forever. Since the messy room thing carried over to my punctuation and spelling, and this was pre-autocorrect, I struggled in this Freshman English class and got a C. What??? This was supposed to be something I was good at…a C???

I immediately questioned my gift and began searching for another degree. Oh, and I stopped writing.

I found that I could get a Communications/Public Speaking Degree and still “kind of” write, but no one then could judge my written word…as I just had to speak it. Done.

Fast-forward through graduation, marrying the love of my life, a career in sales/marketing, two kids, moving to the hill country, building a business, piling my plate too full, then emptying it all off, getting chickens, growing a ginormous garden and getting tight with God.

Then, I started Bible journaling. It was the first time I had written a word since college. The more I wrote, the more was revealed.

And then…I read THE book. (Insert brain exploding sounds and hand gestures here.)

You know the one…The Secret Garden.

Oh, and I was reading it for the first time EVER. See CONFESSION for the full story there.

My brain was now on overdrive…and the words started pouring out of me again. I was inspired and illuminated…but I was a mom, a business owner…and just plain tired. So my quick burst of inspiration gave way to harried schedules and basketball games, and the creative writing went back on the shelf again.

But my Bible journaling continued, and that God dude…He is tenacious. The connections that my time journaling was making back to Frances, her life and words were comical at times. Frances stayed on my mind and in my heart. Then, inspired after a week at Lucky Star Art Camp, my creative soul began to reawaken and the call of her words grew stronger.

I could no longer ignore the strong pull of Frances, her words and my own writing, so I decided to start this crazy fun project, FHB and Me. What happens from here, you will just have to follow along, because I have no clue where this adventure is going to take me, but I am CRAZY EXCITED and following God every step of the way.

Going places together,

FHB and especially Me

LET’s CHAT ABOUT IT:

What dreams of yours are you ready to take off that shelf?? Tell us below so we can cheer you on!