Bursting at the seams

A woman wrote to me about one of my upcoming writers' workshops.
 
She read about it on Facebook.
 
She wrote, "I'm bursting at the seams with stories but have never written any of them down. I'm about to turn 80. Is it too late to start? To even think of calling myself a writer?"
 
Her message did me in. I sat with it for a long time.
 
The image of the stories trying to burst out of the seams of a life, like an old dress that doesn't fit... your body saying no to that too-tight thing, unable to squeeze into what no longer works.
 
I sent this quote back to her. "It is never too late to be what you might have been." ~ George Eliot.
 
I really believe that. That it's never too late. That's what's so gorgeous about living. You can do what you need to do when you realize you need to do it. Writing is a practice.
 
Just pick up a pen and start.