Bravery

 Lately, several of the bloggers I follow have opened up to the webiverse. Deep, dark secrets and pains that have received amazing response and encouragement...solidarity. 

It's been incredible to be a part of it...even just as a reader. Because the bravery it takes to show the world what lies beneath your skin...is massive.

I've been learning, over these past couple years, to be a bit braver.

It's a daily process for someone like me. I grew up solving my own problems. harbouring my secrets. running through my own scenarios in my mind until I'd resolved my issues. I internalise. Keep it close to the vest.

But the thing is, we all have pain. something hurt us. someone hurt us. we hurt ourselves.

so, taking the blogiverse...this personal, world-wide diary, and using it to reach out...to blast through our boundaries...that's beautiful. Because in telling, we heal. in sharing, we find kindred spirits. and in saying "I hurt" we can start finding the tools to heal.

I'm getting there slowly. I still push the bullshit into the shadows. but I'm getting there.

I hurt. step one.

Prompt #93: Write about that thing you've been afraid to write about.

Hurl words into the darkness...

I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all.  ~Richard Wright, American Hunger, 1977

There's nothing to writing.  All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.  ~Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith 

As writers, we have all hurled those words, we have all opened that vein...it is part of living, breathing, swimming in, our art. We are compelled to put our words to paper, in the hope of sharing it with the world; in the hope of feeding that frenzy; in the hope of reaching out to even one other soul who might take comfort, find solace or recognition in those words. 

We bleed onto the page, slice open our souls, pin emotion to the walls and wait...wait for an agent, an editor, a publisher, a friend, a stranger, anyone...to tell us we've done it. it's good. it's wonderful. it's ready. it's perfect.

and then...then, we do it all again. because we are never done writing; creating.

It takes bravery, persistence, a ridiculously thick skin, and a hell of a lot of gumption...but do it! Because you'll not regret trying, but you will mourn giving up. 

Prompt #72: Are you holding back or are you going for it?