Healing
Writing Despite Setbacks: Redirecting Personal Challenges Into Our Stories
In an ideal world, only positive things happen to us. We have all the time to write and are in the best psychological mindset. We’re free of stress, always in a zen-like state, can jump into our WIP, and immediately get into a flow. We never let anything get us down, have never experienced writer’s block, and are always in a perpetually creative mood.
The truth is most of us have bad days. We have days where we don’t feel like writing. We have days where if writer’s block doesn’t impede our creative process, circumstances outside our control land on our front doorstep. Some weeks we might be on top of the world, and then all it takes is an unexpected traumatic event to tear it down. We saw the unexpected with the pandemic and how it changed the world. There is a whole list of stressors that experts rank as being the hardest to overcome. Some of us have dealt with illness, career change, moving, the untimely death of loved ones, and more. What they all have in common is that life goes on despite hardships. Relying on good times or our feelings is as reliable as driving a 1970s Ford Pinto. The gas tank could rupture during collisions, not only a scary thing but a potentially fatal one.
Read the rest of this entry »When Crap Happens: Writing Through Trauma
When my husband and I were trying for our second child, we thought it would be simple because we conceived our first child on the first try. Little did we know the long road we would have to endure ahead. Being the creative person I am, trying to breathe life into my manuscripts and a little human at the same time was the hardest period of my life. It felt like my body was rejecting me at every turn, and so were traditional publishing houses.
Responding to Hate with Love
To clarify, love isn’t a magic wand that prevents misunderstandings, ceases all wars and dissolves emotional roadblocks. Personal baggage is a part of the process of living in an unfair world, one in which we are the results of toxic parenting styles we didn’t choose, that unite us in blood to personalities often challenging our own. Read the rest of this entry »
What Death Looks Like: A Short Story
[Warning: Not a Typical ‘Lil Pick Me Up’ Post]
The decaying fabric of his skin was melting off his bones, like wax off a long lit candle, and the whites of his eyes downgraded to a shade of gray with veins now elevated, making them bulge from the sockets. Read the rest of this entry »
Dear Past: I am Happy For You & I Forgive You!
This post isn’t about forgiving someone who is currently in your life. It’s specifically about forgiving people you no longer have contact with.
It’s easy to be happy for a friend or a loved one, or anyone who has been supportive and caring towards you. But, can you be happy for someone who has hurt you? Can you be happy for those who still haunt your soul?
How many ghosts do you have? I have a few that haunt me. They linger around whenever I am trying to live in the present, until they’ve successfully dragged me back into the land of the past. Read the rest of this entry »
Writing With Hope 