Consider this a personal invitation to write your story and share it on this blog in 2017. We need to tell our stories about serious mental illness in our families outside the protections of closed support groups, online and off. How else can we expect the general public to relate to our needs or to endorse our advocacy efforts? I think we've been silent long enough. Don't you?
The following is an excerpt from my book, Sooner Than Tomorrow - A Mother's Memoir:
In her book, How the Light Gets In, Pat Schneider talks about writing as a calling.
I think about Pat's words and sit here at my computer because, if I don’t, I may miss something. Who knows, it could be something funny, sad or even brilliant. When I write, words appear on the page and show me things I wouldn’t otherwise realize or reflect upon.
How do I get my muse to wake up? To begin writing, Pat suggests to take whatever comes. Whatever image. Whatever words. Whatever first flashes into your mind. “It’s a gift from the unconscious.”
Another reason to write sometimes seems like a treasure hunt where the treasure seeker has only part of the treasure map. Through reading and writing, slowly but surely, other parts of the map are uncovered and pieced together, and lead to the buried gold: voice.
Each of us has a unique voice. There never was and never will be another one the same as mine. Or the same as yours. We need to find our voices and put them to work.
In a nutshell: I write so I might think and act with both mindfulness and exuberance, and to tell the stories that are mine to tell.
As I write, I remember Pat Schneider’s poem, “Blessing for a Writer,” and sprinkle her words on myself like holy water.
". . .lost though you may be in the forest,
drop your own words on the path like pebbles
and write your way home.”
Hope to see your story here. Can be a couple of paragraphs — a remembrance, an incident, what's working, what's not working. Read other stories on the blog. They're all different and honest and in each writer's voice. Our stories have power. Let's tell them.
"We realize the importance of our voices only when we are silenced."
Malala Yousafzai