Write a story: your own

I write best when I write from the heart. When it means something to me. When I connect with my words, skin-on-skin; when I use words to…

I write best when I write from the heart. When it means something to me. When I connect with my words, skin-on-skin; when I use words to shed my skins — layer upon layer of defences — and just breathe, deeply. Surrender to my vulnerability. Realise that “it isn’t actually that bad, really”. We are scared of what we do not understand. What we deny. What we hide. What we lie to ourselves about, when we have no-one else to answer to. We are scared of ourselves, and so we deny ourselves — because it’s easier, at least relatively speaking. We let ourselves live in fear and call it “mundane realism”.

We’re right: it’s as banal as it is true.

However inadvertently, we embody our philosophy. I am what I believe. That’s why what I believe matters.

That’s why I must treat myself with respect, love, integrity. I matter because I believe I do; it is not automatic — nor an absolute. It takes work; it has taken work; it is — and will be- an ongoing process, “forever and always”. ’Til death do us part, but I’m committed. And I don’t always want to be. Sometimes it scares me — often, even. But I do this because I have to, because it’s important, because it’s the cornerstone. Because this is not *just* about me. This is about who I want to be. This is about the world I want to be part of. This is about humanity.

And yet I am small, weak, feeble; constrained not only by my gender but by the limitations of the individual. We are born, we live, we die — and that’s all there is. It’s up to us to make the best of it.

And that is why I stay; and that is why I believe; and that is why I keep trying, striving, fighting — despite everything. Because I cannot do everything, but I can do something. I may be insignificant, but I am not nothing.

Thank you for listening.