I'm Ready!
This is Adventures in Storytelling your weekly (I hope) note with resources, insights, and actionable tools for better communication through storytelling. Enjoy.
Healing is an odd thing. It comes in fits and spurts. You’re deep into it before you even realize it’s happening. At least that’s how it’s worked for me. As you may know, the past 12 months plus have been…challenging for me. Hard as hell quite frankly.
To give you some context, I went down to hop on my bike yesterday to head to an appointment and encountered this:
I didn’t even flinch. Someone had stolen my wheels. I went back upstairs to drop off my helmet, called my optometrist to let them know I’d be late for my appointment and kept it moving. This was nothing compared to other things I’d dealt with this year. So I was zen about something that a year ago would have enraged me and set me on a diatribe against the state of the city and humanity.
So yah, healing for me has been strange. It has led to moments of zen in the midst of chaos. It has also been a teacher. The past month has been the first in all of 2024 that I had more good days than bad. More energy than exhaustion. More motivation than helplessness.
This newsletter has reflected my healing in so many ways. I have written in fits and spurts, when I have felt able or guilty. I almost gave it up a few times because it had been so long between posts.
But healing comes in fits and spurts and joy comes in much the same way. And this little publication is a source of joy. It is a chance for curiosity, exploration,and sharing. It is a place for me and you to be human with each other. To excavate our stories and share them with those who deserve to hear them.
My writing has changed over the past year. There have been times when I couldn’t do it, which has never been true of me in all the periods of my life. But it didn’t’ scare me, the loss of this thing that is so fundamental to me. It allowed me to continue to practice one of the things that moved me through this period: radical acceptance. And to explore who I would be if I did not write. Thank goodness, the words have begun to flow again and I feel more settled into myself as a writer and storyteller, but the exploration was worthwhile.
I say all this to say, I’m back. I’m ready. I think. As, I said healing comes in fits and spurts. We’ll see if this period of groundedness sticks. A part of me feels it will. At least enough to get back to playing and exploring and sharing in newsletter form.
Thank you for your patience and I hope you’ll continue to join me on this journey. The adventure continues.
A Story Well Told
I’m a true believer that ideas and insight and things come to us when we need them most. This essay came to me a few days ago and I have read it a couple of times since then. The person who shared it with me told me she goes back to it often when things get…challenging. It’s an essay by Clarissa Pinkola Estes who wrote Women Who Run With the Wolves. It’s called “Do Not Lose Heart, We Were Made For These Times.” It is an invigorating read and in deep contrast to the state of things out there. I hope it provides perspective and comfort on your own adventure.
Thanks as always for reading and I’ll see you next week.
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