My Best Friend: Writing!
Note: I’m happy to share with you a piece that was first published in Inspiring Lives Magazine on May 12, 2022. To read it in its original form, please click here.
Writing is a friend with many faces. Unbridled, she invites our deepest emotions and most profound experiences to flood a written page. With a more disciplined flair, she sorts through many threads of thought to articulate a clear and cohesive message. As often is the case with friends, writing reveals things about ourselves we didn’t know were there. Whether our relationship with writing is casual, intense, cautious, or ready to take a risk, we get to know ourselves at a deeper level by the mirror the pen on the page provides.
Spanning Decades
My own relationship with writing has spanned decades, running the gamut from raw, uncensored journaling – to – tight, precise, professional documents, sometimes simultaneously. At the time, a part of me was excelling professionally while another part was decompensating from chronic early childhood trauma. It seemed my writing was serving as a bridge between the two, and I could draw on my strengths as an administrator while the rest of me wrote like a hurt child who needed to be heard. With therapeutic support, those disparate parts came to know each other and round out the messages each had to share. Writing became my friend who helped me get to know myself.
Writers Workshops
Since those years of privately plumbing my depths with the written word while writing explicitly for a captive professional audience, I decided to offer a similar experience to other people with dissociative disorders like me. As with most newly forming friendships, the people who came to my bi-weekly writing workshops were curious, cautious, and filled with anticipation. I believed they would get to know themselves better through writing. What I didn’t count on was the explosion of trust, growth, bonding with other participants, and commitment to the process. From all walks of life, these brilliant and brave people were writing profoundly and sharing like old friends.
Growing in Trust
Take, Sharon, for example (fictitious names for real people). Revealing her past wounds through rhythm-bound rap, her poetry plucks our heartstrings when she performs her writing. Or Jackson, who had no voice but now follows his floodgates, teeming with honesty, anger, and empowerment. I can’t forget Pearl who asks for critical feedback to hone the stories of her memoir, born of deep work that won’t let her rest on any laurels. In the past year, these survivors, and more, formed a loosely organized group called Dissociative Writers, contributed guest posts to my weekly blog, led a workshop on writing at an international healing conference, and published an anthology of writing called Creative Healing.
Friend of a Different Stripe
Some friendships come and go, supportive when it’s convenient and absent when the mood strikes. Occasionally, though, we come across a friend of a different stripe who is always there. Who knows us better than we know ourselves. Who leads us deeper into self-understanding. Who takes us outside of ourselves into relationships with others. Who heals us and makes us whole.
Take the initiative to open your computer or put your pen to paper, and let your best friend – writing – do the rest!
Lyn Barrett currently is a speaker, retreat leader, author, and ordained minister. Her book, Crazy: Reclaiming Life from the Shadow of Traumatic Memory was released in January 2022.
Mea Culpa
In my last blog post entitled End the Slaughter, I spoke of the mariachi musicians who lamented the murders of 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The music touched me deeply and I “claimed” it for our inner children who have been tortured and forgotten. I had no right to claim it as I’m not a person of Mexican heritage. Thank you to the Dissociative Writer who reminded me of that. I have rewritten that part of the blog which you can see by clicking here. My sincere apologies to anyone of Mexican heritage who may have been offended by my careless use of words.
June is Almost Over!
Early DW subscribers in the month of June receive a free digital copy of Crazy: Reclaiming Life from the Shadow of Traumatic Memory. Participants in workshops have until the end of August to subscribe. Click here to subscribe on the DW website. Subscriptions can be paid for either monthly or annually. Full scholarships are available, no questions asked. Donations are accepted to help further the work of DW.
Memoir Class Registration
Our beginners Memoir Class for Dissociative Writers has two openings left. Maximum enrollment is eight students. We will meet for two hours a week for six week in September and October, 2022. This class has a syllabus, suggested weekly readings and writing exercises. You will also have the opportunity to share your writing for feedback from the class. We suggest you check in with your therapist before registering as intense memoir work can destabilize some people. DW subscribers receive a 50% discount. Click here to go to the DW website and learn more about the memoir class.
Continued Thanks
… to all who have read and left ratings and reviews of Crazy: Reclaiming Life from the Shadow of Traumatic Memory.
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I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.
~ Anne Frank
Lyn