Through Creating We Heal

For many months I’ve been thinking that when I figure this out I can write about it. Then I will be able to share my insights and realizations. Once I’m healed I will create. But we don’t need to be healed to create, or have insights. 

It is not after healing that we create. It is through creating we heal. 

Seems obvious put that way. But all too often I find myself intentionally not creating because I don’t know where it will lead.  Creating in the midst of struggle often helps us make sense of the scattered pieces, or at least orders them.Creating in the midst of heartbreak can help us grieve. 

Creating in the midst can help us understand.

We don’t always find the answers on our own. And we don’t always find them through our creations, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worthwhile. 

In fact, I was reading a post by singer/poet Mary Lambert  in which she discusses one of my current favorite poems Body Love (check out this poem, seriously).   About the poem she writes:

“I binge ate, cut myself, slept with whoever validated me, and drank to oblivion. I made a vow at 21, when I wrote the final edit of the poem, “Body Love”  that my self-destructive behavior would end with the birth of this writing.”

Up until I read this I assumed it would have been the other way around. After she had healed from past pain, was healthy and able to fully accept herself that only then she would be able to write this poem. 

We can heal through art, whether we create it or see it. Art can heal. I don’t know that we ever entirely heal from anything. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t continue to try. To create to find ourselves and the lessons we may not have been able to realize without the help of our own characters.

Who teaches characters anyway? Do we as authors teach them their lessons, or do they teach us?

I often compliment poetry, music, and other art because it feels so raw and vulnerable. But I am often unwilling to create when I am feeling those same things. I don’t want to show the cracks in the façade I wear.  Maybe I need to allow myself to find peace, epiphany or even beauty through the mess.

Beauty comes from pain, but the pain needn’t be over to see the pain. 

We are all broken. I will probably never stop being broken. That should be more motivation to create, be raw and authentic, not less.

“We have to create. It is the only thing louder than destruction”

 Yellowbird by Andrea Gibson