Photo: Dennis Brekke

We write because we need to.

We write to clear our heads. To make something concrete on paper (or computer screen) that is often still fuzzy in our minds. We write to make space for other thoughts and feelings, when something so overwhelms us that it grips our entire consciousness.

Sometimes this writing is spectacular, containing truths that hold for all mankind, lessons that apply to all.

Sometimes it is useful only to us as the writer, something few others can understand.

Either way, it is freeing.

It releases the wellspring of thought and emotion that can be kept bottled inside. It moves the mind toward a final point, a deliberate understanding that can only be obtained when it is forced to come outside of itself, to see its own workings on display.

So we write to challenge ourselves, to reveal the deepest and darkest crevices where we hide away the things that trouble us, the things we dream about, the things that make us sing.

And if, when we share, we happen to challenge someone else, to reveal their dark spaces, so be it. But first we must delve within to let our writing become a mirror for the mind to see its true reflection, and then, perhaps, others will find their minds there too.

 

An aspiring hoop dancer who dreams of flying, Thandiwe Ogbonna is a recently graduated, sometimes aggravated, partially animated and fully fascinated editor, who timidly ventures into the minefield of writing. You can read her blog at m2the4th.blogspot.com or email her at [email protected].

 

 

 

Like elephant Spirituality on Facebook