Telling The Truth in 2016

Hello, Friends! It’s been a while.

I took an unexpected break from blogging over the holidays, and decided to extend it through my grad school residency in England. I have so much to unpack mentally, so much gathered over the last year and the last few weeks, I don’t know where to begin. Writing has become the best way for me to process my life and, ironically, my time away at school didn’t allow for much reflection or writing, apart from specific class assignments.

One of the pieces we worked on during our workshop, was to write a self-portrait in disguise, and in the second draft, introduce a swerve, something that changes the direction of the piece. I chose to disguise myself as a midwife, and then remove her sense of sight. It was weird and wonderful, and reminded me how much a sense of play and experimentation is important in writing, but also in life.

Emily Dickinson said to “Tell all the truth but tell it slant…The Truth must dazzle gradually, Or every man be blind.” This is how I want to live into the next year. I want to see the world, and express the truth I find there from a slant view.

I often live blind to everything but the most obvious.

I want to live into what lies beneath the surface. What is the Truth that dazzles? How can I recognize it, and tell it in such a way that it doesn’t blind us in the telling?

Telling all the truth, but telling it slant requires us to step outside of ourselves. To see the world in ways we haven’t seen it before, to taste it differently, to hear the sounds we usually ignore, to feel the emotions we’d rather bury. To play.

This past year has been all about utility, getting by, doing what needs to be done when it needs doing, practicality. This next year, I want to restore a sense of wonder and play and sight. How about you?