I am the only one who can tell the story of my life and say what it means”: Dorothy Allison
There are only so many stories in the world, a finite set of circumstances, however myriad, that describe the human condition. And when there are only so many stories, we’re bound to start repeating them, by happenstance, by design, or some combination thereof.
Though the stories may be familiar, how they play out in our lives is not. We are our own playwright and director, actor and audience. We have a hand in the outcome of the story, the pace, setting, and the dialog. We determine what it means for us, how we heal and how we use that material to move forward.
For those in crisis (and who of us are not?), beginning a writing practice is, as author Dorothy Allison states, “a strategy to help you make sense out of your life.”
The marriage of inner dialogues and the divine.
The genius of both astrology and numerology is that they clue us in to these stories, when and where they might occur, they describe a set of (but not all!) outcomes that are possible…and highlight what roles we may play in those little or not so little dramas.
But here’s the thing. Though the stories may be familiar, how they play out is not. We are our own playwright and director, actor and audience. We have a hand in the outcome of the story, the pace, setting, and the dialog. We have a hand in how the story goes, what our lense of interpretation is.
Choices, choices
Who is the self we create or excavate when writing in our journals? Like poetry, we are trying to name, describe ourselves while at the same time being ourselves. We are endeavoring to interpret our histories our timelines into an order that makes more sense in the examination (quantifying, describing, ascribing, analyzing) than in the pure living. Perhaps that’s what journal writers do…we don’t live to write, we write to live.
For my own part, my most meaningful journal entries are pregnant with, are examples of, the structure of my life informed by esoteric discovery. My journaling is the exploration of those structures from the inside out.
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
― James Baldwin
In a series of classes that acquaint students with their past, present and future, each writer receives some esoteric tools to develop resilience and self-understanding. Such writing helps the writer craft a narrative that gives them the perspective and courage to heal.
Writing from the Rear View 