Time's Wingèd Chariot... (or what are you waiting for?)

Dear Ones, as I mourn for my dear friend and colleague, the playwright and poet, Matthew Wells, I look for consolation. I think in particular of the consolations of writing, our ability to console ourselves and each other with words.

In my search for consolation, I turned to a book of essays by David Whyte called Consolations. Here I immediately went to his essay, "Solace," the closing few words of which I offer to us all:

"To look for solace is to learn to ask fiercer and more exquisitely pointed questions, questions that reshape our identities and our bodies and our relationship to others. Standing in loss but not overwhelmed by it, we become useful and generous and compassionate and even amusing companions for others. But solace also asks us very direct and forceful questions. Firstly, how will you bear the inevitable that is coming to you? And how will you endure it through the years? And above all, how will you shape a life equal to and as beautiful and as astonishing as a world that can birth you, bring you into the light and then just as you are beginning to understand it, take you away?"

Here is one of the best ways to understand our gifts of language; that we are made in some way to be able to articulate our thoughts and feelings, to make something beyond ourselves, something of beauty and hope with our lived experiences, so that all that we suffer is not in vain.

Whatever you are writing, even as we are writhing and wrestling with our writing, know that it is much better than you ever give it credit for - trust me - it is. It is something no one else could express as you do. This is true, and you know it the more you listen to or read other people's writing that you appreciate. Do not hold it secret with the vain idea that one day it will be better - it becomes better from airing it out and letting it be heard or read. Do not keep it all so close. It is a means of communication meant to be shared.

When you are doing those free writes that you think are interesting only to you, consider working them into a poem or an essay and sending them out -- why not? There are so many places looking for you and your words. There are people who will be healed, given hope, and astonished at what you have to say.

Come to Brave Space! Write in community!