There’s an enormous elephant in the room at the start of writing workshops for people who do not identify as writers.
The elephant has a name. Her name is Secret. As the workshop opens, Secret pretends she’s not there. A woman might say: ‘I’m not really sure why I’m here’. Or she might say: ‘I don’t want to write, I’m here to support my friend’. Or she might say: ‘I want to write about family but …’.
Always she squirms. Elephants with an itch have a way of not keeping still and their potential for damage is … well, she can raze a village.
In minutes, Secret has declared herself to the room. She longs to write what has not been spoken. She longs to write to set the record straight, even if no-one else will read it.
Secret longs to feel the un-silencing of her precious heart. She longs to write to save herself and, paradoxically, save others too. She longs to write because in the absence of possibilities and/or courage for speaking, writing is her final hope.
Keeping secrets is hard physical work. Secrets drag us down, shoulders bowed low. Secrets spark shoots of shame, taking root in the heart and the belly and the mind. Secrets impact our relationships and put needles in our living.
Secrets are slaughterhouses of love.
Our experience and research shows: regardless of literacy competency, people need guidance, encouragement and support to write.
See you in 2024 for this important work.
With thanks for the heartfire image to Gloria Williams from Pixabay.
Stephanie Dale is an award-winning journalist, author, researcher and founder of the International Wellbeing-through-writing Institute. In 2014 she launched The Write Road, a wellbeing-through-writing initiative for rural and remote Australians. She is passionate about pilgrimage, and in 2017 initiated Walk&Write holiday writing adventures.