Hello Everyone. This is my first blog and I am honoured to be a part of The Dead Good Blog.
When I thought about catharsis I thought about what it meant to me. I have had a very...interesting life, filled with interesting events. Many people who know me may see me as a strong and perhaps even a powerful woman. I wasn't always this way.
I was a very young mum, thrust into adulthood at a time when I wasn't entirely ready for it. I had plans, big plans, and as plans tend to do, they failed to come to fruition once I had made a bad decision.
Bad decisions are what make us who we are, without mistakes we fail to grow internally. I have made many and for those mistakes I am who I am.
There comes a time however, when you make a good decision and your life changes. My mum is one of those people that wishes she could go back in time and change things, to make all the right choices. I am not. As I have said, without the bad decisions we cannot grow.
My most important cathartic moment came when I woke one day to realise that I was living in a situation that enveloped me, that suffocated me and prevented me from being someone I wanted to be. Living as a mouse trapped within a world of abuse and anger. When I woke up, I knew what I had to do, I had to make a good decision, I decided to leave that world behind and make something of myself. It is with this new sense of purpose that I became me.
I always think that life is what you make it, that catharsis can come to anyone who wants the release. There are no magic keys to open the door for you, there is no knight in shining armour to save you from the tower of despair you have become trapped in, the freedom lies within each and everyone of us. The emotions that well within us, that surround our very being and suffocate us are what make us who we are. Embrace them, use them, harness their power, for when you overcome them you become something magnificent, someone who has the key, the armour, without them we are just blank sheets of paper waiting to be filled with beautiful words and feelings, life's poetry.
Poetry comes from all the feelings within us, the poetic form holds a magical power that can be cathartic, that can release the angst and strain of everyday life. Taking that pen and that blank paper, we can release the emotions within to produce something that someone unable to help themselves can relate to, an amulet to protect us and relieve our hearts and souls from the upset.
Imagine a life without poetry...I know I cannot, for it has brought me to you, you are my catharsis, you are the wings that carry me through life and envelope me when I need support. You are the magic and for that I thank you.
4 comments:
This post perfectly encapsulates something that is often overlooked. The effect of cathartic release on the reader. It hadn't occurred to me before how important it can be to put those difficult emotions into words; what a difference it could make to someone regarding a subject that's difficult to approach any other way.
A wonderful, moving and truthful post. Thanks Anne-Marie :)
Anne-Marie,
Thanks for joining us here on the blog today.
I think one of the things that your post brushed over was the enormous amount of personal courage it must have taken to make such a sweeping change in your life. Many people just accept the cards they're dealt.
As Vicky said: a wonderful, moving and truthful post.
Thank you,
Ash
Thank you guys, it was all that was on my mind when I thought of the theme. I guess it's kinda deep but tht just mirrors the layers of the human psyche x
Love the bravery of releasing your summation of the changes you have wrought, Anne-Marie, as well as the impact of the images you have chosen.
I can empathise as I did the same thing more than thirty years ago, and have not regretted my decision to escape constant threat and pain, and replace them with a positive and loving relationship.
Very glad that contributors to the blog are not restricting catharsis to the literary term, but are examining the realities of our own lives.
Good ice-breaker of a topic to free up the power of self-realization that creates effective writing.
My most effective poems express what terrifies me most.
Thanks, Anne-Marie.
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