When We Write, Our Broken Hearts Begin To Heal

Writing can bring clarity to the chaos of devastation

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

We write to rescue ourselves from an excruciating experience. Because break-ups are so commonplace, it is easy for others to dilute the unique sorrow of that loss. We write to expand, rather than diminish the language of pain and healing.

Joke:

Two guys are in a ugly prison-like dormitory, with the suggestion of flames in the middle of the night. One is leaning over the bed of the other, trying to shake him awake.”Wake up Chuck! Wake up!” he cries,” Wake up. You’re just having a nightmare!….Of course…..We are still in Hell.”

We see everything through the lens of our heart break. It’s like slipping, and banging a hammer on our thumb, rather than the nail. Everything we do and see is experienced through the throbbing thumb.

I write to unburden myself

Until the breakup of my marriage, I had no idea how my heart could be traumatized, and come so close to succumbing to the agony of it all.

I’d been devastated by the person I trusted most.

He is the one to whom I would pour out my guts, my wrenching pain. Now he is the source of that pain.