Making Meaning

Can you find meaning in a brutal, uncertain and chaotic world? Can we even talk of meaning when we ourselves feel lost, alone and afraid? Meaning is not found in other people, places or things.

Meaning is found inside the war within ourselves.

This week I talked to writers and artists exclusively about the internal war we wage against ourselves.

I am talking about a silent dream killer: resistance.

When I was a mom of babies, I used to think that lack of sleep was the only enemy I faced. But as my husband’s addiction worsened over time, I was pressed to see the edges of what I willing to see about my own resistance to taking risks in my life. After he died, my resistance unleashed a torrent of self-sabotaging behaviors that confounded me so deeply. Resistance is merciless.

If you’ve read even a chapter of Braving Creativity, you know that my mission to support artists and writers to make meaning in their lives is born out of the chaos inside my particular childhood family system. In childhood, I cemented beliefs to protect me from what I perceived to be risks associated with my behaviors. The "good behaviors" and the "bad ones."