K is for Knowledge. A-Z word Challenge. Healing with words. Day 11

knowledge |ˈnälij|

noun1 facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; ... true, justified belief; certain understanding, as opposed to opinion.2 awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation

A butterfly breeder once told a story about watching his very first butterfly emerge. It took so long he thought it was stuck. He snipped both sides of the chrysalis to help free it and when the butterfly hatched but it was unable to fly, and died on landing.

In his pursuit to understand what had happened, he learnt that the struggle to get out of the cocoon is necessary to build strength in a butterflies wings. He also learned a valuable lesson and went on to write highly acclaimed self help books that changed a lot of people and he successfully bred many more beautiful butterflies.  (If you know the author or the book let me know, I can only remember the story)

With experience and knowledge we begin to understand why we do the things we do and we stop repeating the same mistakes. Knowledge makes it easier to change and grow from what we have learned.  It takes time to acquire vast knowledge and their are constant cycles. Learn from butterfly, which stage of a learning cycle are you in. Is it the larvae (birth of an idea), caterpillar (acquiring knowledge), cocoon (absorbing knowledge), or butterfly (metamorphosis) stage in your quest for knowledge?   - 

Educate yourself.  Research anything that attracts your attention, even if you don't think it will lead anywhere, it will always lead somewhere. No-one can take away what you know. The more you know the more you realise there is to learn, with learning comes growing and with growing comes... whatever it is YOU hope to achieve.

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My thirst for knowledge led me to a woman named Ruth Howard, she wrote a magnificent poem called  GROWING by Ruth Howard in my humble opinion it is a masterpiece. She wished for it to be shared, particularly with young people. Which is why she gave me permission to share it, many years ago.  I encourage you to learn from it, use the link and share it too.

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Find out how I chose my theme by reading my intro blog A-Z challenge list. Words of change.  You are welcome to add more words to the list in the comments - and then I'll link back to you.

Healing with feeling words.

lo·qua·cious   - talkative, chatty,

I remember the first time someone used the word loquacious to describe me, it felt like a nasty judgement, an unqualified diagnosis of mental illness, maybe the look of disaproval had something to do with it.  It means 'talks a lot', and plenty of people have pointed their finger at me for talking too much. I admit it, I was uncontrollable, some people even fell asleep while I was talking to them.  I was uncomfortable with silence, and I tried to fill it.

There is a whole industry based on Talking the pain away,  there's even scientific studies to prove it actually works.  When I couldn't talk I wrote, and when I didn't write, I put up a literal smoke screen around me, with whatever I could, whenever I could. When I was with my dear ex, who encouraged everyone to talk out their problems, I stopped writing.  At first I thought it was because I was happy and had nothing to complain about. I realise now, that I was hiding the truth.

So many of my clients have had problems with talking - I always consider it a breakthrough when they start discussing the people in their lives, particularily the ones that annoy them... it's our relationships that bring out the best and worst in us, and tapping into those emotions is a path to healing.  Sometimes I think my penance for talking so much is listening, and I love it.  Some people are really afraid to share their thoughts/feelings and that's when writing becomes the key.  Better out than in.

Perhaps I should have saved this for my L post during the A-Z challenge, but it isn't a word in the 'magic spirit card' deck I'm using and there are so many other L words on my list like Love, Laughter and Linger.

Let it Go

Let it go,
Let it out,
Let it all unravel,
Let it free
And it will be
A path on which to travel.

One of my favourite Leunig cartoons and poem.