How to Set Your Childhood Monsters Free

I’m waist high into writing an emotional piece that manifests daily into a throat-clenching lump in my throat. I’m not a crier, but I’m one more childhood angst away from becoming one.

Painful experiences don’t rest easy.  They lurk. They yearn for resolution. They crave healing. They want, above all, to be free.

We all have monsters from our childhood. But my monsters are not your monsters. To you, they might not be monsters at all. Whatever they are, I’m glad I’m working to set them free.

Writing is healthy, but I am torn to reveal my most painful stories to the universe lest readers judge me—or worse—angels judge me. I must reconcile my truths without those who can corroborate, dispel or approve them.

But, I need to move forward.

And that brings me to Kurt Vonnegut, the American writer.

What if my writing, my words, could serve their purpose and then disappear? No judgement from anyone. I doubt even angels would mind discarded words, even painful ones.

Kurt Vonnegut suggested discarding words when in 2006 he wrote to Xavier high school students imploring them to express themselves, to “find what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.”

Here’s what Vonnegut wrote to a high school English teacher who had asked her students to write a famous author and ask for advice. Five students wrote Vonnegut, the “inimitable author of a number of hilarious, mind-bending darkly satirical sci-fi classics such as Slaughterhouse Five and Cat’s Cradle.”¹

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“Make your soul grow.”

“Write…about anything.”

“…discard them…”

Writing is art. But, it’s also therapeutic.

So, I will take Mr. Vonnegut’s advice. I’ll write my words down and then tear them up into teeny-weeny pieces.

I’ll discard them widely in separated trash bins.

I’ll make my soul grow.

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Thinking of making art? You may find my post Learning to Watercolor Paint During Shelter-in-Place inspirational.

¹Make Your Soul Grow: 84-Year-Old Kurt Vonnegut’s Wonderful Letter to a Group of High School Students

Featured photo by Jan Tinneberg on Unsplash.