Write Bravely - March
A round of writing in March by the Write Bravely community.
This Write Bravely March writing round-up gathers everything our community wrote. The focus wasn’t productivity but presence.
What follows is a simple weaving of those pieces, guided by the prompts that held the month together. The prompts followed an inner movement rather than a schedule, inviting attention to what was opening and asking to be received as the season changed. They encouraged letting go of thoughts, expectations, and patterns that no longer fit, while making space for honesty and small acts of truthfulness. Again and again, the writing returned to beginning where we are - listening to the body, noticing the light, and allowing renewal to be gentle, unhurried, and real rather than dramatic or forced.
Read these pieces from Sunita Saldhana :
Turning Towards Spring
I stand at the window in the hour when the sun is brushing his teeth. A hot cup of tea in my hand. Not so very long ago, I was okay with my tea being tepid, but now I need it hot and flavourful.
As I watch, the skyscape lightens, dark to light, black to purple and then orange and yellow. The winter is over. The days are longer, the nights are shorter.
I have noticed the same thing with my cycles of depression. The dark phases are shorter now. I am able to hold my head above water for weeks on end without succumbing to despair.
Read more here.
Clearing Space
It is spring time. In India, it doesn’t create such a hullabaloo as in the west. There is no spring cleaning, maybe because for the most part our winters are not wet and damp. Rather they are nice and dry after the rains, which is why the cleaning happens at Diwali, just after the monsoons.
But no matter when it happens, clearing out the stuff that is no longer useful – or doesn’t serve you – is an important ritual and I think I need to adapt it to my mental and emotional self as well.
Read more of this deeply authentic piece here.
Read these evocative and thoughtful pieces from Vinitha.
The Language That Found Me
I’ve written a lot of poems. It’s the one thing that has been there in my life, even when I didn’t know it was there. I wrote my first poem when I was in 6th grade.
Ever since that day, I would secretly scribble poems in my books—things that made sense to me. It was a language that felt effortless for expressing my thoughts. And the added bonus—I didn’t have to explain it to anyone. Poetry can be interpreted in any way the reader feels appropriate. I was free.
Read more here.
I No Longer Want to Carry
Something I am tired of carrying. Something that no longer fits this season.
The unwavering self-doubt.
The unending fear of the next step.
The lingering belief that “I just can’t get it right.”
My problem is that I thought I’d already worked through these. I thought I’d gotten rid of them, or at least parts of them. But then they return with a wicked rage, shaking my courage to its core.
Read more of this totally relatable post here.
Being Myself, One Conversation at a Time
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Starting Where I Am
That’s a nice place to be—starting at where I am without fussing about what I don’t have, instead focusing on what I do have.
But that feels like an imaginary place.
Every morning, I start from the beginning, fueled by hope. At least, that’s what it feels like.
Read more here.
In April, we’re focusing on paying attention, noticing, being mindful. If you would like to join our community, do comment here and I’ll be in touch.