45 (Sept 17)
Write about a wise word that helped you (or your character) to go through dark times.
OPTIONAL: Work on your fiction and share.
When I sit down to come up with new prompts, it never takes longer than just a few minutes - maybe 5 or 10, or 15... I did not measure this time, but I just know the themes come easily, and all I need to do is to write them down. Some of them come from outside of my window, while others come from deep inside of me. I never suggest themes that I personally feel like I am eager to write about, no. But some themes are there because they mean a lot to me. Like this one.
I, as many others, as everyone, really, did have my share of dark times. Dark times are not necessarily dark because of an outside event - they can be totally self-inflicted, pretty much any trip within is dark as we don't know what we'll find there. It is what scares us and at times stops us from going deeper, but if we push through this initial fear, we realize that there is really nothing to fear.
The words that helped me to get through one of the darkest, wobbliest times in my life were the words one wonderful, amazing old woman told me. They weren't her words, but she kept repeating them because those words saved her in her own dark times. Libby. I still can't bring myself to writing about her. There are stories that I know I want to share very much, and Libby and her story is one of them, and yet at the same time I feel I am not ready to write freely just yet - maybe still too much grief that I haven't processed yet, after her sudden passing away. But her words I am ready to share - I think I only shared it with two or three people before. They are precious.
It's always darkest before the dawn.
I was saying these words to myself over and over again.
It's always darkest before the dawn.
It's always darkest before the dawn.
It's always darkest before the dawn.
Until their true meaning sunk in for me.
It's always darkest before there comes the light.
It's always the scariest, the most unsettling, the most devastating before you are able to see the first gleam of light.
It's always darkest before the dawn. But dawn always arrives. Always, no exception.
10 min
Rise and Write 43-39
Libby's words have, at times, both inspired and annoyed me. I don't like that darkest bit before the dawn, and when Libby first shared this with us, I felt a bit ... trivialized ... as though my fear and pain weren't important as they were transient. But we do need to embrace that fact ... that the worst of what we feel is just something that passes through us. It is never here to stay. Dawn DOES always come. Always. Gray as I am, I can feel that now. But when Libby first shared it with us, I wasn't so sure. I wanted to be sure ... but I didn't FEEL sure. She was such a help to us both.
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