Today I found an art binder filled with drawings and poetry I’d written from August 2004 to some time mid-2005. Around this time I stopped writing my stories, fell in love and then got my heart broken. Or rather, I fell in love, stopped writing my stories and got my heart broken.
Throughout the relationship, for some reason, I drew, and today, so many years later, I saw the evolution of that relationship grow from the first happy and peaceful drawings I’d made (that he had marked my name and the date I’d drawn them) until the last ones, mostly dark and almost gory, almost a year later. He had actually saved every one, purchasing an art binder to store the drawings in.
I’ve held on to those drawings and poems since then but today, after finding the binder while tidying up one corner of the living room, I knew it was time to let go. Of course, today is the day that Dr. Christine Blasey Ford appears before the Senate to answer questions so I needed to stay offline as best I could. I’ve noticed that ever since the #metoo movement began, I’ve been experiencing PTSD from my own past experiences. It’s affected my writing and my overall mood and some days, I swear I’m not just an anxious mess, but a depressed one, too.
Anyway, back to the drawings. I never thought I’d see the day when I’d let go of them and destroy them one page after another. But I did. And with each rip of the paper, I could see my past unraveling right before my eyes. And my heart. It was also a sort of forgiveness for myself for falling as hard as I did then.
I can always draw again. I can always write poetry again. But the sketches and poems of that time belong in the past and I can’t keep them any longer. But if there’s one thing I wish I could keep from that time, though, it’s my handwriting.
At least, back then, it was still legible.
Liz Durano 
Sad to hear Trump’s comment of “a total sham”. He just doesn’t get it. Good for you for moving on and letting the ugly past go.
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He really doesn’t. None of them do. I always thought I was a positive person, surrounding myself in love and light and all that but these days, it’s really difficult.
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You can’t let people like Trump get you down. That gives him the win. Stay positive. Maintain your kindness and decency!! Be the bright spot around your world. That will help to dim Trump’s light (nasty as it is).
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What you describe has been my perpetual state since November 2016. I watched the testimony and was transported back in time to my own traumas as well. That said, Dr. Ford’s strength gave me strength. My hope is that the pain survivors are enduring now will lead to tremendous change and reform for a new generation of women coming up.
Also I’m glad you got to a place where you could let go of painful memories and make space in your life and heart for new and beautiful ones.💛
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That’s the same for me here. I’ve never wanted to stay in the house more than this whole thing all started and I worry for my little boy. But I hope this will lead to some change even if things didn’t turn out the way we wished they would with Dr. Ford.
It’s a hit or miss whenever I go on Twitter. My readers and fellow authors were asking me where I was so I’m kinda back there now again but I have to leave the moment things get triggering which is all the time. At least, with the drawings, it was one part of my life that used to cause me pain whenever I thought about it but when I looked at the drawings again, I wondered why on earth I was holding on to them. I can draw more stuff later and at least, happier stuff instead of the ones I had been keeping for so long. In today’s climate, I could only hold on to so much pain and fear.
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Moving on, and this time a bit stronger than you used to.
I wish you the best of luck 🙂
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