Trina's Journal/Blog

Baring One's Soul

I am taking the advice of one dear friend and going forward to write a creative piece for the CBC Literary Awards. I've been reading a lot of magazines and articles about writing and I found one very interesting piece during my reading adventure.

I recently read a woman's blog who wrote of her blogging experience and referred to it as "baring one's soul". She recalled incidents where her peers would gaze at her with confused worry or even fright because of her willingness to open herself up and write a "piece of herself" rather than her typical mundane daily activities. Today, she's joined a writer's group where her peers view her as a comrade due to the fact that these people share the same willingness to bare their souls. I immediately was entranced with this writing group and of course, started a blog of my own.

I truly believe sharing a piece of ourselves can be performed in many methods - most of them involving creativity. Whether we take photographs, write, speak in public or draw pictures, we are essentially sharing a piece of ourself and baring our soul. There are many people out there who steer clear of this creative side and that's their decision.

There are times when it's raining outside and I feel the youthful urge of running outside and enjoying the beauty of nature. There is nothing like feeling the rain against your face. Rain for me is somewhat a feeling of ultimate freedom, where bad can be good at times. This is one task that I restrain myself from doing as, in most cases, it would look like a tremendously foolish thing to do in today's world.

When I refer to the youthful urge that I experience from time to time, I try to recall a time where I've seen today's children running aimlessly in the rain? I realized that it was probably in the eighties where children would go outside and fill up buckets of rain water and throw them at one another.

Today's children are reared to be disciplined. How many times have I heard a parent say "We do this because that's what he needs!" Grant you, there are things in life where a parent must control the situation to make their children better human beings, however, it's said a lot more now than then.

I truly don't know how I feel about this comment I just stated, but I do ask "Was our childhood really that bad?" We stayed with child care providers who allowed us to play out on swingsets and enjoy Sesame Street and Read Along. Today's parents require a structured day where a quick and easy lunch is out of the question and educating the child during the day is top on the list.

My children were intially shocked with me two years ago when I changed my way of rearing them. I noticed there was no imagination and no stimulation to "bare one's soul" I ask them more questions such as, "How do you feel about this situation?" opposed to giving my opinion and instilling my opinions on them. As well, I find myself being blantently frank when they do something incredibly daft. I will approach the situation where they must think of their actions and realize that it was an incredibly ignorant approach opposed to sugar coating it. I want them to feel and bare their soul opposed to say "I'm sorry" all the time for every mistake that they make. We don't learn from I'm sorry, we learn by thinking of our actions and being accountable for them.

Most people, mainly the female gender, claim that women are always right. However, if a man allows the woman to always be right by saying "I'm sorry" time after time (whether he's right or wrong), will that woman ever realize what she's doing wrong? There's a reason for every dumb action that we commit and to bare our souls and explain ourselves is true freedom - much like running or dancing in a rainstorm.

Baring one's soul is truly the way to live. I know for myself that I hold nothing back anymore. If I love someone I say it, if I feel great sympathy or regret, I face it head on. I am a true barer of one's soul and I'm proud of it. I see myself in my son more and more because he's definately a feeler. I love seeing that in him. I continue to speak to my daughter but that's a harder venture to undertake. She's more like my husband.

In regards to writing for the CBC literary awards, I am unsure what I'm going to write about but I think it's transpiring into a Venus and Mar scenario. In a previous blog, I spoke about relationships and the more I speak to people (men and women) about their relationships, it's amazing how different their feelings are when push comes to shove where a relationship is on its last.

We'll see.... my choices change like the wind......til next time.