Rebecca and Courtney build a bridge in a ditch that is symbolic of their plight to bridge the gap between the little girls that were hurt and the grown women they’ve had to become to survive. It is their story, but it is your story. What sacrifices did you have to make as you survived the hands that hurt you? What part of yourself do you hide away and shelter from the word for fear of hurt? The walls you’ve built, they will come down. It will be okay. You’re not alone.
For all the women who’ve had to go back and get the little girl they’d left behind. Bridges. My song. Your song. The road to healing.
I jump off cliffs skipping school, in my socks just to feel the break of water on my skin and to remember I’m alive when the breath is stolen from my lungs just before the moment I find the surface again. You test the depth, measure the distance of the jump, and schedule a time to go back after school with an adult supervisor. We are reason and passion, combined. With passion, I am questioned but you, with reason, are given great respect.
Passionate people are often the struggling artists who isolate in their creativity for it is not logical to waste so much effort on something with so little tangible reward. It is not a college degree, a high paying career path, and just as the white collar’s ride their trains and drink their Starbucks with reason and logic so too do we walk to the corner cafe with our journal’s in hand and sit and sip our .50 free refill coffee’s while humming old school jazz. Passion is beautiful.
This morning, with my coffee, tucked away in the early morning light before the house awakes, I sneak into inspiration with one of my old favorites, Kahlil Gibran, who writes of reason and passion in “The Prophet.”
“Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows – then let your heart say in silence, “God rests in reason.” And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightening proclaim the majesty of the sky, – then let your heart say in awe, “God moves in passion.” And since you are a breath in God’s sphere, and a leaf in God’s forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion.” – The Prophet, Gibran, 2001, pg. 51.
Let us rest in the reason of our dreams as we toil for the evidence of our creativity in the forest of effort, and when it is time let us dance in the playground of passion so as to never forget that without passion, reason is naught.
What are you? Reason or Passion? How do you balance these in your creative life? I would love to hear your stories of the forest and the storm.
Courtney Frey Speaks 
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