We’ve made it to Day 11 in our October Writing Challenge, and it’s also time for our weekly FMF writing prompt link-up!

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Today’s FMF writing prompt is: DEEP

 

deep

 

I can’t tell you how many times I cried in Starbucks while writing various drafts of my memoir, A Place to Land.

Each time I would look around before reaching into my pocket or purse for a tissue, then try to dab my eyes and nose without too many people noticing I was actually crying.

Sometimes I opted for a cubicle in the library where I was less likely to be seen, but still, the tears came.

I could understand them and even justify their presence when it was the first time I was writing the words, fresh and raw. But the second time I read them? And the third? And the thirteenth? Why was I still crying?

I knew I had to go back to the deep places, the recesses of my soul where the patchy, painful memories were tucked away on purpose so they would be hard to find. I had to dig for them, even if I didn’t particularly care to see them again, in order to steward my story well. I couldn’t leave out the sad parts to leave a more palatable taste in my reader’s mouths, nor could I skim over them to avoid risking my own emotional wounds getting re-opened. I had to go to the deep places to do justice to the story, and to give God the glory for what He has done.

And you know what?

I didn’t expect this as an outcome, but doing the work of going to the deep places actually helped me to heal. For the first time since my mom died in 2011, the grief around significant days like Mother’s Day, her birthday, and the anniversary of her death was tempered.

As if the writing itself removed the stinger and left only the scar.

 

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