Healing ain’t for cowards. Boots, journals, & highway… the original therapy
The Journals | Boots Roots & Big Rocks
I spent the past few days reflecting on this year. To say it was pivotal is a GIANT understatement. I spent a lot of it alone, traveling, thinking, feeling, living, learning, growing, healing. For the record, one of the best quotes I heard this year was “healing ain’t for cowards. Amen from the back row. That’s some hard shit.
Along the way I wrote… a lot. I wrote for just for me, not to share with anyone.
Getting things out of your head and on to paper is a remarkably great way to work things out. The original therapy if you will.
This year I filled notebook after notebook, much like I did when I was a young man in New York, writing journals on trains, planes, coffee shops. I chronicled what life was throwing at me and where I’d been. Those journals shaped me and ultimately, I sold part of them to Random House and turned them into a book that became a best-seller and launched a career for a while… but I started writing just for me out of necessity.
Now many years later, I again wrote out of necessity.
As I read my journals and retraced my journey this year, I realized it was what some would call a “dark night of the soul” or a spiritual awakening… but really it was just remembering who the fuck I am.
This year started out horribly. Broken in several ways. I’d given away my power and self. I packed up things in Atlanta, and slowly drove back to Texas, to see the people and places that made me. To knock the dust off the boots and rediscover the man I was and remind myself of the man I’ve always meant to be, to get back to my roots (my core beliefs) and re-establish MY world with MY people.
Along the way this year, I lost people who didn’t need to or want to be there. I dropped baggage and narratives that I’d carried for way too long. But I also I found MY voice, purpose, soul, gift, strength, and people. I became happy. I became me again.
Going over these journals this week wasn’t a happy read or remembrance, but damned if I haven’t come a long way in these boots this year.
Bradley
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