The healing power of words...
I just came across this moving blog post on BookTrust's website about the power of words - both reading and writing - to help us work through the most difficult times in our lives, and thought it might resonate with some of my flist as well.
How writing saved my life, by Matt Haig
I particularly loved this, from the comments thread:
"...we can see through the evidence that people have left behind - AND through the way their brain are wired - that we try to sort our experiences into narratives. We are hard-wired to look for beginnings, middles and endings; it is the way we order and make sense of the world around us. So it's no surprise that reading and writing provide us with that order, even if it's artificial - a bit like a cast for a broke mind; it's the right shape, and it's not our brain, but it keeps it in the right shape until it heals."
How writing saved my life, by Matt Haig
I particularly loved this, from the comments thread:
"...we can see through the evidence that people have left behind - AND through the way their brain are wired - that we try to sort our experiences into narratives. We are hard-wired to look for beginnings, middles and endings; it is the way we order and make sense of the world around us. So it's no surprise that reading and writing provide us with that order, even if it's artificial - a bit like a cast for a broke mind; it's the right shape, and it's not our brain, but it keeps it in the right shape until it heals."