Last week’s writing circle fell on Valentine’s Day. In addition to writing about loves past, lost, or yet to be found, some women chose to respond to the epigraph that graced the top of the agenda. This time it was an extended quote from award-winning essayist Brian Doyle, which read in part: “What might we be if we rise and evolve …  if we unclench the fist and drop the dagger, if we emerge blinking from the fort and the stockade and the prison, if we smash away the steel from around our hearts … What then?” The extended quote is the final paragraph of this essay, in Orion Magazine, a moving writing about his son.

Read the wise words from inside writer MG, below, inspired by ‘if we unclench the fist and drop the dagger . . . ‘

Too frequently I stand yielding to anger, openly inviting it in without realizing what I’m giving a footstool to.  In the long run, only I suffer because those that I lash out on, knock down, ridicule, and humiliate are not always going to allow themselves to be my punching bag.  The only answer to healing anger that works every time is forgiving who or what has hurt you.  Accepting it as a fact that mustn’t be forgotten, but used as a tool of guidance to redirect our paths in the future.

In order for me to become enraged with somebody, I have to care enough about them first for any harsh words to plant themselves in my heart.  So the saying goes, you cannot hate somebody without loving them first.  So why is it that I grip so tightly to the weapons of pain instead letting go of foolish pride and fighting with what’s truly in my heart?

MG