~ Written by Danielle N. Bilski ~
G l i t t e r i n t h e d u s t
I became a writer, because when I spoke aloud it felt like no one really listened. So, I turned to a pen and paper that always allows me unlimited opportunity to say what others do not hear and then it does not matter as much whether they do. If I have written it down, it has not been ignored. Writing records the words I choose as they manifest in a different way than simply in my mind, heart and soul. They become more than fleeting or looping ideas. I release them, to reflect, like glitter in the dust. Seen, if you are looking.
If I share that writing with anyone to read, that is a bonus, but writing in the first place is not contingent on that happening. For me, writing is the way I have found to say what I want to say without having to adapt to external conditions as someone else’s time, attention, comprehension, response, their perspective or expectations. It is always a safe place without the possibility of what I am try to say being dismissed amongst a general conversation where the significance may become lost or miscommunicated under pressure of immediacy and impermanence, like other processed information which is quickly forgotten or superseded within life’s continuum. I often reread my words – ones I am proud of and others I learn from – as my voice echoes as many times as I let it.
Other artists, I have often heard, describe their art form as something that they use to express themselves and that is true for me as well. In addition to that for me is, I have low expectations and no superiority that what I write will matter very much to anyone other than myself nor that writing has the power on its own to make me money; make me happy eternally; make me respected; make me or everything else make sense; or hold a consistently high level of value or importance for anyone else in a consistent way.
I no longer approach writing under any illusion of it being received with exaggerated elation, like an Academy Award winner’s acceptance speech and anything more than a wavering interest. A large part of me does not believe I will be heard any better than I have been when I have spoken aloud. Once the dust has settled, that unheard part of me that chose to become a writer does hope a positive response will be inspired, nevertheless.
If you are reading this, I want you to know that I wrote it for you. To thank you for finding the glitter.
©2021 My Time With You