Hi,

I agree that when you publish, you are open to criticism and critiquing. I am not suggesting that you shouldn’t. What I do disagree with is your statement that mindfulness trumps freedom of expression and freedom of speech.

Being mindful is living in the moment; it is having feelings, naming those feelings, and not judging those feelings. That in itself is poetry. I give myself permission to feel things without getting trapped in pain, by naming them. By using my words to describe and recognize and give voice to them.

Writing is like so much blood on a page. I have written here before about the memoir process; how it can be akin to mining. Digging through the shit and soil and rock and dirt, to get to the gold. How the process is messy and hard and can make one sweat and swear and yes — bleed. The cuts of a thousand voices and experiences chipping away at your skin and bones until you reach your core: your truth and your light.

And the writing? It is a letting onto the page. Blood as words, words as truth, blood as life.

I will conclude this by saying that I will never apologize for speaking my truth. And if it makes some folks uncomfortable? Well, there is the option to get past it, or ignore it and me.

But don’t try to claim as ‘critique’ a misguided attempt to tell me what I ‘should’ or ‘should not’ do. Do not tell me that “there is a time and place for everything” except, apparently, my own medium page. Maybe that is your truth. It is most assuredly not mine.

FN: 11:52 am: I have revised the picture, because it nearly as accurately captures the feeling.

Best wishes,

Heather