SELF EXPRESSION | INNER HEALING | CREATIVITY

A Journey of Self-Expression & Healing Inner Pain

The healing power of creativity

Barbara Carter
Middle-Pause
Published in
9 min readJan 2, 2024

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“The Journey” art and photo Barbara Carter

I grew up in a house filled with many but felt alone. Even though I was the only biological child in a family with an adopted younger sister, three cousins, and many foster kids, I felt I didn’t belong.

Photo taken by my father of our family home.

Discovering the power of creativity started in my childhood with colouring books. There, I first discovered the powerful magic of choice and self-expression and the beginning of what would become a healing journey.

I got to choose which colours to use. Choose whether to stay within the lines or be messy. No one told me what to do. Colouring shut out my mother’s critical voice and allowed me to connect to something more, even though I had no words to name what that feeling was.

Despite the unhappiness in my childhood home, I got to see another side of life from the people who moved into the rented house two doors down from my family’s home. It was a magical place where I met artists, hippies, the first black man in our neighbourhood, a rock & roll band—people so unlike…

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Barbara Carter
Middle-Pause

Memoir. Life Lessons. Creativity. Art. Healing. Relationships. Books.