12 Comments

Dear friend,

I have so much I wish I could say about this piece. As I read, I mostly felt that you were describing my own life and my own lived experience. It seems to me we could be fantastic friends who met often if only we lived close by, but I will still be grateful for the friendship we can have at a distance.

Just know that your writing is breathtaking. It is stunning, jarring, honest, and pure. Every word of this today hit my heart in a way that led me through a constellation of emotions and memories.

You are gifted. I feel incredibly honored to know you.

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If nothing else comes out of being on Substack for me, I’ll always have this — you 🤗 And that is enough ❤️

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I honestly feel the same way @Mansi about you. You are a rare gem. I feel in some ways like you are my soul sister.

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Hugs! Looking forward to talking with you, soon!

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Loved so many parts of this. Heart wrenchingly beautiful.

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Thanks so much. I appreciate your taking the time to read and am grateful it resonated.

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This was lovely! And your story - the safety in silence and stillness as a child, the struggle with learning to surrender or what, in fact, surrender is, the gradual unfurling of your artistic expressiveness - really resonated with me. Happy to have found you here!

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Thank you, Nida, for reading, contemplating and sharing your thoughts. I appreciate your making the time and look forward to getting to know you better.

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This is powerful. I’ll be sharing this quote: “...surrender is not giving up. It is letting go of the illusion that we were ever in control in the first place.” Thank you. 🙏

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Thank you, Kelly. I appreciate your taking the time to read and am especially grateful that it resonated enough to warrant sharing. Pain, sadness, grief … and joy — the invisible threads that connect us as humans, regardless of our age, backgrounds and experiences. Surrender, when seen as acceptance, can be so empowering in fostering empathetic connections ☺️

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It is a very nice story. In my opinion the term "Surrender" could be "to leave" our struggle to reach a goal, or "to resign" our hope. But when it goes about physical and emotional pains you could not struggle to resign from your pain, as the wounded part of you wants to be recognized and embraced with love — as you said in the beautiful paragraph: "...Allowing the pain to move through before it passes."

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Struggle is such a big part of surrender, isn’t it. But so much peace comes when the pain passes … just takes a while sometimes for it to move along. It’s also a choice in some ways I’ve come to realize because I don’t want to live this one life trapped in that cycle of pain. So surrender then is my choice to liberate myself of what was and go forward with “it is what it is” in a more accepting way.

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