Words empower us, move us beyond our suffering and set us free. This is the sorcery of literature. We are healed by our stories.

To be read. To be heard. To be seen. I want to be read, I want to be heard. I don't need to be seen. To write requires an ego, a belief that what you say matters. Writing also requires an aching curiosity leading you to discover, uncover, what is gnawing at your bones. Words have a weight to them. How you choose to present them and to whom is a matter of style and choice.

My mother's journals are a shadow play with mine. I am a woman wedded to words. Words cast a shadow. Without a shadow there is no depth. Without a shadow there is no substance. If we have no shadow, it means we are invisible. As long as I have a shadow, I am alive.

To withhold words is power. But to share our words with others, openly and honestly, is also power.

When it comes to words, rather than using our own voice, authentic and unpracticed, we steal someone else's to shield our fear.

words are much stronger than I am.