This is my news. Don’t bottle it.

Some people find it easy to talk about their experiences; some don’t.
The temptation is to bottle things up, dismiss things as unimportant or distract ourselves from recurring feelings.

We can do this for years.
Perhaps we imagine this sort of thing is for others but not us.
But speaking our experiences matters.
‘An experience only makes its appearance when it is said,’ suggests Hannah Arendt. ‘And unless it is said it is, so to speak, non-existent.’
When we speak something that has been inside us, we bring it outside of us where we can see it better.
It exists in a new and more helpful way.
While we keep it inside, its contours are liable to be blurred and not seen clearly, like a shadowy monster beneath the surface…when, in truth, there’s nothing to fear.
We will need to find a good listener, one able to focus on us and one free from their own anxieties.
A poor listener can damage us in their listening and their responses.
But this short piece isn’t about poor listening.
It’s about me appreciating the importance of speaking my experiences, whether they occurred yesterday or forty years ago.
By speaking them, we bring them out of ourselves and into the light.
They finally ‘make their appearance’ and often, something unclear becomes clear; something turbulent becomes understood.