In my youth I devoured books and became lost in worlds beyond my own. It didn’t matter if the stories were fake or real. I was just as absorbed reading about fictitious characters like Pippi Longstocking or Nancy Drew as I was by the courage of real life stories like Ruby Bridges, Pocahontas and Anne Frank.
My mother loved to read and encouraged me to read books well beyond my recommended age group. Thanks to her own natural curiosity, I became a bookworm at an early age.
What has changed since those young years is my knowledge that not all struggles are physical or imminently dangerous. Much of what we endure is emotional, rooted in an internal space. As an adult I began reading books about those who struggled with mental illness, low self-worth, addiction, unexpectedly life-changing news and illness. Not all stories are about pain, some are based on waking up to joy and love that encouraged a new direction in life.
We all have a story to tell. In the spirit of Story Corps and Humans of New York, I want to share more stories about individual empowerment. These don’t need to be awesome, just valuable. When meeting new people I wonder, what valuable lesson do they have? What can they teach me? I want to share your story here on this blog. It can be a small part of your journey or a summary of your whole journey. The decision of what to share is yours.
So….. are you ready to share? Check out the What’s Your Story page and send me a message.
I’m an artist and writer with a focus on art therapy. If you would like to support my heart work, please consider becoming a monthly patron on Patreon.com/Loviedo. For $1 a month*, you can fund programs like my D.I.Y. Therapy: Healing Depression E-course, my monthly “Radical” e-zine and other creative healing projects, like “Cultivating Radical Self-Love: A Collaboration of Healers, Artists & Writers“.
*You can also receive art in the mail for only $12 a month.