-
✊
-
Reading your last post inspired me to do something today that I find incredibly difficult. It sounds like a trivial thing to most, but I find it very difficult.
I went for a bike ride after work and before I left I promised myself a portion of chips on the way home. Normally I ride to the shop look through the window and bottle it and go home a have a sandwich or something. I have a thing about queuing for food and almost always retreat from the situation, I once didn’t eat for 4 days in wales because I just couldn’t do it. But not this time, I took a tiny bit of courage from your writing and went in to the shop. I managed to order my chips, normally if I get to the counter I end up getting the first thing on their list, even if I don’t like and won’t eat it. It went a bit wrong from there in, as I’d lost my bank card and they had already put salt and vinegar on before I noticed the loss. They were lovely though and said I could just pay next time I was passing. So now I have to go back in the shop again, I’m sure I can do that. They were so great (chip were fab too, Grosvenor Fish Bar Norwich if you’re ever passing)
Do thank you Halyley for your help today
Chaley X
You are reading a single comment by @Maj and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
chickenbones
Chaley
@Maj
thank you for your kind words everyone.
having a day or so since I wrote this and hearing the reception from people, both here and those who reached out, has made the vulnerability felt hitting send worth while. hearing other people relate or take something away from this makes me smile, both to know people hear you and that you're not alone in feeling these things.
it's hard writing about this stuff more so as it can come accross rather bleak. however, i always think about the piece I read from a friend once, a wonderful piece on the power of protest. that many people can become so burned out by politics that they give up, nothing changes. they might even resent the protest and become resentful at the seeming futility of it all. that response, however, misses what protest is about, it's not so much to change things [although they can and do at key points], it's to show you and those watching you're not alone, to show you that even with how bad things are there is a much larger community than you might be aware of. you can learn from this community, build this community, draw and give energy to it. you can then build groups and actions with those members.
I find with writing, it's like a sort of mini protest, a auto-biographical one, a reminder to oneself that there are people out there experiencing the same feelings. Taking that step to talk about it, share those experiences, no matter how painful, is rather freeing and reminds you that you have allies, friends and new peers in places you wouldn't have thought otherwise.
I encourage everyone to have a diary of some sort, public or private, a little project thread to share ones mailaise or love, despair or joy. I certainly look forward to reading them in the same way people have spoken about here.
As an extension of this, next week, friday, i will be having my birthday ride, which funnily enough, i wrote about in a similar fashion last year. doing such did bring joy and new people to my life, helped centre me in my focus. I hope the same comes from this writing in 12 months.
If you would like to join in on the birthday ride, i have attached the poster
1 Attachment