The Meeting

Some writing describes immediate feeling or emotions, and reactions to recent events. Yet other writing just appears, almost gushing out, from a deep place inside of the writer, a place previously unknown. In this situation, ideas fly from the brain so quickly the writer hardly has time to catch them on paper.

This sudden transformation of hidden emotion into tangible thoughts and sentences can bring much surprise and shock. It is as if some supernatural being is pushing itself out from within the writer's body. There is an explosion that occurs, an "unearthing." The process of "unearthing" is not a slow dig, shoving away empty pieces of soil until one hears the sound of metal scraping metal. No, in this case, some unknown dynamite causes the treasure chest to burst from beneath the ground, gold coins flying in all directions. The writer scurries around, capturing the glistening swarming thoughts and stuffing them onto a blank page.

This "unearthing" leaves an indescribable feeling of satisfaction mingled with curiosity and fear. A burden has been lifted, an inner load or problem settled. Then it is possible for the writer to detach herself from the page and look critically at her work. After this, the curiosity arrives. A shaky feeling enters the writer's body. The paper hints dangerously towards certain thoughts and feelings too forceful and passionate to speak about or acknowledge.

The writer begins to wonder about the origin of her words. In the process of revising and understanding what she has written the writer senses, with some disbelief, that she did not write the words appearing before her. Some other being has used her body like an instrument, a vessel, to express thoughts never know to her before. Yet her rational mind convinces her this is impossible.

A fear enters the writer's body, as she realizes she has changed. She is no longer the naïve student who sat in front of a computer to write an English paper. She knows now that she has not been overtaken by a greater outside force, but that she has discovered an unearthly power within herself. Implausible as it seems, she can almost feel it guiding her hand-she grasps her pen and scribbles at the bottom of the page, "I have met my soul."

Malka J., 17
Waban, Massachusetts

* Reprinted from Positive Teens Magazine Volume 4 Issue 2, Mar/Apr 2002

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