Gratitude Gems, Discovered

ILLUMINATION writing challenge: Paroma’s favorite discoveries through the past month

I write this post as an expression of gratitude. A selfish gratitude, but gratitude nonetheless.

This is in response to Dr Mehmet Yildiz’s challenge here:

ILLUMINATION and the writers on this publication reach me in the way “real people” don’t — by this I mean that sharing and reading each other’s work have introduced us to depths within each other that is not easy to get to, even if we had known each other outside of Medium.

So, in appreciation of the love I feel here as part of a tribe, I want to call out some of my favorite pieces in the authors’ work below. In themselves, these women are amazing human beings, with bottomless hearts and immense courage in expressing themselves with vulnerability. I am grateful to get to know them here; I learn from them every day.

Please note that all the below are my impressions only, and if I am wrong about any of my impressions, please accept my humble apologies.

In no particular order:

R Tsambounieri Talarantas — Her story “I Write”:

As with most of Rigopoula’s work, by the time I reach the end, I realize I have been holding my breath. In effect, I have forgotten to breathe. This piece is riveting and I have read it so many times. It has a breathless, haunting quality — a persecution that I face as a writer, a chase that I feel the words give me when there is an idea waiting to be birthed.

The last 2 lines are incisively brilliant. She says:

“I write, I don’t know what else to do, I write and then I read you.”

Suzanne V. Tanner — Her story “The creep walking in my direction”:

Suzanne’s stories are like an upper cut followed by a hook (if you follow the world of kickboxing). They have the power to shatter and fell. Every one of her pieces makes me proud to know her, and proud to be a woman. There’s a different kind of courage which comes from wounds — which speaks of never laying down arms, but getting up and fighting, for ourselves and others. Because the cause will NEVER be not worth it. Because tears can be blood.

I love the way Suzanne ends the piece. She says:

“Be warned… This she-lion is merely playing possum.”

Eli Snow — Her story “I have become difficult”:

I spent a long time trying to come up with one favorite from Eli’s work — I have so many. Eli’s work speaks to me of pain in a lot of ways, but the beauty of pain as it morphs through fearlessness that won’t give in, and won’t give up.

Eli’s mind goes in so many directions, and so compellingly, that it is an intellectual delight to follow her mental pathways, and try to guess at the events of her day that led to such incisive work. She owns it all, what else can I say?

In this piece she talks about being difficult, with all that the word connotes in our society. While the road less traveled can be perceived as difficult, sometimes the alternative is too boring. And I like the way Eli ends the piece:

“Difficult things are the ones that make you grow the most.”

There are many other authors on ILLUMINATION that I hope to call out in later editions of my appreciation.Thank you for reading!