When Words are Not Enough | A Peep into World Beyond World

Words can lie. See beyond them.”—Victoria Aveyard

As we start expressing ourselves through art, we realize the nuances

knitted as complexities on the way.

Every creative endeavor takes every ounce of courage — the courage

to show up even when your work does not make sense to anyone or

even to yourself.

I remember when I started blogging. It was the pandemic year.

Staying put at home with little newness and a huge burden of the

deaths of people I knew and cared about. 

My life beyond paper was in a mess. But my writing life was even more difficult. 

I’d think one way, write it another way, and when I read or re-read it’d sound

much unlike what I thought or wrote. The sense was the same, but

only to me. It took me months of writing whenever I could to tear

down the block surrounding my writing nerves.

My point here? 

At times, we, inspired by eminent figures, celebrate the creativity

God has bestowed in this world. But, at the core, we all are

creative, maybe not channeling that creativity yet, but we all are the

same — especially with pertinence to creativity.

For example, we all need our own definitions of the things we believe

in, we all have our own reasons and lenses for them, and we all have

an equal need to align our expressions with the world before us.

(Now whether those definitions/reasons/needs are other-oriented or

not is another matter. What innately is there is: the uniqueness. In

other words, creativity.

As Julia Cameron, the pioneer of morning pages, writes:

“Just as blood is a fact of your physical body and nothing you

invented, creativity is a fact of your spiritual body and nothing you

must invent.”

Now, the thing is: when it takes lifelong practice and commitment

to find a ground in expression through creativity, how in the world

we can expect words to convey all the layers that make us believe

and behave the way we, humans, do?

If it were as easy to pen the thoughts or paint them, wouldn’t we all be well-accomplished

authors just in the beginning?  Creating giant bestsellers every other week!

Of course, there’s nothing that we humans desire as much as being

understood.

Wouldn’t we all want to share a part of our soul in a plain way for the world to know and understand us?

In other words, why wouldn't we be creating something original and massive every once in a while?

As I noted in my other blog:

“We are hung up in competition, with our former selves, with the

situations we have been in, with the family we were born in, and with

the relationships we had throughout life.

Of course, not to outshadow them but because we believe we are at the right stance and are failing to prove it, regardless of the efforts we put in.”

Understanding others and making it easier for them to understand

us is a core need. Yet it’s one of the toughest endeavors.

I remember when I was taking creative writing classes. Because of

my background in science, unlike literature students, I always

thought about the lack of knowledge of literature. 

Once I asked the instructor, 

“I want to be a writer. But, in part because of my

academic background in science, I feel there’s such a need for me

to read more and then start writing. Is it how I should approach

writing? Through reading, I mean.”

To my surprise, she said,

“Writing is a long journey. At times, you’ll

find it’s the words of other authors stimulating you. But reading is a

shallow method to hone your craft. The writing process, literally,

begins only when you begin writing; it does not start with reading.”

Likely so, words are just a shallow way to probe into realities and

actualities.

There’s more than what meets the eye— more than what reaches

the ears — more than what gets disentangled in the mind.

When someone claims that "It honestly does not matter or they

honestly don’t care," it can be easy to dismiss their statement without

truly understanding the underlying emotions beneath the surface.

But oftentimes these words are a disguise, protecting vulnerability.

Picture a person who has experienced heartache many times before.

They have invested their emotions and hopes into situations,

unfortunately, crushed by them somehow.

So, to protect themselves from more damage, they build up walls around their heart.

Saying they don't care becomes a defense mechanism, a way out of the

slippery business of emotions. 

Furthermore, words can be a way to protect one’s ego, especially for

those who fear that sharing their bare soul is a sign of weakness. And 

sometimes it’s the society or culture that feeds this idea. Some fear

being judged; they use words as a façade accordingly.

There’s almost always an insecurity, a vulnerability, a tug at the heart

buried beneath another’s obvious story.

Words are just the tip of the

iceberg — the real thing is so deep — words just imply it, failing to

encompass it.

Sometimes, we mean what we don’t say, and say what we don’t

mean. However, it does not mean that there’s no way to understand

others and make ourselves understood.

It all just takes having a connection with our own gut. Everything is there in stillness.

One important aspect of this (developing empathy)

practice is starting with a deliberate choice to be

present there. Many research studies have found that

practicing mindfulness can boost empathy.

Mindfulness, as I’m sure you know, is the deliberate

focus on the present. This ‘deliberate’ focus might

demand several practices (depending on the type of 

person and the situation they find themselves in), 

however, with intention, it’s already halfway towards 

achieving the goal.

So, if someone is saying, “It does not matter”, you cannot be sure

it does matter.

At the same time, you cannot be sure if it does not

matter.

Always remember: there’s more than words.

Let’s get fluent in understanding more than the obvious, in trusting

vibes, and in facilitating gushes of compassion — for others and our

own selves.

For,

“It's embarrassingly plain how inadequate language is.”

Anthony Doerr