Writing or talking about the hard stuff is...well it's hard. That's the stuff that dredges up old feelings, many of them not pleasant. I have a dear friend who says looking at the stuff that was your past, even the ugly parts of it, is good. Those experiences are what you had to go through to be the you you are today. In a logical sense, of course this is true. And, if I think about it, I have no regrets about things I've done..mostly no regrets. Its the feelings and emotions that go along with the telling. The tears that pour down and seem never to want to stop. Those outpourings are exhausting, leaving me robbed of sleep , with aching eyes that tell the world I've been crying, or tell the least observant that something's wrong, even if they don't know what it is.
Some parts of the book make me feel this way. They are the parts I've been putting off writing about. Yet they will probably become the heart of the book, the parts that touch readers most and make them empathize with someone they may have thought they had nothing in common with. If I were to sum it up, I'd have to say that the hard stuff is the human side!
I agree with your friend to some extent. To me your past is just there. It is what it is. It all happened for a reason to shape us into who we've become today. There isn't any reason to ever dwell upon it too much. But at least once in a while people should take a look back and examine the choices made and the consequences that took place. People can find so many answers just by taking a peak into their own past rather than to find "something new/something different."
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