World caves in

Finding community helps. The Actions of Keep coal in the gournd at Newcastle were inspiring for me .. to keep some faith in the hoooman race. We all make mistakes too. Keep writing though. It is beautiful, sensitive and if it is in snatches or full stories record your thoughts ... you can come back to them later and rework it.

I only have a small ration of news.

Mostly I try and feed my damaged soul with good stuff.

I like James Joyce too and lots of other thinkers .. Bloomsday is a good community ... keep looking and dont compromise on the important things.

Apple

@Redraw

I hear you. There is a lot of brokenness and negativity in the world .... but there is a lot that is not also ....

If you were to line all the brokenness, destruction, moral decay and negativity up against all the completeness, creativity, moral strength and positivity, I think you would find that the positives far, far outweigh the negatives over all ....

Positive news doesn't sell magazines, newspapers, or air-time anywhere near as readily as the negative news, and keeping the world in a negative point of view also sells escapism, which is what I see things like tinder as ...

We have to work hard at breaking down that negative focus, the tunnel-vision that only highlights doom and gloom. When we raise our eyes from that and seek a different perspective, we begin to see more ....

We see the parts of nature that are not being destroyed, and nature fighting back with its creative force. We can find ways to live more communally with nature, both as individuals, and amongst other like-minded individuals.

We see people entering into true commitment with each other, and marriages, and families pulling together through thick and thin, and we see people for whom that wasn't a reality growing up in their birth family, who now choose to change the pattern, to foster loving, caring relationships and commitment to raise their children to a new viewpoint, a new set of more positive values ....

We see medical staff, and support staff, and community leaders who work tirelessly to improve the life of others, and the community at large.

Sometimes we need help to see past the negativity, which is an immobilising force .... it drains all our hope and all our energy, making us ineffective to ourselves and to others, but it doesn't have to be that way .... reach out towards a positive mindset, and it will start to broaden your perspective .... belief in the positive will come .... and it is the more powerful force because it is the creative one.

I am an artist too @Redraw, and I actively choose for my art to be an inspiring and uplifting force in my life, and hopefully in the lives of others around me. I quit an art course many years ago, because the focus amongst that peer group was on the negative, dark, and macabre ..... I chose positive, light, and aesthetic influences, and to influence that way myself.

Overwrite the negative. Rise above it. Create. Renew. Believe.

🌱🍃🌿

Yes @Faith-and-Hope

I remember in the movie Bruce Almighty when God talks to Bruce about miracles -

It's not just the big things -

It's about things people may not notice

When a person gets help to get them off the street

When a single mother gets one of her kids through university

When someone stops for that coffee break on a long drive

When a stranger hears your silent scream

@Redraw

Of course - actually I agree with writing our dark thoughts - I do that - and I can delete it - just by pushing the right button -

Some of the dark stuff I wrote years ago - very good actually - I wrote my best poetry around the time my son died - I haven't written poetry that much lately

But what I have done is write creatively - it may be hard to write a short story - but all those ideas make a story - the stories are all about ideas - some of them a embedded in our mythology - take them out - find what character stands out for you in stories, myths and legends, fictional characters and historical people

Maybe you find that hard - but the best things are hard - ask any mother - giving birth is hard - but worth it

Go and try for the hard writing - write a story about the way you feel

I dare you

Decadian

I watch very little too let alone news most of my pained writing comes from my life, I have suffered at the hands of many I have seen the darkness within people's souls, I have had ever more taken from me by those I thought were closest, i have had my blood curdled by those that were my friends, I have had my heart stopped by those that I thought cared.

And for a man as cripplingly shy and terrified of people in general as I am, i may not know nor understand emotions like most but when I feel it's like the accumulated power of a dozen supernovas. So better I give up on feeling

Imagine if you will said cripplingly shy and terrified man, imagine him feeling for one person and seeing that person leave with another despite the limited physical interactions between them this broke him to the extent he could not seek, nor feel for another for 16 years, he does not believe in casual relationships if he doesn't feel he has no want, then again that same spark was lit once more by the same person this time there was much more interactions between them then again it ends the same. He has not another 16 years of pain and loneliness to endure.

I am sorry to hear that has been your experience in life @Redraw. Rather than withdrawing your emotions, perhaps you can talk things out with a counsellor so it's not all chasing around endlessly in your head. A counsellor can not only help you find a fresh page in terms of your thoughts and feelings, and coming to terms with what has happened in your life, they can help you find new friends and situations that are more nurturing for you.

There are answers for how discouraged you are feeling right now. but it sounds like you will need some help to find them.

The Moderators might have some suggested contacts for you ...

Take care ....

Wow, that is really sad @Redraw. No wonder you are feeling so hurt, and as if there is nothing right with the world .... that is a really big thorn in your side there ....

Well, I still think a counsellor would be a really good starting point for you, because you need to heal for your own health and well-being, and before you can heal, you need to be able to talk out all that pain ....a counsellor is skilled in helping you to do that, better than most of us can. You can keep talking here, and I am glad you have reached out ... you have a voice, and you need to be heard. You are right, you shouldn't be ap carrying around that much pain inside you for 16 years if you can help to ease it now, and heal with the passing of time.

Shyness is something that can be overcome as well .... not all at once, and not in a way that is completely foreign to you ... it's more about finding the causes for your shyness, and developing skills that give you more confidence, a higher comfort level in situations and with people who you might find a bit intimidating.

It sounds like you are not shy about drawing.

And you create very strong word pictures with your writing.

Do you write poetry ?

@Redraw

I could not put a "like" beside your posts but I read them

Not everyone is outgoing - charismatic - but those who are suffer too - it can be a lonely place when some people tend to think some people are better than most and don't like it that those leaders by example are ordinary too

There is an episode in MASH when Radar is injured and Hawkeye feels so guilty and distressed at what happens he falls into a hole - and Radar is angry with him - and tells him that people look up to him as an example -

And that episode would have to be the one that resonates with me the most - because I have had people try and change my way of life - in different ways - but I have gone on the way I was - to my advantage now - my career was worth more than friends who would fall away like that

We could change for other people - but we may not gain them back - and we can be sure of our own path at least

I can hear what you are saying - you are painfully crippled by shyness - and you have suffered for 16 years

But I can tell you - I have too - for all of it - I am not at all shy but I know the feeling of loss only to well -

This may not be well written - but everyone hurts when people in their lives leave -

But we are not "Less than" - it is a part of life - everyone loses other people - and it is always hard

I did hear what you said @Redraw

Decadian