We are all connected

We are all connected.

Passion is a strange word. Passion is defined a strong and barely controllable emotion, a state of outburst or an intense sexual love. The thing I am most passionate about in life almost defies the definition of passion itself. It allows me to stay in control of my life and my mind, live in a state of constant energy and love rather than an outburst of intense sexual love that slowly fizzles out over time. It is the thing that lights me up. Writing is my passion.

I guess when I think of my passion I think more in the terms of a question. If I were to turn to myself as a child and ask her, ‘what was your life like?’ I could not answer her truthfully if that answer did not include me writing and creating. I am 26 years old, and I have been writing since I was 4. Stories of loss, stories of happiness, and stories of otherworldly creatures that lurk in the shadows and light. I write not because I want to, but because I have to. There is a seed inside of me so ancient, almost as if it were planted before my birth just waiting for a vessel to travel in, that holds hundreds of tales that are yet to be told. I see stories in everything and everyone, and through this I am forced to the see the true connection between all of us – we all have a story.

As I have grown and learned new things, taken massive hits from life and delved into my shadows, my passion for writing got even stronger, more intuitive. For lack of a less cliché statement, writing helped me find the light in myself and give it to others too. Our stories make us relatable, when we share our beginnings and endings, or even just slight parallels to one another. This is what gives us that soul level connection, as it’s a connection found in the places you would least expect it, just by sharing. I have attempted to deviate from this path but somehow, I always find myself back here, like my bodies gravitational field is wired to always find true north in writing and creating.

It was and is my release and a way for me to express myself with imagery, words and on a new personal level. I have written 5 books (some are secret of course) and I have a podcast now with one of my best friends that focusses on not just people’s stories but finding connection amongst ourselves in this human life.

We all crave connection. It really does not matter what that connection is. It could be connection to our loved ones, our friends, connection to the Earth or more importantly to ourselves. We all want to be seen and understood. For me, when people read my writing or I can share stories with others, that wall that separates us disappears. You can tell a million stories to a million people and everyone will find a different part that they love the most. That is the greatest thing about us humans. We are all different, but we love to connect and experience mystical worlds, find ourselves in the main character of books that hold no relevance to our life. This form of connection through story telling has been done for millions of years – over campfires or in raising children, from our grandparents to the movies and tv shows we watch now as books slowly but surely got out of fashion. The thing is, storytelling is at the base of our existence, and a great story never goes unheard.

Writing books, proses, or stories has allowed me to connect with so many people. Social media is bombarded with noise and sometimes the entirety of someone’s ‘story’ is methodically and systematically reduced down into boxes of pictures that sum up the highlights of their life. Mine is different. With the podcast and so many short proses that I have written and posted, I have been able to connect with people on a deeper level. Not because that is the aim, not because I want people to reach out, but because those that read it really want to read as they know nothing is expected of them in return. I think we all have something important to say, always, the problem is we often keep things to ourselves in fear that people won’t see us for who we are or get lost in their own interpretations of the things we say and why we might say them. The thing with writing is a lot of those fears fall away. People know it is a story. They do not know if it’s based on true events or fantasy pictures, but they can answer those questions themselves. The thing that makes storytelling and creating so entrancing, is the ability for someone to figure the meaning out by themselves, and not have to worry about whether the meaning they found is right or wrong. Its just a story.

My ‘dream’ is to be a best-selling author, but my ultimate passion is just to write and connect, even if in the end that turns out to be connecting through the pages of my writing with only a handful of people. Maybe it is through a book, a short story or just a coffee table aesthetic of beautifully written prose, but through that dream I can turn to my child self and tell her we tried. The person we become on the way to reaching our passion is success in itself. The success is not in the end goal, the passion is not in the end result. The passion and the fulfilment, are entangled mostly in the journey to get there - in my journey of connection with people, and ultimately myself. Money is just an object. The more pressure we put on ourselves to make our passions and dreams a source of income, often the passion becomes less of an adventure and more of its dictionary definition - all-consuming, barely controllable and an outburst – something short lived. Writing is my life, and that’s something I always want to share with people and give people the courage to share themselves too. The more we live our 'passions' or dreams, the more we just try, the more space we open up for people to do that for themselves too, without ever even having to ask them to. That is the truest gift.

As I said, we all crave connection. I feel like if I offer the best of myself in my writing out into the world, without putting all the emphasis on expecting to make something out of it, that comes out in my writing too. People give when that giving is least expected of them, and when they have the space to just be themselves, enjoy and connect, to read a good book, sometimes the best rewards are given. Stories allow people to be with themselves, present, and simultaneously connect to a world away inside the letters and spaces on what was once a blank page.

Everything starts with a story, and I have so many to tell.

"If I told you what your purpose was, what your journey paved and led to, would you hear me? what if it was a path you didn't want to take, that had suffering and days sitting in the rain, wondering about what it would be like to finally feel the sun. Would you say no?

Sometimes the path we are to take is broken, worn, hard to follow, seemingly unending. Often there is fear that maybe it will be too much to bare, requires too much sacrifice and uncertainty: But how will you ever truly know you, the depths of yourself, without those testing grounds, rocks and rains. These paths make us humble. These paths make us human. Eventually these paths we all walk alone, connect us back together." - Aelish Healy