Today we share a post that a good friend of Kin Women, Rachel Woods, shared on Instagram . Titled “War paint & Mud pies”, Rachel shares some thoughts she wrote last week, which was mental health week.
The truth of the matter is that some days I can barely get myself up out of the slump.
Just when I think I’ve made it to standing my legs buckle out again and I’m crawling uphill through mud unable to get back up.
Lately I’ve been doing all the things one must do when in such a predicament (seeing a counsellor, blood tests, significantly changed my diet, lost some extra kilos to gain more confidence – which has hugely helped, and moving gently forward with better boundaries etc.). Yet still, this valley envelops me.
Despite how much it sucks, I see the gifts it strangely offers. I have a different view on loneliness, isolation & emptiness. There’s a beauty I hadn’t noticed before that brings appreciation to the basics that layers seem to obscure. And it’s a good thing I have a secured anchor in hope, because the valley days sure can get real low and real muddy.
For starters, the sadness can go jump off a cliff for all I care, I’ll gladly salute its departure if I could even make it to the edge to push it over. But alas, the slump, down & dirty in a concoction of sand and tears.
I guess I could be making mud pies, senselessly swirling around what’s before me heaping it into a soggy pile of nothing (scrolling) but instead, I’m mixing up a paste (* prayer, faith & wisdom*), the kind used to draw war paint, battle lines across the face, mud on skin to front the enemy, unintimidated for when the time comes to charge forward up this big-ass hill again.
The thing is, there’s more down in this valley, there’s others, I know it because I hear their cries echo through the valley in the dark of night too. So I guess in that regard, I’m not alone, and also, neither are they. I wish they weren’t down here, I wish I wasn’t, but if I am I can only hope there’s joy in the morning, and maybe, just maybe, we are an army in waiting?!
So hey friends in low places, this is for you, I’m with you and we can get out of here alive.?
What beautiful writing.
Amazing post, Rachel. You’ve nailed the mental health load that sits over many of us.
Love this: I’m mixing up a paste (* prayer, faith & wisdom*), the kind used to draw war paint, battle lines across the face, mud on skin to front the enemy, unintimidated for when the time comes to charge forward up this big-ass hill again.
Such a wonderful encouragement. ?????