The aspects of your personal history that you want to avoid can be the source of great vision for you. If you leave out something that has wounded you deeply, others will sense the hold in your story. This doesn’t mean that you have to turn your every wound and shame into a work of art. It simply means that eventually you must deal with the wounds and the shame. You have to move from being a victim to becoming a creator. Everything in your life-good and bad-can be raw material for your wisdom and creative skill. And you learn the most from your toughest struggles.
– from “The Soul Tells a Story: Engaging Creativity with Spirituality in the Writing Life” by Vinita Hampton Wright Loyola Press
