Admittedly, this is a longish video – especially given our preoccupation with ADHD-inspired quick clips. We all like our info in quick bites, sort of the fast food drive thru for information.

Thing is, wisdom apparently comes like the slow food movement…slowly.

And isn’t it rather revealing of where we’re at in our world, that I feel it necessary to add such a disclaimer for a 20-minute video? You’d think I was talking about reading War & Peace or something.

My friend Gwen Morrison sent me this clip. Ms. Brown isn’t telling us anything particularly revelatory except to really clarify what we probably intuitively know…that our fear of vulnerabilty is based in shame and the shame is our fear of disconnection from others.

Connection and belonging are what we strive for. It’s why we marry, make friends, have kids, have dinner with our families, join groups, religions and affiliations. We are always yearning for connection.

And that got me thinking about my writing and my procrastination and my so-called ‘block’. There is no real writers block going on. It always sounds good and very writerly, but I think it’s my fear of vulnerability.

If I expose myself in this book I’m writing, if I truly expose who I am, what I think, how I feel…and whether I do that in a memoir – which is really revealing –  or in a work of fiction that exposes me in another way, it makes me vulnerable to rejection.

“Ah ha”, says I.  One must have courage, not only to write, but to live authentically. 

Maybe it’s just like Dorothy always said, “Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore.” 

Oops. No. That’s not it. It was that the scarecrow, lion and tinman needed brains, courage and heart.

Sounds like a decent plan.