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The Death of Prince - April 2016

I have been mute online since the death of Prince. It has been such a shock to process. It has been even more so than would have been because I was about to write a post called The 2 D’s: Death and Divorce to explain how these were the 2 things that have really affected me throughout my life.

Death has never been something I’ve dealt with well. I am farrrrr too sentimental to be able to shut off feelings for people in any way so when someone dies – even someone I do not know personally – I am deeply affected by that. I don’t cry much, if at all, about it. Not anymore anyway. It just stuns me with its finality.

I am definitely a feeler type of person, raw as can be. There is no line between my heart and soul and my “persona.” This ability to have very strong feelings is what allows me to love people as much as I do (and to loathe things I deeply loathe too) and to write as I do. Feeling is the reason why I write at all. I think it’s what all artists do – express how they’re affected by all in life in whatever art form it is they do so in.

I began writing as a child to process my emotions because they were so powerful and intense that I needed an outlet for them lest I drown in their force. This is why I write nonfiction and not fiction. I always thought, there’s nothing more interesting than real life (and particularly my own life experience as we all have our own personal view of things) so, why go make stuff up? It made no sense for me to do so.

I don’t mind other people writing fiction at all, of course. In fact, I do read some and I can write it but I don’t really care for doing it. In light of that, it is interesting to note that my favorite author is Leo Tolstoy and that, of his works in particular, the novel, Anna Karenina, is my absolute favorite book of all time (other than the Bible). Fiction though. Go figure, right? Such is life.

This is why I always say (as I just did in my last postnever throw the baby out with the bathwater. If I’d excluded fiction altogether from my life, I would’ve missed on what is my most favorite book. Eeeek! Unthinkable! The truth is that man could sum up life in ONE 5-word sentence that’ll bring you to your knees. No kidding! It is AMAZING and mind-blowing what he could do with words… just as Prince could do with music. Sigh…

What Has The Death of Prince Done For You?

What the death of Prince has done for me is get me to connect once more to my heart and my true self. It is something it has certainly done for many as I have seen from all the articles and tributes. I can only hope it has done the same for you as well. That’s what death does in general but it’s also what the best people – dead or alive – are able to do. They make us feel in the deepest sense. They remind us how special and fragile life is, how fleeting, how powerful, how important … which is exactly what we all are.

It is SO easy to get lost in the mundane and minutiae of life and forget the grandness of it all. Too easy, if you ask me. I want no part of that and I realize, as I write this, that the reason I have fought SO hard these past few years to be my real self and who I was born to be is thatI don’t ever want to take life for granted. I think there is NO greater tragedy than not being connected and aware of the beauty of it and not honoring it and God by being the divine self you were created to be.

I don't ever want to take life for granted... there is NO greater tragedy... Click To Tweet

Prince was definitely who he was made to be. The man DID IT without worry or apology AT ALL. Isn’t that something? It so is. It is everything. And for the reminder and the gift of his music, I am so very grateful to him…

Be who YOU were born to be, guys. You were born for nothing but.

All my love to you always,

Narah Valenska Smith - Writer - NarahValenska.com - Writing. Speaking. Heart to heart. Soul to soul. You Are Worthy.

Narah  XOXO

Narah

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