The Power of the Pen — Writing as a Path to Remembrance
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Artist/Author/Sacred Guide DK Hillard
I never set out to become a writer. I set out to survive what felt like an ending. My writing became a path of remembrance.
When my mother’s life came full circle — when her body returned to the earth and her spirit began to speak through memory — something in me unraveled. The life I had built, the striving and the doing, dissolved. What remained were fragments of her story, my story, and a quiet voice that refused to be silenced. Writing became the way I could stay connected to her, to myself, to what was still alive inside the grief.
At first, it wasn’t elegant. It was raw. My journal pages were soaked in ache and revelation. But as I wrote, I began to notice that the words were weaving something — connecting our lineage, our creativity, our souls. Her paintings became my teachers; they carried messages I hadn’t understood while she was alive. Writing gave them language.
That’s how my first book, Remembering Myself – A Journey Through the Threads of Time, was born. It wasn’t a memoir of loss — it was a ceremony of remembrance, a way of honoring the sacred thread that continues between mother and daughter, between past and present, between form and spirit.
The pen became my bridge between worlds — the seen and unseen, the physical and spiritual. Each sentence revealed something my body already knew but hadn’t yet spoken. Writing became my healing practice, my spiritual teacher, my way home.
The most powerful lesson I’ve learned through writing is that storytelling transforms pain into purpose — but only when we let it remain honest. I had to release perfection, stop trying to sound like a writer, and let my truth be enough. That vulnerability opened something much larger: the understanding that every story carries medicine, not only for the one who writes it but for everyone who reads it.
Now, through my Soul Woven© work and the creative experiences I offer, I help others access that same medicine — through art, color, texture, and yes, through words. The process is the same no matter the medium: when we tell the truth of who we are, something in us reorganizes. Writing, painting, weaving — they’re all languages of the soul.
For anyone ready to write their own story, my advice is simple: begin where it hurts and keep your heart open. Don’t try to write something beautiful. Write something true. The beauty will reveal itself. And remember that no piece of your experience is wasted. Even the hardest moments contain threads of wisdom waiting to be woven into purpose.
Writing gave me back my life. It continues to guide everything I create — from my books to my paintings to the Paint From Your Soul journeys I now lead. Through the act of writing, I’ve learned that healing and creation are not separate. They are one and the same thread, drawn by the hand of remembrance.
If you’ve ever felt the pull to write, follow it. The words know where they’re going, even when you don’t.
Artist, author, and sacred guide DK Hillard weaves art, healing, and embodiment into living journeys of remembrance. Her first book, Remembering Myself – A Journey Through the Threads of Time, traces the legacy of creative lineage through images, poetry and prose. It is due to be released in the coming months.
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