Released From Pain

Floating around on a breeze I found myself enjoying a writing course held by Lisa Formichelli and Carol Tice. Though I did not need testimonials to convince me I should take this course, I decided to read them anyway and curiosity led me to browsing some of the writer’s sites linked within the testimonials. One site or shall I say collection of sites that impressed me most was Rosa Sophia’s writer and editorial sites.

Rosa Sophia is a prolific writer with a few blogs, contributions to various publications, several published articles and short stories and three books. Her latest “When I Dream of You” novella uses the romance genre as a vehicle to write about something that happened to her when she was fifteen, something that deeply scarred her.

The shark is as big as she is, maybe bigger, gray and white; it lays on the sand, unmoving. People gather and snap photos while we sit and stare, amazed. The man approaches the shark and releases the line, though I can’t tell if he’s brave enough to get the hook out of the creature’s mouth. Maybe it’s in shock, frozen in fear.

I know what that’s like.

Soon they’re rolling it back out to sea, pushing it away, and it returns to life, flipping its tail, heading home.

I wonder what it’s like to be released from pain, allowed to swim free.

One day, that will be me.

The imagery used here really captured my attention. Every word was highlighted in my Kobo reader and once the last page of the book was read, I returned to this section and read it again and again.

Is this metaphoric for Nina’s life? In the water surrounded by all it knows and finds comforting, the shark can live a life free and without worry such as that of what should be the life of a fifteen year old. Life free and without worry. Out of the water, the shark cannot breathe, it is terrified and all it can do is shut down, lay frozen, petrified in the knowledge that an outside force has taken it from its once peaceful existence. This force seems to hold all control and though still alive in the physical sense, it seems there is nothing that can be done to safely return the shark back to the comforting water. That is until a man approaches, exhibits kindness, cuts the line free and releases it finally into the world of peace, solace and freedom.

The shark flips its tail and heads home. Will Nina find home or will the past continue to cling to her and prevent her from the freedom she so longs for? There are talks of dreams foretelling reality. Can the man from her dreams find his way into her life when she is fully awake? Nina may not need rescuing but she does need to feel complete again. Suffering, sadness, dissociation, death, a mother’s addiction, abuse and the rape are the realities that make up the pieces of her life until a chance encounter during a run presents something different – perhaps the beginning of a whole new life.

It is possible for a human being to lose aspects of their emotional and physical self and still become whole? Will such a kindness finally stop eluding Nina? Perhaps in the end she will realize it is not what she has lost by way of trauma and emotional scarring that counts but what she can do with what is left of her beautiful soul.

You can purchase “When I Dream of You” here.

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