We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Meg Jerit. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Meg below.

Meg, appreciate you joining us today. Alright – so having the idea is one thing, but going from idea to execution is where countless people drop the ball. Can you talk to us about your journey from idea to execution?

Ever since I was very young, I’ve believed that words are one crucial way that we can help heal our world. The stories we learn can help the heal the ones we need to release or have been told about who we are, or maybe have been wrongly telling them to ourselves. Stories help us see our humanity and parse out the meaning of our being, both as individuals and in this far larger context of interconnection.

A series of events took place in my life that I knew, if I could transmute, could be deeply healing for others to read. I was 18 when I committed to writing. I had always written, had always been a wordsmith (my childhood nickname was literally “megtionary,”) but answering the call felt different. I knew I would have to give it my all.

Every time I’ve pursued writing wholeheartedly, through the grinding and unwinding of its many faces and phases, it has still pursued me in return—teaching me the true meaning of creativity, which is always changing and deepened through relationship. The writers I’ve met through workshops reflected to me the other half of what I’d need to unearth my true voice on the page and taught me indispensable lessons through their own art making.

Writing creative nonfiction, a memoir, poems, essays, about your actual life takes a searing gaze. There were days in the process I wished I could look away. I remember asking best selling author, Terese Marie Mailhot at the Kenyon Review Summer Writing workshop, how to move these mountains through my mouth.

She, like a psychic I had just visited, said the same thing. Bite-sized pieces. Bit by bit, Meg, and you will get there. I believe that this advice applies to nearly everything, that if we can go gently and speak lovingly to ourselves in the process, we are capable of creating practically anything. Little by little, letter by letter, sentence by sentence, we arrive at the top of that mountain, able to rest and survey everything we made.

Meg, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My goal is to help others write in their true voices, to let the sanctity of their psyches arrive on the page. Writing is far from solitary, and is far easier when there is a guiding hand, especially when allowing writing to function for you as a healing modality. I especially love to uplift the ideas of others—whether we were to meet on the street or formally in a session, identifying your magic and helping you amplify it is something that sincerely invigorates me. The inner truth that is within you is ready to breach, to speak itself onto the page!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is remaining in authenticity with my spirit. We live in a noisy world that is always trying to tell us (or sell us) who we are. When I really accepted my identity, I found that there was a whole wellspring of energy, ready to uplift and support me on this journey. This is a gift I hope to impart to others, whether through my pieces or in workshop/session settings.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn the narrative of not being enough and avoiding feeling. Self-love is central to my healing work, and it absolutely required that I release these limiting self beliefs. After a series of events in my life that I was not previously ready to heal, I avoided feeling and didn’t understand why I wasn’t healing! I had to reset my gaze in my inner reality. I was trying to be tough for the world, to keep moving and be fazed by nothing. This is simply not real. Our lives are varied terrains that will sometimes require us to pause and rest, to cry and stain the paper while we write. This was fueled by a latent lack of belief in my being enough, just as I was, before the book was done. This too comes from society/family, and through practice, I began to give myself the same grace I gave so easily to others. The lens of love is truly for everybody, including ourselves.

Contact Info:

• Website: megjerit.com
• Instagram: @megitate
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/meg-jerit-68579215a

Image Credits
Marcus Jackson Ivan Borojevic Meagan Joseph / Timothy Files