In the following weeks we will be posting writings from our June 2025 Wordflow Authentic Writing courses and other contributors.

The Wordflow community writes together, shares, discusses, meditates, laughs, reflects, celebrates, writes positive comments, asks questions of the experts, and interviews author guests, for the 3 weeks of each course.

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The writers who are writing at Wordflow Authentic Writing, which is six times a year (January, March, May, June, September and October) have a wide variety of backgrounds. They have found that writing and sharing in this supportive group has helped them develop memoirs, stories, novels, plays, essays, fragments, deep character development, while having an enjoyable writing routine. The course gives you the option to write to a prompt, but writers can do anything for the approx. 45 minutes of writing time every weekday of the 3 weeks. Each class is 75 minutes. We are very proud of their development as well as the quantity and quality of their work.

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Enjoy our contributing writers, and feel free to give them comments of encouragement and feedback as they develop.

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Influence

by Dawn Didi Aarons

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I’ve been betrayed by influential people. Their influence casts dark shadows.

The shadows stretched as I’d try to walk away. I felt hurt and disappointed, and these feelings followed me. Just as I’d think I was stepping into the sunshine, the shadow would elongate. Like a game that is no fun at all, my own steps brought me deeper into the darkness I was running away from.

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I had a recurring dream of being a ball that would bounce between high-rise apartment buildings made of glass. It was nighttime and I would bounce 50 stories between these two buildings. Down and up. Down and up.  I had to keep my ball body soft and relaxed in the free fall so that when I made contact with the next wall, I would bounce off it and not be crushed.

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Betrayal feels like this free fall. Disappointment heavy with incredulity. How could I have such poor judgement of character?  Was I so thirsty that I was drawn to any attention? How did I mistake their attention for loving care?

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Having influence means having something to impart. It’s power. It can be used for good or for bad. Or sometimes the person thinks they are wielding their influence for good, but it turns out badly.

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Ironically, the two people that casted their influence were both parental figures. They paid more attention and were more present than either of my parents at the time they were in my life. There was generosity at a very high price.

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These musings make me question my own influence and specifically how I have disappointed or even traumatized others. I see a cloak full of wet pink paint flowing behind me. Who does it touch? Who gets a small stain of pink on their shoulder? Is someone drenched in this paint and stained from their exposure to it? Do I have a limited influence or does my cloak magically refill itself? Do the colours change depending on my moods, activities or the influence of other cloaks that brush against my ankles?

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There are micro-influences all the time. My shadow casters drink me like vampires. The colour is deep red and I expose my neck for the feed.

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Are they really such terrible people? I know that they are not. The nightmare is the story I have created around them. The one I repeatedly step into, years even decades later. My story is real – it is an interpretation of the truth. One that solidifies my position as the victim.

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My influencers also identify as victims. Reminds me of my sister once telling me about some couples counselling that she was doing with her husband, where they were told that “people compete for the role of victim in relationships.”

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Though there may be positive experiences of influence, I am relating to influence gone south. To shadows and free-falling balls.  To influence leading to abuse.

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I look for boundaries and limits that leave individuals intact. Protected, not melted into puddles of colour on concrete.

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Prompt: Write about someone who had influence in your life. The writing prompt was to “write about someone influential, not a parent ”

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Author: Dawn Didi Aarons is a retired Acupuncturist and Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner, as well as a teacher. She has written articles for the Canadian Gynecology Institute of Chinese Medicine and other sites. She is enjoying exploring her writing and creative self through Wordflow.‍

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