“You know the day destroys the night
Night divides the day
Try to run
Try to hide
Break on through to the other side.”
With a voice as savage and untamed as his vision Jim Morrison calls us to action in “Break on Through.” But this is no gentle supplication. Using raw energy palpable in every syllable he summons that hidden part of us to emerge from light and find shadow, entreating us to throw off our ideas of what is proper and moral while crashing through glass to another place.
I have heard this song my entire life, but it wasn’t another hollow-eyed night that I tried to find some meaning in their words. During the sleepless hours I tossed and turned, clutching at lonely sheets wondering how to break through in a relationship pierced with gashes weeping the piquant odor of wounds.
In my personal life I am fearless. I have no problem traveling the world and leaping into the abyss of new experience. I’ve scuba dove through coral caves and kelp forests, hiked over lava flows with steam rising all around, backpacked over unmarked mountains, and flown over remote glaciers where bear roamed below.
My interpersonal life has been more cautious. Ever since the discovery of my ex-husband’s multi-year affair and subsequent divorce, I have lived in fear. So afraid of the hurt I might incur or the inevitable lies all relationships seem to have that I could not break through.
I want that to change.
So I listen to Jim.
Laurie Woodward is the author of The Pharaoh’s Cry, Kidnapped Smile, and Dragon Sky from the fantasy series The Artania Chronicles, as well as the middle-grade Forest Secrets. She co-wrote Dean and JoJo: The Dolphin Legacy and was a collaborator on the popular anti-bullying DVD Resolutions. Bullied as a child, Laurie is now an award-winning peace consultant, poet, and blogger who helps teach children how to avoid arguments, stop bullying, and maintain healthy friendships. She writes on the Central Coast of California. More about her work can be found at artania.net
