Men Have Feelings Too - The Canvas

Canvas...the canvas or backdrop for The Men Have Feelings Too Movement was birthed from a very dark place. Dark? What do I mean? A few years ago, I went through one of the most horrific times in my personal life. Life's fierce hand brought me to tears, apathy, and hopelessness. After months of searching for relevant masculine literature, someone in whom I could confide, or someone who might understand my plight, I gave up trying because no one or thing met these strict qualifications. As a result, I became a walking time bomb. I intentionally woke up every morning secretly wishing that someone would push my buttons so that I could find just cause for unloading on them.

After realizing my toxic dilemma, I became angry with myself, which only compounded the problem. What was I to do? I'll tell you what I did. To my surprise, I started a journal in order to cope. In my journal, I wrote all of those horrendous events out exactly as I had experienced them. Although this took me about a year to do, it was worth it in retrospect. After these events were carefully drawn out of my heart and unto something tangible, I can honestly say that I felt better about my situation. Despite the fact that none of my problems immediately went away, at least the pressure they caused had been temporarily lifted. To protect my heart from any further damage, I put this draft in a safe place and went on with my life.

About a year after this, I stumbled upon the draft that I had previously written. WOW...is all I could say. After rereading it, I instantly knew that I wasn't the only man who has ever experienced this. Apparently, this essential groundwork is now known as Men Have Feelings Too. With this in mind, let me also share another type of canvas with you.

The Men Have Feelings Too image was also designed with it's own meaning. Since today must be your day, I'll explain it's design to you. 

• The black face represents the dark, shameful past that most of US desire to keep hidden.
• The red heart depicts our life now. If you noticed, the heart becomes more vibrate, as it gets closer to the edge. However, the part that's closer to the face is lighter or slightly discolored. This is because many of us know that, internally, we're an empty hot mess that's being forced to carry around destructive baggage from our past. Yet externally, we want everyone else to believe that we're strong and we have it all together.
• The blotches on the heart depict that we ALL have different wounds (insecurities, issues, shortcomings, etc.) and they're in different stages of healing.  

Until next time...

Written by Walter Hunter
walter@menhavefeelingstoo.com
https://menhavefeelingstoo.com


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