Addiction- A perfectly normal response to unhealed, unacknowledged, unsupported, long-term, ongoing trauma.
Trauma is an experience that overwhelms our capacity to process and integrate what is happening.
Shane Claiborne’s amazing passage on “a third way” feels as inspiring as it does devastating. I am facing but not yet fully accepting the reality- that deep healing and connection are not values shared by my family of origin (FOO). Awareness without acceptance is hell 100% . (more…)
The Five Rules of Being A Grown Up By Tom Weston 1. You must not have anything wrong with you, or anything different about you. 2. If you have something wrong or different about you, you really need to correct it. You need to be able to pass under all circumstances. 3. If you can’t correct it, or change it in any way, you should just pretend that you have. It’s not a problem anymore. Good news! 4. If you…
Forgiving those who knowingly continue to diminish the sanctity of my family can sometimes feel impossible. Reading and listening to every writer, healer, spiritual guide--seeking the help I need to stay inside my truth, inside myself-rather than becoming an unwholesome reaction. I am soothed by sage words of Desmond Tutu and his daughter Mpho Tutu as they delve deeply into compassion, humility, healing, forgiveness, love, and faith. Over and over they share what it looks like to Repair or Release…
Coming from a long lines of mental illness and untreated addiction, where every non-happy feeling was perceived as anger and responded to with anger, I picked up some unfortunate coping and operating styles. This wall of tools is the perfect metaphor for the tools for life before and now, with recovery. The left side needs little explanation. The dustpan and brush, I need for for cleaning up little messes I make. Tape for repairing things that are fixable. Soft gloves, for handling of…