A Pilgrim’s Progress

Sappho was a Greek poet from the island of Lesbos, the original lesbian! She wrote “if you are squeamish, don’t turn over rocks”. She meant that if you turn over rocks, you’re gonna see creepy, crawling bugs under there, and things that you might not want to see. Well, we have stones in our minds, parts of us that we don’t want to see. My experience as a Warzone kid is that if I don’t turn over those rocks and learn to accept whatever I find inside myself without judging it, then I’m just gonna stub my toes on those rocks forever. When I look inside myself without being squeamish, and except whatever I find without judgment, I find that the scary, creepy, crawling bug bugs are just beetles and centipedes doing their natural thing in the world. Like Popeye, I yam what I yam. In my life the act of trying to change myself just keeps me stuck where I am. When I accept myself without judgment, that’s when things change.

I hope you enjoy this conversation with Elizabeth Clements, founder of Hidden Water. It’s an organization that facilitate healing circles by and for those affected by child sex abuse. You can register at the Hidden Water website: https://www.hiddenwatercircle.org/Elizabeth’s book, “Healing Together” is at https://www.elizabethclemants.com/store/p/healing-together-a-family-guide-to-recovering-from-sexual-harmPeace to you!

Burning away the dross of pain and suffering? Turning lead into gold? However you likw to think about it, it’s life!

Burning away the dross of pain and suffering? Turning lead into gold? However you likw to think about it, it’s life!

The core of narcissism is that you get your sense of identity almost exclusively from what you can get other people to believe about you. Narcissist came to his end because he wouldn’t stop looking at his own reflection in the pool. He was afraid to do anything to disturb that smooth mirror. The way to the depths of who you really are is through the surface of that reflection.

The core of narcissism is that you get your sense of identity almost exclusively from what you can get other people to believe about you. Narcissist came to his end because he wouldn’t stop looking at his own reflection in the pool. He was afraid to do anything to disturb that smooth mirror. The way to the depths of who you really are is through the surface of that reflection.

The core of narcissism is that you get your sense of identity almost exclusively from what you can get other people to believe about you. Narcissist came to his end because he wouldn’t stop looking at his own reflection in the pool. He was afraid to do anything to disturb that smooth mirror. The way to the depths of who you really are is through the surface of that reflection.

Living with borderline, it ain’t easy. It feels like the whole world set traps for me…and then I realized I was setting the trap myself, and it’s people who care about me that get caught.

If you’re the one looking in the reflecting pool, you’ve got to dive into the reality of who you are. The way to the depths lies through the surface. If you care about someone caught ip in their own reflection, stay on the safe side of the event horizon or you’ll be sucked in. Save yourself! You’re Echo in the story. The most you can do is call their name and hope they look away from the pool. Only they have the power to break the spell.

https://www.hiddenwatercircle.org/Hidden Water facilitates healing circles by and for those affe red by child sex abuse. I’m just a volunteer circle keeper! I don’t speak for the organization, but i’ve found the model for the path toward healing from harm very helpful. We find ourselves lost in a sea of suffering - that’s the coping phase. After that we wash up on the Isle of Facing, when we’re able to look at the reality of our experience. Usually this involves pain, rage, and the thirst for vengeance. The third phase is releasing and moving on. This is when we find ourselves living our lives. How do we live? That’s the question of life.