Since we currently have somewhere in the area of a foot and a half of snow on the ground, I’m feeling very glad to have the President’s Day holiday off work. We don’t have to go anywhere today, and it looks like the most logical thing to do in this weather is exactly that, go nowhere!
Hope you’re enjoying your Monday, wherever you are.:)
Back from our vacation. We had a good time in Washington, DC, Harpers Ferry, Antietam and Gettysburg. I’m still working on getting all the photos processed an online, but there are a few over on Flickr for now. We definitely did quite a bit of walking. I should be in good shape for Saturday’s…
Last Thursday my grandmother passed away. She had been ill, and was 93 years old so it wasn’t a shock, but it was still a sad occasion, obviously. I was teaching an online course for a client on the West Coast so while I found out during an afternoon break, I wasn’t really done working…
Pin The simple answer, is no one person can do everything for us. We like to think that isn’t true, but it is. As a husband who’s been watching his wife grieve the loss of her parents these last few months, it’s hard for me to admit that I can’t do everything to support her. That…
This past weekend we were with my family to celebrate my niece’s first birthday. I couldn’t help but think about what her life is going to be like, all of the many, many things she has in store for her childhood, all the happy memories that she and her older brother are going to have…
I found myself reading this article about Queen Underwood, a female boxer represeting the US at the Olympics earlier today. The headline grabbed my attention, because she is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, but the story actually contained something I don’t see often, although I doubt she is alone in this. She admits to…
Pin The context for this quote is a handful of stories where someone felt ashamed of an event or something that they’d allowed people to believe about them that wasn’t true. Marisa goes on to talk about how when we have something we won’t discuss, it creates a separation from other people, and that separation can take away from humanness. Our interactions with other people are blocked off. We know we aren’t sharing our whole selves with the people we should be. That block can protect us from potential pain, but it also prevents us from having all the benefits of having close relationships with other humans.
Doesn’t that sound exactly like growing up keeping our abuse secret?
We grow up with shame around something that was never our fault. That shame prevents us from fully connecting with other human beings. That lack of connection harms our mental health as adults. We struggle to heal without one of the most powerful tools in our arsenal as human beings, other people. We keep our secrets and hide our shame, meaning we will never know the healing power of being accepted and loved by those who know our whole selves.
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