Viva la darkness
On the November 14, 2019 podcast of On Being, the host Krista Tippett talks with Robert Macfarlane, an explorer, “linguist of landscape”, and author. I encourage to reader of this blog to listen to or read the transcript of this podcast. Mr. Macfarlane posits: “Since before we were Homo sapiens…humans have been seeking out spaces of darkness in which to find and make meaning….the underland has been prisoners and forced laborers. But it has also been a place of discovery and revelation.”
As a counselor trained in clinical psychology and as an addiction therapist I am often in the position of inviting individuals, couples and families to face and explore and bring what they experience as the darkest part of their being and their life to the surface. Whether one is attempting to come to terms with a combat related past, sexual abuse, a history of addiction forcing one to override one’s core values or any other trauma it is only when we allow those traumas and the accompanying angst to see the light of day that we can begin to make peace with the fact even those traumas have been real and often enormously painful, they do not define or determine who one is at their best.
Just this morning I had a note from someone who arrived in my life feeling broken and unable to move one. Only by facing the traumas which left him feeling broken and owning his part for ignoring the dysfunction of his life could he begin to rebuild the image of himself in his various roles as worker, father, son, and friend. Eventually he created a healthy home for he and his son. His son has blossomed personally and in school. The dad discovered that a healthy potential partner was attracted to his courage and strength. Today they are talking of marriage. Only by going deep down into the worst of his fears and the pain of that fear was he able to discover his strong, healthy self.
Whether we are talking about our history as humans; our understanding of the earth and its interdependence or the history which is revealed in the earliest cave homes, the history which is revealed in the deep underbelly of this earth, that we can discover who we are as a small, but necessary partner with the all else that comprises this universe(s)
A wise sage might say to us: Face our history. Learn from our history. Learn why it is so necessary to live in harmony with all that exist. We will not progress if we fail to face the depths of our darkness. From those ashes we can experience revelations and a new birth.
Viva la darkness
Written November 15, 2019
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
On the November 14, 2019 podcast of On Being, the host Krista Tippett talks with Robert Macfarlane, an explorer, “linguist of landscape”, and author. I encourage to reader of this blog to listen to or read the transcript of this podcast. Mr. Macfarlane posits: “Since before we were Homo sapiens…humans have been seeking out spaces of darkness in which to find and make meaning….the underland has been prisoners and forced laborers. But it has also been a place of discovery and revelation.”
As a counselor trained in clinical psychology and as an addiction therapist I am often in the position of inviting individuals, couples and families to face and explore and bring what they experience as the darkest part of their being and their life to the surface. Whether one is attempting to come to terms with a combat related past, sexual abuse, a history of addiction forcing one to override one’s core values or any other trauma it is only when we allow those traumas and the accompanying angst to see the light of day that we can begin to make peace with the fact even those traumas have been real and often enormously painful, they do not define or determine who one is at their best.
Just this morning I had a note from someone who arrived in my life feeling broken and unable to move one. Only by facing the traumas which left him feeling broken and owning his part for ignoring the dysfunction of his life could he begin to rebuild the image of himself in his various roles as worker, father, son, and friend. Eventually he created a healthy home for he and his son. His son has blossomed personally and in school. The dad discovered that a healthy potential partner was attracted to his courage and strength. Today they are talking of marriage. Only by going deep down into the worst of his fears and the pain of that fear was he able to discover his strong, healthy self.
Whether we are talking about our history as humans; our understanding of the earth and its interdependence or the history which is revealed in the earliest cave homes, the history which is revealed in the deep underbelly of this earth, that we can discover who we are as a small, but necessary partner with the all else that comprises this universe(s)
A wise sage might say to us: Face our history. Learn from our history. Learn why it is so necessary to live in harmony with all that exist. We will not progress if we fail to face the depths of our darkness. From those ashes we can experience revelations and a new birth.
Viva la darkness
Written November 15, 2019
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
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