We come into this world whole—full of essential love, beauty, strength, compassion, true will, truth, and joy. That is the reason it is nearly impossible for us to not marvel at little beings—we coo in response to their perfection, recognizing its existence in ourselves.
Then life happens: our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers, friends, virtually everyone we come into contact with when we are young, unconsciously pass on their own unresolved painful experiences, wounds, shadow selves to us.
When we are young, we learn which parts of ourselves are acceptable and which we have to tuck away in order to survive. In the tucking away, we lose big pieces of who we are.
Things happens: accidents, disappointments, broken promises, lost opportunities, failed attempts at success, thwarted heart longings, unrequited love, drama of some sort or another, all leaving deep impressions on our young souls, which takes us away from ourselves.
We carry these impressions with us throughout life. We feel victim to what appears to be circumstances outside of our control but actually unconsciously projecting onto everyone we meet, recreating similar events, in hopes to finally heal this wounded part of ourselves. When the wound doesn’t heal we are left feeling more disconnected, confused and lost.
This, I have come to realize, is the hero’s journey of our life: to inquire within and discover which parts of ourselves have been lost, gone into hiding; to go back to those places of wounding and allow our stronger, adult selves, who are more capable of handling intense emotion now, to feel the pain of those wounds and that loss.
And when we do…our essential qualities of love, beauty, strength, compassion, true will, truth, and joy return—they arise in our being in a way that feels incredible yet strangely familiar.
As we retrieve the lost parts of ourselves, known to us when we begin this journey, we move towards wholeness. The more courageously we take these steps, the more our unique path is clear and we can find our way back home. And that is a glorious place to be! Hallejulah!
“We shall not cease from exploration,
and the end of all of our exploring will be to arrive where we started
and know the place for the first time.”
T.S. Elliot
*This and other articles read and posted on www.pawlingpublicradio.org
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