“Then you hold life like a face between your palms, a plain face, no violet eyes and you say, yes, I will take you, I will love you, again.” - Ellen Bass
Life is difficult. Certainly there are varying degrees of what one would define “difficult,” but nevertheless it is true.
Many of us grew up with the odds stacked against us from the get-go. I know what my experience has been like to overcome, but then I hear and read other accounts that leave me speechless, unable to comprehend how the human spirit could possibly survive the atrocities imposed upon them. Whatever our story may be, the fact is that all of us hold within a wounded inner child that can not be silenced.
The older I got, the more I turned on her, detesting and blaming her for all that was wrong in my life. If only she had done this instead of that; said this instead of that; been like this instead of that. I finally reached a point where I came to realize that everything I had created in order to cope and survive, was simply no longer working. I was tired of the facade, tired of the baggage, and tired of running from my past. Finally, I took a step back and began to see her in a way that I had never before acknowledged...”She was the feisty one, the scrapper, and the one who wouldn’t back down. She took the punishments, remaining defiant, refusing to break. She also took the abuse, storing with it shame and humiliation.” (excerpt from my memoir, “Unfinished...) I came to understand that it was her strength, her courage and her tenacity that had been the catalyst for my survival. Today I honour her for all that she was and is.Unfinished: A Personal Journey of Healing, Self-Discovery and Resilience