Work In Progress

Often, in the adult day treatment program, we were reminded we were courageous for being there.  It was a choice after all.  We were recommended for the program, but by no means obliged to attend.  It was our choice to come each day, listen, explore, reflect, learn, cry, share and often by the end of the day go home numb or exhausted or exhilarated depending on how deep we had had to dig that day.  We were reminded that 2 in 5 Canadians suffer from some sort of mental illness and we were courageously facing ours, trying to learn how to cope. I never thought about it being courageous.  I thought about it as cowardly. I thought I was hiding away from the real world. Today I read an amazing post by Steve Wiens - The Actual Pastor - who I refer to on here quite often.  He is one of my favorite "real" people just trying to figure it out as he goes. He admits this is a repost --from his archive--for a friend who will need some...

Yesterday I referenced another great blog and I have been very excited to spend some time reflecting on what I read.  It is from " The Actual Pastor " ..whose post I found through my sister-in-law's, friend's Facebook page post....go figure.  He talks about how when as a child he was ridiculed and teased at school and how he began to mask his vulnerability to being hurt  ( blog post April 29, 2013)  After all, didn't we all get told: "Don't let people see that they have gotten to you!"; "Just laugh it off"; "Suck it up buttercup!" "... you are not sure who to be anymore, or what to do. We just know we never want to be rejected like that again. So we create masks that protect our actual and vulnerable selves, projecting an image that seems more sturdy and less susceptible to trauma.....The problem is that the longer we wear these masks, the more fused to our actual selves they become, and it becomes harder and harder to se...