On the process of healing difficult parts of your life...

I took this photo the day before the only possible permanent job I've had in a year ended due to problems with location, there was no bus service outside of rush hour and it was a 5 hour a day position, it was right before my birthday on March 7th too... That path goes up past the high school and I walk it nearly every night with my dog... Not a great photo, and I'm into frames these days (sorry!), but it was on the edge of... O, those Cherry blossoms!

On the Vision Quest/Fasting

The process of processing takes its own time according to its own rhythms and necessities. The vision quest/fast I did in 1998 on my abandonment issues was very difficult and quite emotionally painful if I recall, but it did resolve those issues to the extent of releasing me from being tied in an unhealthy way to a fear of rejection. Because of my childhood issues, whenever I receive a 'rejection' my response is to over-give, whether it's being extra nice, or a poem, or buying something, and it's usually an inappropriate reaction. I saw that in many ways it was the central crux of my more important relationships, and that I was still trying to 'please' an 'abusive' parent - over and over, living out a primal drama of my childhood. I needed to break the hold of this pattern in my psyche, and one of the ways I did it was to undertake a vision quest where I struggled with this issue, the power of rejection over me. I know my quest was successful because I am no longer attracted to people who are explosive and mean on the one hand, and distant and cold and rejecting on the other (was that ever really true, it sounds so incredible now). Whatever unsound hooks there were in me from my survival techniques as a child were undone, cast away. The vision quest to free myself of my abandonment issues was successful, but it took a few years for me to see that, indeed, a new pattern of relationships had established itself in my life that was much healthier and happier. I developed a strength that enables me to turn my back on, and walk away from, scenarios that would send me back to my helpless childhood.

So I know that working deeply on yourself with determined intent does pay dividends.

We each heal ourselves differently.

My favoured last-resort way is quite difficult, I suppose. Although a 2 - 3 day fast is not that rigorous. But it works for me, and that is what is important.

Let me say that even with a full 3 day/3 night fast, I have never lost any weight. With the 2 days that I fasted last week I may have lost 2 lbs which, after last night's roast chicken (soaked in a brine solution for 4 hours, covered with bacon, stuffed with wild and long grain rice, roasted to succulence) with all the trimmings and my daughter's decadent chocolate cake, well I may have even gained. I would never recommend a fast to lose weight, in other words. And, anyway, then you might get into a binge/purge routine and be worse off than ever. Weight loss is another issue altogether. I don't view it as part of the process I've undergone. The only way it could be would be if I wanted to discover the deeper reasons why I needed to overeat, if that was my problem (it isn't), and heal them at a very deep level in my being.

So with seeing if I gained any insights from my vision quest last week, yes, only one seemingly innocuous nugget, that I'm looking in the wrong area for work (clerical/reception), which was great to know, like huh, and in what area then should I look? Fasts don't follow a question/answer format; it's all process, moving energy along a trajectory, discovering the path as you go.

I'm still discovering this one: how to financially support my family while I continue with my writing and image-making/painting. And answers are coming, slowly, and with effort, in the ways I need to change my attitudes about this overwhelming problem, since I haven't been able to find full time work in a year of continual looking.

Teaching came out quite strongly, though I have no specific academic credentials (besides a couple of degrees) and am thinking of what I need to do to move into the area of education. But that's long term and down the road.

Immediate answers I don't have yet.

Maybe by tomorrow I will, maybe not. I've starved myself open, though. It's like all the cards have been thrown in the air, and who knows how or where they will land.

This post has been very long and reflective, thank you for bearing with me, and I do hope you've managed to take something away from all this that enriches your own life. That most of all. xo