Tag: walking

• Walks with me in the Dark

  While I was away on a long weekend getaway with my husband, a few comments appeared and a few emails, to the last few posts.

  Here is the deal.  I am only writing about my experience with the people of the FALC, certainly it is not all, but all I knew and each who knew acted the same.  It was like a perfect orchestrated synchronized walk.

  They scored a near perfect ten for keeping in line.

  What I write is my experience and the folks I am writing about are all of the same religion.  They are the ones acting weirdly.

  Here is the other thing, I did have friends (outside of the church) who after reading it in the paper did come up and respond completely the opposite. They did not turn away, but came towards me.

  I can’t help if the poorly acting folks, all happen to be of the same faith, but they are.

  And here is another thing, IF what I write fits you, wear it…if not please let it lie. 

  I am only here reporting things as I encountered them along my journey.  I have yet to meet a full fledge First Apostolic Member who reacted like the folks outside of the church.

  The drastic contrast stands alone…and it isn’t that I am just picking on my friends and acquaintances of that church, but they happen to be outstanding in their consistent response.

  Folks who were not from the inside of the church responded in various ways, listening, hugging, crying, talking in depth, sharing their experiences, and a few cards. 

  What I am mostly shocked about and have separated and explored are the reasons why those who knew me from inside the church turned away.

  They knew me since I was little, we had long history, and they too knew my father and his long history, and yet I immediately became a stranger.

  I didn’t expect folks who didn’t know me on the inside of the church to do anything…

  We expect more from the folks who know us, than we expect from strangers no matter what their religion.

  We have a belief somewhere inside of us about the folks we know, that when the shit hits the fan…they will stand with us.  And I am reporting this odd behavior, like birds all swerving in the same direction, without verbal warning, just an instinctive reaction…adversely to a tragedy.

  Okay, yes…the one phone call reminding me to forgive my father, that it was my job, and that the size of the sin should have no bearings on my task at hand…

  So, I am writing about MY experience with Folks I knew who happened to be members of the same religion and how they happened to respond the same way…This is my experience of the FALC. 

  And, if it fits wear it and explain to me why, and if it doesn’t use my experience as a reminder the next time you hear of the same kind of tragedy.

  And know, the more severe the tragedy, the more the need to step up, step in, bring it up, pat their back, give a hug, send a card, make that difficult phone call.  Be a friend in the dark times…

  As you stand back, they walk alone in their darkest days. 

  And you are sending a message as you turn and walk away…

  Silent is a message.

  I heard your silent message loud and clear. 

  You were a fair weather friend, a surface polite kind, a wave in the good times, a social niceties, a loose bond of similarities of faith, but when the chips were down and the lights went out in my world, the familiar hands were gone.

  What this made me do was to reach out into new areas and reach towards to new friends…and it also gave me great insights into friendships, relationships and how you measure friends more fully in the dark than you do in the light days.

  It is easy to be friends with folks in the good times, but I now know my friends by who walks with me in the dark.

   

  October 2, 2011

  dark, FALC, friends, light, walking

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• Save your soul.

  The biggest hurdle in stopping abuse is stopping being a part of the family it is within. How easy to report abuse in another family but where it actually counts is when you see it and respond in kind within your own.

   

  To stop treating a father as a dad and see his actions of being a pedophile and putting him away and out of reach of other little girls.  My family failed at this big time.

   

  The authorities brought him to court, but the family set him free.

   

  I wish this was an anomaly but sadly, most will defend the father and not even let it get as far as ours did.

   

  There is this thing called, “Unconditional Love” that keeps this from happening, and another thing called, “Forgiveness of Sins” that does as well.

   

  We all think that the biggest thing we can do is report pedophiles to the authorities, but that is only a small portion of the job.

   

  The biggest deal is to take a family and rip it apart seeing who really does what, what are they doing, bringing and being, to bring in consciousness where before blindness lived.

   

  The key components a pedophile needs the most is your undying faith in them, your unconditional love and your willingness to continue to bless away his bad behaviors…for you to be relentless in this and NEVER changing.

   

  What most fail to realize it aren’t the authorities that are to blame but the families of these perpetrators.  Well, I believe the law of the land needs a big wake up call and to see that they are allowing dysfunctional families to call the shots…

   

  For as it stands now they are asking blind people to see and act clearly.

   

  Most often, and in my case it is true, that I wasn’t the first one abused, but rather just one of a long line of generations worth.

   

  This was normal behavior.  A mother who was unable to discern abuse for she herself never healed from her own abuse.  Her abused self worth and image attracted a man who operated at the same level.

   

  I am finding out that my brother and I are very much changelings within our family’s heritage, that every now and then one comes along and switches the family traditions, but in order to do so, you leave the family.

   

  What most want is to stop abuse, but what few will do is stop being part of a family.

   

  You will have to go against generations of folks, relatives in order to stop abuse.

   

  It isn’t a simple task, for 99% of the abuse is from someone you know and trust and of the 99%, 50% is from someone who is your blood relative.

   

  It is like turning against your own self…and is.

  You will have to take all you have ever known and begin yet again.

   

  I get so incensed with folks who tell me…I would never or I don’t stand with abuse, while they are still having relationships with people who abuse.

   

  It is insanity.  You are being just as abusive to the child by having a relationship with the person who hurts little children.  The child sees who you are aligned with and KNOWS you are not a safe person or one to help them.

   

  This matter is far more complex than it appears.

   

  Abuse is an infection that has spread through generations of families and will continue on unless you walk away. 

   

  You have to leave the infection called abuse… IT will not leave you.

   

  It will not one day change from hurtful abuse to wonderful love, stop pretending time will heal and change things.

   

  You have to leave it in order to be free of it…and then you have separated your self or isolated the infection to just you and then the real work starts.

   

  You have to see it in all your thoughts and beliefs and have to start working on each one to right it.

   

  To change your old definition of unconditional love to love that is free of abusive effects.

   

  You have to change your mind about a million things.

  You have to be willing to not know your self or those you ‘loved’.

   

  You have to be willing to walk a walk against family and ‘loved’ ones.

   

  I walked this walk…and while it was extremely tough, it is well worth the effort. 

   

  You will not walk alone; you will have the guidance of the Universe if you are a seeker of the truth.

   

  You will be changing your very DNA and the legacy you were born into.

   

  I will help anyone who has been chosen to walk this walk.

   

  So, go ahead and report, but mostly start the dialogue in how far would you go to stop abuse, would you go the whole way, would you forsake the world to save your soul?

   

  August 13, 2011

  abuse, against, childhood, choices, dna, FALC, family, forward, going, legacy, life, walking

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• My Soul Cheers

  Shutting the valves or entry points where I have allowed toxic behavior and or negative energy to seep in, feels soooo liberating, so empowering, so self loving, I feel so lightened by this, if only I knew that I wouldn’t feel alone, but empowered, I wouldn’t have waited so long.

  The first time I left my family, I did so in fear, anger and anxiety, in moments of pure panic due to the way they were all acting, I segregated myself in solitary confinement in fear. Fear of who they were and how weak I literally was, I scurried to be far far away from them.

  I was out of control in a lonely spot with raging fear, alone and empty inside, twisted up with confused and conflicting images, tangling love and fear, I had to run to survive, not knowing that I would survive…I left.

  It wasn’t an act of courage or empowerment but an act of sheer terror.

  The difference between fleeing in terror or fleeing with knowingly and great awareness are oceans apart.

  One leaves you vulnerable and alone.
  The other empowered and alive with great gusts of newfound peace, like breathing or not breathing.

  Breathing with the right to orchestrate your world, using your free will to close the source of pain that flows into your world.

  What a great thing to know, how empowerment is grown, it is birthed by making a choice, using your awareness and seeing the cause, doing what you can to eliminate it in your world.

  This isn’t at all about them, but about you.

  You have the right to open and close relationships.

  I love that I found the energy to use the switch, to flip the button to off.

  It doesn’t change who they are, but it greatly changes their impact in my world. Little did I know, even though I left the window open, that I was the one I was waiting for…

  Inside, as my tank overflows with empowerment, my soul cheers!

  (I think I scored one for me!)

  November 20, 2010

  a, abuse, after, away, choice, empowerment, fear, Finding, For, growing, healing, learning, or, terror, then, voice, walking

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• I Didn’t Forgive Her

  When women feel they have learned to forgive their mothers – and men, their fathers – all it usually means is that they've decided to allow themselves the same kind of behavior.

  ~Mignon McLaughlin

   

  The above quote caught my attention and I full heartedly agreed.  Yet someone commented that it was kinda negative, and I agree it is negative and rightly so.

   

  What is forgiveness?

  How is it applied and why?

  Who needs it and is it our responsibility to apply forgiveness upon the behaviors from someone who have hurt us, and if so, what does it change?

   

  If I hurt someone, will them adding forgiveness on top like gravy make it feel better, remove my actions, will they feel less pain and will it stop me from hurting them again?  What is my consequence for hurting them?  Them being okay and letting it go letting me be a harmful humanbeing, is that good for me??? 

   

  While the word sounds so compassionate and very loving, is it?

   

  Forgiveness is applied upon another, when I believe it was meant for personal use.

   

  I had mentioned to my mother a long time ago, that the forgiveness she seeks is of her self, and I still agree with that today.

   

  How do you apply forgiveness? 

   

  Is it a thought, a feeling, an emotion and it it possible to transfer it to someone?

   

  In my experience of how my siblings used forgiveness it is to ‘overlook’ pardon the hurtful actions and remain in a relationship with my parents. 

   

  It is seen as a more loving thing to do.

   

  More loving than not forgiving.

   

  What is not forgiving? 

   

  Is it to not overlooking the actions, not pardoning them, but holding them accountable?  Is that wrong?

   

  I am not seeing why it is bad to hold someone accountable, to not pardon their behavior, what am I missing here?

   

  It didn’t take me long to realize that IF my father was a monster, and IF I didn’t see that, and due to the fact that I had missed this fact, I had brought my girls to him, I was accountable for my behaviors, there was no pardon that would change that fact, none.

   

  I was the driver of the car that brought them to him.

  I hold myself responsible for my part.

   

  As a child who didn’t know, but feared him and was silent, I was not to be pardoned for not telling, being silent was a behavior that was not to be overlooked, for when I was silent he continued to abuse.

   

  You can’t pardon my behaviors and even if you did, they will not change the outcome of the past 45 years, nothing, absolutely nothing will change if you forgive me.

   

  Nor did it ever even once cross my mind to ask my children or my siblings to forgive me, for I knew full well, what my actions had caused.

   

  Martha Beck has a new meaning of forgiveness that I have adopted, “Forgiveness is accepting that the past will not change.”

   

  I agree.

   

  I have been working on forgiveness, (accepting) my actions and behaviors for the first 46 years of my life, and there is no pardon on earth that will change what happened.  None.

   

  No fancy words.

  No transferring energy to me.

  No emotions can be put upon me to change the outcomes, none.

   

  What was done was done.

  Many a little girl lost her innocence and there is no pardon for that, none.

   

  Pardons will not change it.

  Overlooking what happened will not change it.

  Refusing to hold them accountable today does not change it, yet all I can do is make sure today that I remain accountable of my actions today.

   

  Today I will not forgive him, that is for him to do.

  Today I will not forgive her, that is for her to do.

   

  Today I will forgive myself by accepting that the past will not change, that I can’t change who I was back there, I can’t change what happened, but I can change who I am today.

   

  Who I am today is someone who will not overlook, look around or away from a behavior that hurts, I will hold you accountable for your actions and me for mine, I will speak up instead of be silent about my feelings, and I want you to be honest with me about yours.

   

  I don’t want a repeat of my first 46 years.

   

  I am grateful I have a second chance at life.

   

  Grateful that I have been able to make corrections so history will not repeat itself in my life.

   

  I am grateful I didn’t learn to forgive my mother, for I would have allowed the same behavior in myself.

   

  It was for both of us that I didn’t forgive her.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  September 23, 2010

  abuse, accepting, allowing, away, ending, forgiveness, harmful, Martha Beck, pardons, relationships, walking

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