I suffered. A lot. Piles of pain and most of it before the age of 10.
When a baby falls down learning to walk, sometimes it cries because it's scared or hurt. It's a way to let those bigger beings in charge to come help fix the "bad" thing.
Most girls learn that it is okay to cry over a loss or an emotional situation like a friend moving away. Maybe some boys do too. Sometimes the bigger beings say shitty emotionally repressive things like "I'll give you something to cry about." Usually when they're hurting you. Crazy making that.
Girls are NOT supposed to be angry. But boys are sometimes encouraged to do angry things like punch each other, kick over blocks and generally use a n outburst to get their way.
The onion of person existence has many other emotions, but I'll stick to those two for the moment.
I like the nature of onions because as a metaphor it's both common and not entirely understood. Other things, like a package, has layers atop a reason for the layers. Onions ARE the layers. No center exists for finding.
Some onions are even hollow at the middle. Like someone swiped the prize.
Perfect for metaphor.
The layers ARE the prize.
When I bring out the memories of my trauma and count them, the first emotional layer presenting usually involves tears. I've long ago decided that's how my body begins the healing process.
First, clean the wound. Then assess what to do.
Though some of this is simply about "grief process" and it moves through stages, some things need to come first. I've written previously about counting and compelling incidents.
Through some kind of weird instinct I knew I had to have time to cry for as long as I needed. Then I moved into righteous anger for as long as that serves me. It's starting to wane.
I still cry, I am sure I will still be angry over stuff for a really long time. The more I tell the story, the more it becomes personal history.
I think what's next is compassion.
It all seems so natural, nuanced and ordered. Layers peeling away, tearing up and falling from view.
Kind comments encouraged.
