Literary, The Personal & Spiritual is Political

Excerpt from Trauma a and Recovery: The aftermath of violence from domestic abuse to political terror

Resolution from the trauma is never final; recovery is never complete. The impact of a traumatic event continues to reverberate throughout the survivor’s lifecycle. Issues that were sufficiently resolved at one stage of recovery may be reawakened as the survivor reaches new milestones in her development. Marriage or divorce, a birth or death in the family, illness or retirement, are frequent occasions for a resurgence of traumatic memories.

….Commonality with other people carries with it all the meaning of the word common.It means belonging to a society, having a public role, being part of that which is universal. It means having a feeling of familiarity, of being known, of communion. It means taking part in the customary, the commonplace, the ordinary, and the everyday. It also carries with it a feeling of smallness, of insignificance, a sense that one’s own troubles as “as a drop of rain in the sea.” The survivor who has achieved commonality with others can rest from her labors. Her recovery is accomplished all that remains before her is her life.

Judith Lewis Herman

Excerpt from Legacy of the Heart: The Spiritual Advantages of a Painful Childhood

You are not broken; childhood suffering is not a mortal wound, and it did not irrevocably shape your destiny*. You need not remove, destroy, or tear anything out of yourself in other to build something new. Your challenge is not to keep trying to repair what was damaged your practice instead is to reawaken what is already wise, strong, and whole within you, to cultivate those qualities of heart and spirit that are available to you in this very moment.

Your life is not a problem to be solved but a gift to be opened.

Wayne Muller