Found a good book
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: MO
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Found a good book
I'm reading "How Did I Get Here" by Barbara DeAngelis. I'm only through chapter 2 and I've had a number of AHA moments. I wish I could quote many of them for you. I want to share a section of Chapter 2 entitled "Digging Deep for Wisdom"
One night soon after I began making these dramatic changes, I had a very powerful and vivid dream. In this dream, I was using a large, heavy shovel, to dig a deep hole in the middle of a beautifully landscaped garden. The garden was filled with lovely, cheerful flowers, perfectly planted in orderly designs, but I wasn't paying attention to them. I just kept vigorously digging away, dirt flying everywhere, ripping up the flowers with each thrust of my shovel, crushing the delicate petals under piles of stones and debris.
At this point in the dream, a woman came along, and when she saw me digging, she became very upset.
"What are you doing?" she yelled. "You're destroying the garden. It was perfect. Now you've ruined it. What's wrong with you? Why are you doing this?"
I turned to the woman and calmly answered: "I'm digging deep for wisdom." Then I went back to my digging.
The next morning when I woke up and remembered the dream, I realized what an important message it contained from my inner self to me. The garden represented the life I'd known that had looked perfect on the outside, orderly and attractive in every way. There I was digging an enormous hole right in the middle of all that beauty, uprooting the plants and flowers, throwing dirt on top of what had once been so carefully designed and cultivated. This was just what I had been doing in my waking world-questioning every aspect of my life; uprooting old beliefs, goals and ideas I'd never had the courage to challenge; making some radical changes.
Who was the woman screaming at me? One interpretation was that she represented many people in my life who disapproved of the intense transformation process I was undergoing. To them I was just making a mess. They preferred the orderly version of Barbara and Barbara's life, the one they recognized and understood.
I think it's time to get out my shovel...........
One night soon after I began making these dramatic changes, I had a very powerful and vivid dream. In this dream, I was using a large, heavy shovel, to dig a deep hole in the middle of a beautifully landscaped garden. The garden was filled with lovely, cheerful flowers, perfectly planted in orderly designs, but I wasn't paying attention to them. I just kept vigorously digging away, dirt flying everywhere, ripping up the flowers with each thrust of my shovel, crushing the delicate petals under piles of stones and debris.
At this point in the dream, a woman came along, and when she saw me digging, she became very upset.
"What are you doing?" she yelled. "You're destroying the garden. It was perfect. Now you've ruined it. What's wrong with you? Why are you doing this?"
I turned to the woman and calmly answered: "I'm digging deep for wisdom." Then I went back to my digging.
The next morning when I woke up and remembered the dream, I realized what an important message it contained from my inner self to me. The garden represented the life I'd known that had looked perfect on the outside, orderly and attractive in every way. There I was digging an enormous hole right in the middle of all that beauty, uprooting the plants and flowers, throwing dirt on top of what had once been so carefully designed and cultivated. This was just what I had been doing in my waking world-questioning every aspect of my life; uprooting old beliefs, goals and ideas I'd never had the courage to challenge; making some radical changes.
Who was the woman screaming at me? One interpretation was that she represented many people in my life who disapproved of the intense transformation process I was undergoing. To them I was just making a mess. They preferred the orderly version of Barbara and Barbara's life, the one they recognized and understood.
I think it's time to get out my shovel...........
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Join Date: May 2008
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Posts: 743
Here's another that jumped out at me:
Denial is no easy task.................there are those who lapse into "magical thinking," convincing themselves that if they just act as if everything is going to be fine, some mysterious shift will happen and everything will be wonderful again-their estranged husband will suddenly fall back in love with them, their alcoholic wife will miraculously stop drinking, they will wake up one day and all the things they thought were wrong with their life will magically have vanished.
But this is not how it turns out. Instead, when we ignore the questions our inner voice is asking us, we suffer. We become, irritable, angry, depressed or simply exhausted. We disconnect from ourselves, our dreams and our own passion. We disconnect from our mate and our sexuality. We turn off in every sense of the word.
I thought this was a brilliant description of the effects of denial, and I suffer from all of the consequences. This is one of those books I am devouring. I checked it out at the library, but I'm going to buy a copy so I can highlight and reread.
Denial is no easy task.................there are those who lapse into "magical thinking," convincing themselves that if they just act as if everything is going to be fine, some mysterious shift will happen and everything will be wonderful again-their estranged husband will suddenly fall back in love with them, their alcoholic wife will miraculously stop drinking, they will wake up one day and all the things they thought were wrong with their life will magically have vanished.
But this is not how it turns out. Instead, when we ignore the questions our inner voice is asking us, we suffer. We become, irritable, angry, depressed or simply exhausted. We disconnect from ourselves, our dreams and our own passion. We disconnect from our mate and our sexuality. We turn off in every sense of the word.
I thought this was a brilliant description of the effects of denial, and I suffer from all of the consequences. This is one of those books I am devouring. I checked it out at the library, but I'm going to buy a copy so I can highlight and reread.
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