Throwback Thursday: The Truth Can Cage, Rattle & Set You Free

Do stories really tell a picture? Of course they do. The ones we want them to at least. With photographs we get to filter – and not just with phone apps. Take for instance, one of the most popular hashtags on Instagram, #tbt.

Throwback Thursdays…

I have about a half dozen pictures from my childhood, including a couple of newborn pictures of myself. They are sweet and hint at not an inkling of how things really were, behind closed doors. They show sisters, cuddled up and smiling happily. Bonded then by what eventually caused us to become estranged.

As I dig deep into sessions with my therapist (yea, that’s happening – I shouldn’t have ever stopped), it’s important for me to remember that there were good times. That I am breaking the cycle and recreating how I feel about what I’ve experienced  Building my own new life, with my new family. That as I type – the memories of my own little children are starting to develop and flourish.

I can only hope that as they one day look back upon their own pictures from childhood and see those images with a fondness for how things were, not how they appeared to be.

For whatever you my friends and readers may think (being vague means that these are not only my stories to tell), about my upbringing, know this. I have love for the one(s) who raised me. Just as they are in these pictures and even for all of the things these pictures don’t show. (Even though that kind of empathy and compassion is like fighting one’s way through a field of zombies and I’ve only just begun to kill them off.) We are after all – only doing what we can, the best we can; with what we’ve got. Only the truth will set us free. (So cliche, yet so very, very true.)

Damn you #tbt for making me all melancholy. (Excuse.)

Yes, that’s me. Little brown baby.

My sisters and I on a ferry to PEI

My Mom & I

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You there. Quiet reader, filled with shame. Tell your stories, even if they aren’t pretty and ‘perfect.’ You matter. There is far too much silence for fear of hurting our perpetrators (no matter the damage done by by continuing to keep bottled up), or making those with less tragedy or abuse in their lives feel uncomfortable.

Enough.

I promise you, your voice – the POWER of your voice and your life stories, will eventually, oh eventually…they will set you free.

Please email me if you need to talk, are looking for a friend, support, help with finding a referral or simply someone who will hear you and listen without judging you or feeling uncomfortable about what you have to say. This sort of community building, I’m beginning to to recognize; is a big part of my life’s work.

I’m no professional, I am simply someone like you.

***Disclaimer: Please be aware that by law I have to report anything where you or a child’s life, physical and mental well-being is in threat. Trolls will be ignored and blocked.

For those who might wonder why I might open up the gates to something like this, I ask, why wouldn’t I?

It is what it is. I’ve chosen to stop fighting who I truly am and to do the things that come naturally to me.

Until the next. xo