Congrats on breaking free from social situations that could not support you your in flourishing. I put myself through something similar in my activist days. Looking forward to reading your book and hearing your insights for a healthier way to be politically engaged.
I identify really strongly with what you wrote here and it's not at all easy to break out of your own mindset and remake yourself!
I too was in an abusive relationship but with someone of a different race. He wasn't woke but he did constantly try to instil guilt and self-loathing in me for being 'elite', by this he meant studying the arts and loving books. Because of my willingness to self-flagellate, I cooperated in the struggle sessions and didn't dare express any of my creativity.
When we split up I spent two years painting virtually non stop after a 15 year break from the arts.
Another militant friend, whom I hosted over Christmas, spent her short stay subjecting me to an inquisition about whether my furniture was ecological, the food organic, if my parenting was up to scratch and essentially my credentials as a person of worth before working herself up into a rage and leaving during a storm. At first, the perceived ideological purity gives them guidelines to live by, and by enforcing these on others, they get to feel like they are serving a greater cause, but after a while their lives are defined by disputes that rob them of their joy and whatever remained of their sense of humour.
These conversations are really timely. Thank you, and by the way I am working myself up to signing up to the pagan course!
From one violent abuse survivor to another - blessed be your sovereign soul, blessed be your beautiful heart, and blessed be your willingness to claim agency, beauty, and loving truth in the face of all that harms.
As an animist I’ve felt the corruption of power in the hearts of man this entire walk of my life. Violence over our kin of flesh, stone, leaf and sky. Blessed be those courageous enough to claim themselves and walk in peace.
I love this post, and honor your courage and determination. The guy on the left has deep grooves worn into the flesh between the eyes, like a nut of concentration where all the thoughts got crunched. But it then smooths out into calm for the guy on the right. That's amazing. The body expressing two very different inner conditions, finally relaxing into its true, animal peace. Congratulations on getting there.
I've noticed with woke talk that it's almost always abstract. There are theories that justify theories, all held up on an invisible pedestal of airy "righteousness." Your response is in details, exact things that happen between real people in real bodies. It's a pretty powerful distinction and I look forward to reading more in the book.
I love who you’ve become because may we all find our own true way home.
This is a blessing that means so much to me. May we all come home to our Mother Earth and our own Mother Earth, our body’s. Our own beautiful terrain, that is the complex expression of our spirit in the here right now.
Right now my herbal stint is partly happening as part time work in my friends wellness shop where person after person is looking for ways to support themselves and yet somehow mostly complete forget to also factor in how they feel in that support. How we feel tells us so much. May we all work to connect and welcome our feelings. Allow ourselves to feel and learn to trust how we feel.
Your post today drove me to Lears while I read it listening to Elizabethan Music by Dowland sung by Countertenor Daniel Taylor. I was deeply moved because, haven't we all been there, Done this to ourselves? People can abuse us as long as we agree with them and are hard with ourselves. When I did group Therapy I always said that my aim was to help them become one of their true best friends - and I started by asking them how they saw themselves and what they told themselves when they made a mistake - automatically.
THANKS for being who you truly are, so open, innocent and generous. I am reading Caliban with you and hope to get your book.
I cannot do your Pagan course right now as I am doing a meditation retreat towards Cosmic Consciousness, but maybe next time. Your posts, which I share, give me support and consolation, as well as hope and sometimes excitement about the possibilities for being both LEFT - and a friend of all the Sacred that surrounds us. THANKS
I feel some kind of deep kinship with you, no idea where it is coming from, but I read you and most of what you write stirs me, moves me, touches me. sending you many blessings. May the work you do on this Earth bear fruit
Looking forward to the book, Rhyd! Thanks for putting in all this hard work. I think it's going to sell well!
Congrats on breaking free from social situations that could not support you your in flourishing. I put myself through something similar in my activist days. Looking forward to reading your book and hearing your insights for a healthier way to be politically engaged.
What a beautiful book cover! And thanks for sharing your story, sounds like a tough journey, but I’m glad you’ve ended up where you are now.
Congratulations on the great book cover, and more importantly, for getting free of the prison. Looking forward to coming to your UK book launch.
I identify really strongly with what you wrote here and it's not at all easy to break out of your own mindset and remake yourself!
I too was in an abusive relationship but with someone of a different race. He wasn't woke but he did constantly try to instil guilt and self-loathing in me for being 'elite', by this he meant studying the arts and loving books. Because of my willingness to self-flagellate, I cooperated in the struggle sessions and didn't dare express any of my creativity.
When we split up I spent two years painting virtually non stop after a 15 year break from the arts.
Another militant friend, whom I hosted over Christmas, spent her short stay subjecting me to an inquisition about whether my furniture was ecological, the food organic, if my parenting was up to scratch and essentially my credentials as a person of worth before working herself up into a rage and leaving during a storm. At first, the perceived ideological purity gives them guidelines to live by, and by enforcing these on others, they get to feel like they are serving a greater cause, but after a while their lives are defined by disputes that rob them of their joy and whatever remained of their sense of humour.
These conversations are really timely. Thank you, and by the way I am working myself up to signing up to the pagan course!
From one violent abuse survivor to another - blessed be your sovereign soul, blessed be your beautiful heart, and blessed be your willingness to claim agency, beauty, and loving truth in the face of all that harms.
As an animist I’ve felt the corruption of power in the hearts of man this entire walk of my life. Violence over our kin of flesh, stone, leaf and sky. Blessed be those courageous enough to claim themselves and walk in peace.
Definite lack of down to earth grandmother wisdom in this woke stuff!
I love this post, and honor your courage and determination. The guy on the left has deep grooves worn into the flesh between the eyes, like a nut of concentration where all the thoughts got crunched. But it then smooths out into calm for the guy on the right. That's amazing. The body expressing two very different inner conditions, finally relaxing into its true, animal peace. Congratulations on getting there.
I've noticed with woke talk that it's almost always abstract. There are theories that justify theories, all held up on an invisible pedestal of airy "righteousness." Your response is in details, exact things that happen between real people in real bodies. It's a pretty powerful distinction and I look forward to reading more in the book.
I love who you’ve become because may we all find our own true way home.
This is a blessing that means so much to me. May we all come home to our Mother Earth and our own Mother Earth, our body’s. Our own beautiful terrain, that is the complex expression of our spirit in the here right now.
Right now my herbal stint is partly happening as part time work in my friends wellness shop where person after person is looking for ways to support themselves and yet somehow mostly complete forget to also factor in how they feel in that support. How we feel tells us so much. May we all work to connect and welcome our feelings. Allow ourselves to feel and learn to trust how we feel.
Your post today drove me to Lears while I read it listening to Elizabethan Music by Dowland sung by Countertenor Daniel Taylor. I was deeply moved because, haven't we all been there, Done this to ourselves? People can abuse us as long as we agree with them and are hard with ourselves. When I did group Therapy I always said that my aim was to help them become one of their true best friends - and I started by asking them how they saw themselves and what they told themselves when they made a mistake - automatically.
THANKS for being who you truly are, so open, innocent and generous. I am reading Caliban with you and hope to get your book.
I cannot do your Pagan course right now as I am doing a meditation retreat towards Cosmic Consciousness, but maybe next time. Your posts, which I share, give me support and consolation, as well as hope and sometimes excitement about the possibilities for being both LEFT - and a friend of all the Sacred that surrounds us. THANKS
Very much looking forward to this book! And mad respect. Thank you for getting a wokism-is-not-leftism conversation going.
I feel some kind of deep kinship with you, no idea where it is coming from, but I read you and most of what you write stirs me, moves me, touches me. sending you many blessings. May the work you do on this Earth bear fruit
Good to see there’s a smile in the most recent photo. Congratulations big time on the new book, awesome cover.
I am pleased you have escaped at least that component of leftism. You will be the happier for it, as you have obviously already discovered.