Living in the Gap II
Freedom through Accepting and Befriending“Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation; it means accepting that something is
what it is and there’s got to be a way through it.”
~ Michael J. Fox
What does freedom look like?
When we think of being free from something, we tend to think of it as gone, removed, or perhaps as something that no longer bothers us or has the ability to upset us. We’ve figured it out, we understand the source, and we’ve found the solution. It’s gone!
If you’re on the spiritual journey, you know that is not the way freedom works. The idea of our triggers and intrusive thoughts being gone in the sense of no longer there is not a reality. We can’t unwrite the past. The good news is that we don’t need to because God uses everything in our lives for good.
So, if we can’t rid ourselves of the thoughts and feelings that “snag and grab us” as Fr. Richard Rohr states in his mp3 on Emotional Sobriety, what can we do? We can grow in our awareness of the ways our past story creeps up on us. We can, as St. Ignatius offers in Rule 14 of his Rules for Discernment of Spirits, get to know our “tender spots,” the places that our intrusive thoughts are most likely to creep in. We can recognize our intrusive thoughts for what they are and accept without shame or blame our shadow side. We can try and understand our Inner Critic and Inner Child instead of expending so much energy on trying to rid ourselves of these annoying aspects of ourselves.
Freedom comes from growing in awareness and acceptance of our true selves – our real selves. Most of us have heard of the terms true self and false self. While overly simplistic, many people equate these terms as my true self being my good self and my false self as the person I wish I wasn’t. In Healing the Hole in Your Heart, Br. Don Bisson’s shares a definition that rings true. Our True Self = our Original Self + our Wounded Self + God’s Grace + our Effort. Our true freedom comes from allowing ourselves to be all of who we truly are and remembering that God loves us just as we are – so we can love ourselves as we are too!
This 5-week program will be held on Zoom. It expands on the information from Living in the Gap (although you do not need to have attended the initial program). This is designed as a practical program to offer insight and specific tools including journaling techniques based on Ira Progoff’s Intensive Journal Method to help participants come to befriend and nurture those parts of themselves that need understanding. When we love and accept all of ourselves, we grow in freedom and compassion for ourselves and those around us.
Dates: Thursday evenings in October (October 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31) from 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. This program will be recorded and anyone who registers will receive the recording.
A donation of $70 is requested. WVIS wants to make its programs available to all who want to attend. Partial scholarships are available. Email program facilitator, Ms. Sally Orcutt, O.P. at sally@sayyes2yourlife.org.
Questions: If you have any questions, please get in touch with Ms. Sally Orcutt, O.P. at sally@sayyes2yourlife.org
WVIS is a 501 (c)(3).
Contact
1601 Virginia Street East
Charleston, West Virginia 25311
304.345.0926 (main)
304.345.8206 (fax)
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