child of God, wife, mother, recovering anorexic who longs to see the beauty in herself that she sees in the world around her

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Healing my heart

Once again violence filled my dreams last night. I've allowed myself to become accustomed to pleasant sleep which makes it so much harder when the nightmares return to haunt me. Today I feel sluggish and tired. It doesn't matter that I had enough hours of sleep because it wasn't restful sleep. Today I feel as though I'm walking through jello knee deep.

And yet the violence of my dreams was different and therefore I'm intrigued and curious about their meanings. My thoughts were still filled with assault but it wasn't reliving the assaults of my past. The attackers were unknown to me but every bit as clear and vivid as the dreams of known attackers.

Likewise my reactions were different in these dreams. My feelings were ones that related strength. I wasn't the cowering little girl. I wasn't the terrified teenager. I was me, here and now. I was a woman. A strong woman.

I cannot explain how I could feel so vulnerable in my dreams and yet simultaneously feel power and strength fill my veins. I awoke incredibly disturbed and yet not distraught as used to be the norm. I am healing. I can feel it in my dreams. It is amazing and freeing and not nearly as painful as it was when healing was beginning.

And though I can feel my heart mending, I can also feel the cavern of what remains to be healed. Healing is a process, a journey. One that requires me to show up fully and completely. One that, even now, I still must take one step at a time. It is a journey worth walking. It isn't over by far, but it's no longer in the devastating, soul crushing, pain of the journey new.

Once I was afraid if I let go the dam of unshed tears that I would never stop crying. For a time it did seem that way. And now I realize that the tears do stop and life does continue and healing does come even though it comes slowly.