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Showing posts from February, 2011

Drasticity

23 years ago, in therapy with a truly miraculous psychologist and holistic healer, Joan Lieberman, I asked how to keep my footing on a road mined with unexpected depressions. She used the symbol of series of single hills, each followed by a steep, seemingly treacherous valley. We stand on the hill and look straight out, not anticipating the space about to swallow us as we drop. Then after we regain composure, we find ourselves planted in the valley, looking straight out at another seemingly impenetrable mass of hill and we begin, like mountain goats, another arduous climb. Sometimes I feel such a physical heaviness that I can't lift my eyes to see even a sliver of sky. I remember asking her, Will it end ? No, she said. But as we move forward, the difference between peak and valley feels less drastic. I hereby create a new word: drasticity. The drasticity of our lives lessens even as our circumstances assume new complications. What a series of begets is our contract to live! Love b