Stephen, a member of the Catholica community, has written movingly today of the deep trauma caused by abuse. (See "Are sexual abuse victims whingers?") The deepest damage is not caused by thoughts but by the feelings buried deep down inside of us. We all carry negative feelings around with us like some kind of monkey on our back. Victims of abuse carry them more deeply and traumatically than others. Today's reflection by John Chuchman explores similar territory to what Stephen has been discussing earlier this morning on our forum. This reflection from John sums it up well: "Unless I see myself as that beautiful creation of God I cannot truly Love or be Loved"! Our constant challenge is to climb out from under that bushel of our negative feelings.

Out from Under the Bushel

Keeping our God-given gifts
hidden under the bushel
because of a sense of unworthiness
hurts all the rest of us
who cannot benefit from those hidden gifts.

Someone along the way,
parents, teachers, mates, bosses, church
may have laid upon us
a false sense of unworthiness,
but it’s time to see ourselves
as Beautiful Creations of the Divine
given wonderful skills, talents, charisms.

We are each given our Gifts,
not so much for ourselves,
as for Others,
. . . though in helping Others
comes our own Growth.

Unless I see myself
as that beautiful creation of God
I cannot truly Love
or be Loved.

Be warned, though,
once out from under the bushel,
we are subject to the elements;
and tipping that bushel to emerge
upsets all those seated atop it.
Not everyone will like that you’ve escaped
their under-the-bushel image of you.

In moving out from under that dank place
held down by so many exterior forces,
I leave what felt like a secure place,
warm, cozy, but dark,
and the light from outside exposes stuff in me,
that is not so pretty.

But that security was false
and benefitted only those
who piled up our bushels
to enhance their own status in life.

So there is still time;
tip that bushel,
kick it over,
let your light shine for all to see,
so that together
we may find our way.

We each and all have been given
a myriad of wonderful gifts, talents, skills, charisms;
help yourself and others
to use them fully
and shed the false sense of unworthiness,
the true Original Sin.

Imagine having gone through life,
never using the Gifts Divinely given.

Love, The Bushel Tipper

IMAGE SOURCE:
The wheat field image used in today's headline has been sourced from the College of Agriculture's website at the University of Kentucky www.uky.edu. The background used to support John Chuchman's reflection has been sourced from stock.xchng one of the sources for free images on the net provided by people who voluntarily upload their work for others to share. Daniel Cubillas who is located in Spain provided today's image. A gallery of Daniel's images can be found at: www.sxc.hu/gallery/dcubillas.

John Chuchman (The Bushel Tipper)

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©2010 John Chuchman

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