Letters from TC: Birthday Revelations
Forgive me, as I’m a little late on this year's birthday post. To be honest, I wasn’t exactly sure what to discuss. This past year has been somewhat of a difficult one for me. Things I thought would never happen to me, happened. After so many difficult experiences, I began to look at my life as a whole and what may have led me to such hardships.
I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on my childhood experiences and traumas, and I’ve realized that a lot of them have been bottled up for years. There are so many things I’ve tried to block out of my memory, or ignore, hoping that they’d go away or be forgotten. Unfortunately, that’s not how trauma works. Things must be addressed, the sooner the better. If they aren’t, they will slowly begin to reappear in our adult lives. Those same traumas we spent so much time running from will manifest themselves in the people we attract, and the situations we find ourselves in.
With a stronger understanding of this, I have decided to live my life by actively addressing my own traumas and bad experiences. I’m working to forgive myself and others for things that have happened in the past, so that I can have better experiences in the future. There’s a song by Rachelle Ferrell titled “Wound’s in the Way”, and it perfectly explains what I’m discussing here in this post. The chorus goes a bit like this:
As time passes by they begin to multiply
There are wounds in the way
Adding up secretly like the rings of an old oak tree
There are wounds in the way
Some old and some new, all stifling, debilitating and cruel
There are wounds in the way
And some are passed down from elder to youth - they don't even belong to you
There are wounds in the way
I’ve found myself listening to this song day after day, finding new meaning in it’s lyrics and their relevance to my life. I encourage you to listen to the song if this message resonates with you. I am blessed to have made it another year around the sun, and in the years that follow I’m going to be intentional about addressing the wounds that have been in my way. All of them, old and new, will no longer serve as barriers.
Will you do the same?
With love,
TC
