Lucy,
So glad you read my post on intent and are wondering about this current post on trends. I can only really speak of my own experiences and because I’ve been around awhile, I find that I am in the position of being able to look back and see some of the patterns and conclusions of past decisions or paths I’ve chosen/been pushed into. The best memory I have of my childhood is that it finally ended when I graduated from high school and I could start making my own decisions. I saw a connection between my father’s being a paratrooper and my own exploration in that we both went in behind the front lines to check out unknowns and it’s true that maybe they did things in that earlier time because it was the right thing to do but today with so many options, I suspect that it’s harder to decide. That’s why a site like this is so helpful with so many varied points of view from which to decide on the right thing to do. Because one thing has not changed and that is that we humans do strive to do the right thing in spite of conflicting beliefs.
I think that many who may not be striving for this are just frustrated and forget that this is a choose your own adventure sort of thing. They are still looking to others to tell them how to live their life and as many older or astute folks have discovered, no one out there is working with the exact same sum total of experiences to be able to dictate another’s actions or beliefs. And as I do believe that expressions of myself have been here before and are now part of my repartee of who I am, I also believe that some here are new to the experience of being human. So when you ask if I’ve seen patterns in clients, I do but I am in no position to judge them as some maybe new here. I have noticed patterns the types of client I see. For example some days I come in and have my people who are living the experience of being homeless and addicted do “walk ins”. We chat, I ask if they want the list of treatment programs, they state that they’re not interested, I document it, and then we settle down to just being together in the experience of touching base. They complain about the problems of being homeless and having to work so hard to stay safe. I comment that they’ve picked a pretty rough life style. They respond, “I didn’t pick it-I’m homeless because I drink and I drink because I’m homeless. We laugh and shake our heads. Of course the agency does not want me to keep them on my case load and would rather see them D/C’d but I try to hold on to them as long as I can because I’m the only safe consistency they have at this time that cares whether they live or die and maybe I might just have what they need when they need it. Right now, I have my fingers crossed that one individual will be accepted into the only treatment program our agency still has left, on Tuesday.
Then another day the women who were sexually abused by their fathers for most of their childhoods come in to visit. Some have taken the experience well enough and others still are suffering the symptoms of “mental illness” as a result. Then on other days I visit with a couple of the perpetrators, now with their anger mellowed a bit with age, followed by the grief/guilt struck spouses who children were the receivers of the perpetrators actions. These individuals always remind me of the story on an earlier post by Walsh (?) that tells of the little spirit talking to God about incarnating here and the helper spirit who volunteered to help her to learn forgiveness. Then of course there are the “real” mentally ill who hear voices or have visions. They and I are a bit different in that I’m training to hear voices and have visions while they’re trying to shut them off. I realize that from their angle, our culture does not support the idea that what they’re experiencing is possible contact from none physical beings, some nasty, some nice, so their wisest move is to decrease the incoming communication rather than invite it in. But someday I hope that our cultural confusion will be sorted out regarding these issues.
IMO the buddy system is always good because it is what it is. Walsh’s story of “Little Soul” points that out as so do many others who have written about souls, soul mates, and soul communities, etc. Some of my greatest teacher’s were the very people I had the most difficulty with. But it seems to me that your use of the term could be different than mine or what you’re describing as happening in your mother’s family might be a bit different from what I’m referring to or maybe you’re too close to what you’re referring to judge from a looking back perspective. When I was a teen and experiencing my family being turned upside down seeing just bad things happening, I remember saying to myself, “This is going to have long range repercussions in my later life” and then when my family was living in the project’s, I remember thinking that this experience would be helpful later in learning about how different people live. ‘Cause see, It never felt quite right in my mind that I could get away with the luxury of believing that I couldn’t relate to how people with no material possessions or people with many, lived.
I could ramble on but I’m gunna’ stop now, but thanks again for the feedback, hope mine helps rather than confusing you more, sometimes us crones in training do ramble.
Love, Jean
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