“Bullet the Blue Sky.”
In the howling wind comes a stinging rain
See it driving nails
Into the souls on the tree of pain
U2
By Deb Montgomery
I was in my twenties when U2 released The Joshua Tree. (If you’re reading this and you ARE twenty, I highly recommend giving it a listen!) I brought home the cassette and snapped it into place. My apartment was transformed into something liminal and sacred. The song lamented violence as a means to an end. The song named truths that are, in the end freeing, even if getting to the freeing part is turbulent or gnarly.
Lately I’ve been revisiting a time in my life and part of myself that needs my attention. Development and growth in our lives is not really a linear or all-in-one process. You can have parts of you that grow up while parts of you stay kind of stuck or dormant for a long time.
Perhaps you’ve had moments of realizing that you have a lot to learn in an area of your life?
Circumstances like being out of work, a marriage having a hard time, or a frustrated project that is not working can expose our vulnerabilities and stuck places. Often these experiences dig up other feelings or stories from our lives, so we need to follow the thread.
In my work as a Life coach, (Psychotherapist in Washington) I think of this as the paradox of growth and healing. We come undone in order to come together. We hit bottom in order to push off. We go into grief (maybe a good cry or a scream into the wind) and then get surprised by movement and joy!
In difficult times, it can be important to stay positive, but it’s also important to stay with what is true and not positive about the situation, relationship, or moment. Facing that can be the beginning of root level changes. This can feel like falling apart, or going backwards, or losing the ground you thought you’d gained. But like a song or poem that names the hard truths, but offers healing, the capacity to feel the hard stuff actually allows for so much more freedom. Kind of like how a great song about hard things can set you free for a little while. So, you hit repeat.
Deb offers Walk and Talk Life Coaching sessions here on the North Coast Beaches (or virtually if you prefer). You can read more about her at www.travelandtalk.com. Worth noting is that for the month of April Deb is offering a significantly discounted rate for a 45 minute Walk and Talk for locals on the Coast. You can go to the site and use Promo Code LOCALINTRO to book one of these. (Deb’s background includes thirty years of songwriting and music as well as sixteen years of private practice as a Licensed Psychotherapist in Washington.) www.travelandtalk.com