“A life can be shattered in a single moment. It’s normal to want instant repair. But the piecing back together requires befriending every jagged edge and sharp corner. And the scars seen in the end will tell not of the shattering, but of the resilience and value of the life.” Dr. Wade Mullen
Sexual abuse and eventual disclosure led to the collapse of life as I knew as a child, as an adolescent, and as an adult. Resurrection from the ruin has been nothing short of a gauntlet.
This is not an overstatement.
Nothing, not even the abuse itself, could have prepared me of the institutional betrayal; the private and public humiliation; the enforced silence; the suffocated screams; the endless nights of torment; the literal clinging to life in the face of catastrophic loss.
Nothing.
No one could have convinced two years ago I/we would even survive, much less be living in profound peace with myself, my family, and with you.
No One.
We have run the #trauma #churchtoo gauntlet. It was worse than we could have ever imagined. We now have what none of our offenders can say they have and speak truly:
1. Deep knowledge of and being known by one person who knows both your sorrow, your softness, and your strength.
2. A peaceful, private life where connection, communion, and care are the lifeblood; the plumb line; indeed the purpose of our presence with each other and for others.
3. A life where we speak the truth not only to others and to each other, but also to ourselves.
We have been slaughtered, run over, left on the side of the road, and repeatedly hit by elite deviance. We managed, through the hell and the high water to drag each other to safety in the pouring rain of ravage and ruin.
Never will we give up the stability we have found in seclusion; the beauty we have ripped from the iron grip of brutality; the truth we rescued from the mouth of liars.
Never.