We Are All Survivors

01/18/19

It’s true. We all enter this world through what could arguably be classified as an extreme act of violence; covered in blood, forced out of a warm, comforting space into the harsh light and sound of a blurry, jarringly alien environment. To live, we must first endure the trauma of being born. We come into life fighting for it. Surviving.

Everything that happens to us from that moment forward is a journey. And when we reach the end of it, we not only have survived everything along the path, we transcend it. Rise above it, no matter what it is. Survivors.

It is a fact that we cannot quantify suffering. No matter how hard our ego tries to make everything into a competition, no one holds the title for ‘Most Beleaguered’ in life. No one. Why? Simple. As one sovereign being to another, we have no right to put a price tag or score count to someone else’s suffering. It is theirs, and only they know how much it really hurts.

Because I’ve suffered ritual abuse and torture, does that make my pain more significant than anyone else’s? ‘Worse than’? No. It simply makes it ‘different than’. Pain is subjective. They created a sliding scale for physical pain for this very reason. I’ve tweeted about this. And the motivator is actually chilling.

Study after study proved that recovery rates among hospital patients is directly linked to how well their pain is controlled during the healing process. When further studies were done, it became clear that reports of uncontrolled pain were overwhelmingly due to medical staff assessing patient pain levels by their own subjective views on how a person experiencing pain should act and look. If you had surgery and happened to be stoic about expressing pain, chances were good that you would be left to suffer it with little to no relief. See what I mean about it being chilling?

There is a very good reason why I and other survivors like Sarah and Chris are alive and sharing our truths with the world right now, and it is both multi faceted and spiritually profound, but the thing that seems to amaze people most commonly about us is their own quantification of our level of suffering. People routinely diminish the significance of whatever horrors they have survived when they read about ours; and it always strikes me as bittersweet, because we all suffer pain and indignities in life, and in this world they all stem from a common source…and are necessary for us to learn the lessons each individual soul requires to complete its unique leg of the journey.

We are ALL survivors. Every one of us. Sharing painful truths with others who are willing to hear them and see the truth of the person laying them bare is an act of bravery, to be sure. But it is brave on the part of the listener, too, because when we share in another’s pain, we write it into the pages of our own story. It leaves a mark. A breadcrumb, for the next leg of the journey, where we look back on what we’ve learned and use it to guide us to a place of wisdom and inner peace. Of understanding. Evolution.

So I want to thank you all, for sharing my truth…most especially the painful parts that it takes bravery to put out there. Because you are brave too. Seeking truth, no matter how much it might hurt, is an act of bravery. Sovereignty. And offering comfort and understanding to another soul is a gift that cannot be limited by any measure. It is love, and that is the most precious resource in all of Creation.

My story will not be linear, as time itself is not really linear. Timelines are mutable. Changeable. And for the fragmented psyche of an SRA survivor, that is even more true. I am still putting the pieces of my puzzle together, and many are missing. Telling it helps me to see the bigger picture, despite those missing pieces, and allows my mind to remember at its own pace, healing the fissures left in the wake of unearthing that which was buried there for so long.

I have finally found the answer to what my soul mission is in this life, and I am committed to completing it. If even one person’s life is changed for the better, even in the seemingly smallest of ways, by my sharing the truth of my own, then I have succeeded. I cannot think of any place I’d rather be than right here, in this moment. And this one. And this one. Nor would I go back and change anything in my past, if given the clear choice to do so. If I did, I would not be the person I am right this second…and I love who I’ve turned out to be.

Namaste, beautiful souls. Today is the first day of the rest of our lives on this planet, and it is glorious. #WWG1WGA ❤