In this era of information overload and PC, authenticity is a beacon which cuts through the din. Here’s Sandy Wyatt with an excerpt from her wonderful post titled The Hot Itch:
The daze turned to anger before I left the parking lot. Are we in the Middle Ages, I fumed. What was next? Burning at the stake? Dousing?…I met with my meditation group later in the day and felt righteous satisfaction in their outrage as I told the story. It’s a hot itch, indignation. It gets under the skin and festers. So, as we sat together in silence, I took a step back from what I was feeling. I called up the part of me that observes my thrashing around with gentle curiosity. What happened? I saw that I’m not as tolerant as I like to believe. What does it matter anyway? I tried to look a little deeper. My ego hates to be misunderstood. It hates to be dismissed or categorized. And it really hates to be discredited. I’m proud of how hard I’ve worked to regain some functioning in the world. Proud. Ah … If I could nudge my ego aside, there might even be A Teaching Moment. Coming home from meditation with my friends, I turned up the music and sang down the highway. The ego is a stubborn little cuss. Mine can be paranoid and hysterical if the mood is right. Anything can offend it, and it defends itself with teeth and claws. But, like a mediocre poker player, it has a tell—that hot itch of indignation. When I feel that under my skin, I know it’s time to back up and look again.
I’m glad for that signal, and I’m glad I know what to do with it.
Thanks, Ego-Girl. Keep raging.
~ Sandy Sue Wyatt, The Hot Itch
Drawing: Olena Kassian
Bam.
That’s it! That captures it…
She is great, so honest. Love this. Who hasn’t felt the ‘hot itch’??
Yes!
Oh that moment when we realize we’re not as tolerant as we’d purported to be .. it’s an ouch, followed by a hot itch! MJ
Well put!
Sounds like the ego really enjoyed writing this post too 🙂
Hmmmmm. 🙂
Can be like a damn hair shirt at times….
Love that hair shirt analogy. So good!
Thx DK! Elicits a visceral response, no?
Oh, yes…
Holy Crap! I feel like my art just got hung in a swank gallery. Thanks, buddy.
Ha! All you Friend!
Your art belongs in a swank gallery, Sandy Sue!
Gosh, golly, gee!
When one is struck either physically or verbally, the knee-jerk reaction is to strike back. What can change a heart and the world is to turn the other cheek.
-Alan
That’s it Alan
Wow. Ok, yeah. Yes. Dammit.
yes, we need to be reminded to get over ourselves from time to time.
Yes, so true.
Ha! 😕
Ah, the process of filtering, stir it, turn it, mix it well, maybe share the offense, give it time, gain perspective, forgive or accept or not and you have learned, now its become part of your past…
And you hope some of it stays in the trunk
oh and life isn’t always fair…