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Drawing comfort from within

I just lit my open fire to bring some light and warmth and cheer to a cooling late afternoon. It is something very grounding and comforting to sit close to and it brings a spiritual quality to the dusk which is one of my favourite times of day.

I just watched a very powerful movie called The Secret Scripture, its very very sad but moving, set in Ireland around the end of the Second World War and it starts Australian actor Eric Bana in the central role of a psychiatrist. For anyone who has undergone trauma it may provide triggers but the kindness with which he treats the central character Rose and makes an effort to understand how she suffered at the hands of a repressive Catholic world is truly heart warming and there is a surprise twist towards the end which brings the entire movie together brilliantly.

My thoughts turned to my sister while watching it, Rose is given shock treatment in the movie something that I find just so barbaric and inhumane to watch, truly the mentally and emotionally suffering should we comforted and cuddled and treated with love and touch and tenderness, the anger expressed belying so much of the pain that is a consequence of trauma and needs to find its way out it an authentic protest. I don’t want to spoil the movie but it really resonated with me. I held off watching the final third until this afternoon as I felt it may be a bit much to subject myself to late at night, just before bed.

I have also begun to read Anthony Storrs’ book Solitude : A Return to the Self, he discusses how a time of introversion is so essential after undergoing some kind of dramatic change, grief or loss and of how the retreat into imagination was often pathologized by people like Freud who saw it as a sign of retrogression, a backward move. The months of winter and the concept of solitude or enforced hibernation or retreat from society and more superficial relationships at large seem to go together. Some extraverts I have known found it hard to abide the winter, and prefer summer and I am also a fan of summer, but if in winter you have the chance to withdraw to somewhere warm and cosy and read or write or take imaginative dives into the depths through reverie, poetry or dreams it can be a source of great comfort too. Especially by an open fire!

Blogwise there is not a lot of inspiration for me to write today. I had a fairly computer free day today. I took myself off for lunch and to the library and I bought another novel which I am looking forward to my Australian comedian Greg Fleet about a guy who starts to visit the retirement home masquerading as the son of Alzhiemer’s sufferers, it sounded delightful and quirky from the few sections I dipped into today.

Luckily as an introvert it doesn’t take too much to entertain me. I am happy at home by the fire reading, love watching my movies in the winter afternoons. Jasper and I had a run around at the local park earlier and cosied up this afternoon before he caught sight of the neighbourhood cat invading the front yard and stood barking at the front door in a frenzy demanding to be let out to chase it down. I let him go for it this afternoon, he wasn’t gone long and when he came back he had the 5 pm chill on his coat, I noticed this week he is very keen on snuggling up next to me most nights and I am loving these quiet silent times spent in each other’s company.

I am doing my best to count my blessings of introversion and solitude at present. I long to connect too but its not always possible. So for now I will draw comfort from the fire and take some time to catch up on other blogs… Its been a quiet day on the blogging front. I send all followers well wishes for a very happy Tuesday if yours is just beginning on the other side of the globe.

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Published by: emergingfromthedarknight

"The religious naturalist is provisioned with tales of natural emergence that are, to my mind, far more magical than traditional miracles. Emergence is inherent in everything that is alive, allowing our yearning for supernatural miracles to be subsumed by our joy in the countless miracles that surround us." Ursula Goodenough How to describe oneself? People are a mystery and there is so much more to us than just our particular experiences or occupations. I could write down a list of attributes and they still might not paint a complete picture pf Deborah Louise and in any case it would not be the full truth of me. I would say that my purpose here on Wordpress is to express some of my random experiences, thoughts and feelings, to share about my particular journey and explore some subjects dear to my heart, such as emotional recovery, healing and astrology while posting up some of the prose/poems which are an outgrowth of my labours with life, love and relationships. If anything I write touches you I would be so pleased to hear for the purpose of reaching out and expressung ourselves is hopefully to connect with each other and find where our souls meet.

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12 thoughts on “Drawing comfort from within”

  1. Deborah I don’t know whether you mind me commenting on your posts. Please tell me if you do. But this one struck me so much. The mivie, I would LOVE to watch. And the book too, I would love to read. I spent some time in a mental hospital a long long time ago, put there by my hysband and some members of my church. There was no reason for it. I was recovering from tuberculosis and had been in hospital for three months with that, on complete bed rest. I was phtsically weak when I was in the mental hospital (wrongfulky, as they soon found out – released three days later). But I saw people in there who had had electric chock treatment and it was horrendous. In fact the whole place was horrendous. Your pist brought this back to me, and the barbaric way in which mentally ill people were treated. This was in the 1970s. Also, I SOagree with you about Freud, and he was the one who set me against so much. He became the god that everyone wkrshipped, yet he was SO wrong. His influence was profound, though nowadays there are many, especially feminists who will have no truck with him whatsoever. I love this pist Deborah, and I wish you many peaceful evenings of solitude. I am a lover of solitude too.

    If you don’t want me to post, please just delete this, but I thank you for the movie as I will watch or rather listen to it. I would live to know the name of the book too. Hope this is ok.

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    1. Lorraine its perfectly fine comment to your hearts content on my posts That movie will be right down your alley. What happens to Rose is horrendous. This kind of abuse makes me so angry. It feel it will really resonate with you and it has a happier conclusion.

      Ive never been a fan of Freud. He repressed the truth of childhood sexual abuse entirely and diminished the spiritual which is why I’m more of a fan of Jung and they fell out totally over this difference.

      To be honest I’ve been meaning to email you to see how you are. I hope you are okay. You have been in my thoughts often. Love Deborah 💞

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      1. Aww Deborah, thankyou. Well I hated the way that he made wlmen out to be htsterical such that their very real illnesses were not treated as real. There is just so much that I hate a out him. Jung is much mire woman friendly in my opinion. I can’t a,ways understand him but most of it I do, and there is so much in his writings that needs really taking on board. Thanks Deborah. I always read your posts because they come into my email box xoxo

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      3. Thanks Deborah. I’ll see if it is done in Kindle version. That way I can have it on my iPad and then Vouce Over will read it to me 😊 xoxo

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  2. Sometimes solitude is the best thing, it sounds like you’re perfectly happy with a book and a roaring fire… lovely. I’m going to take a look at the Greg Fleet book, it sounds like my kind of reading. Have a great day, Karen xx

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