A Life On The Ground — by Parker Palmer

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Welles
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A Life On The Ground — by Parker Palmer

Post by Welles »

Question: ... the idea of having “a life on the ground”. Can you expand on what that means to you?

That brings back a really important moment in my journey with depression, and in my life journey. I was seeing this therapist about my depression, and he listened to me for quite a long time. And finally, after the seventh or eighth meeting, he said, “If I could mirror something back to you, Parker, it seems to me that you are imagining depression as the hand of an enemy trying to crush you” … which is indeed how it felt. But he said, “Would it be possible for you to image depression as the hand of a friend trying to press you down to the ground on which it’s safe to stand?” He was a very wise man and a good therapist. He didn’t give me a lecture; he just sort of planted that image with me. And I think he trusted that I could work with it, which I did. And we talked about it more in the subsequent weeks and months.

What I came to understand is this: I had been living ‘at altitude’, and I remember trying to identify the ways in which I had been doing that. I was living at altitude because of my ego, which wanted to be at the top of the tower. I was living at altitude because of my intellect, which wanted to think its way through everything, and you can’t think your way out of depression. I was living at altitude because of my high ethic, which wasn’t coming from inside of me; it was just a bag full of ‘oughts’ that were inherited from God knows where. And I was living at altitude because of some misunderstandings I had about spirituality being sort of a Superman “up, up and away” kind of thing.
A Life On The Ground — by Parker Palmer

https://www.awakin.org/read/view.php?op=audio&tid=2372


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Re: A Life On The Ground — by Parker Palmer

Post by Sandy »

Thank you for this Welles... I find it important and something I need to think about in greater detail. :)
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Sandy
“We measure and evaluate your Spiritual Progress on the Wall of Eternity." – Guardian of Destiny, Alverana.
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