The House we Live Within

In my therapy training, the psyche was sometimes described as a house that we live within.

The model spoke of needing to rootle around in the basement sometimes to find something long forgotten or to clear out some of the things collected and no longer needed.

It spoke of living in our kitchens with our friends, our families, talking and sharing and nourishing each other through our relationships.

And it spoke of sitting on the roof top looking at the stars and dreaming.

Sometimes we get stuck in the basement with the lights out and can’t seem to find our way to the stairs back up and out into the light.

Sometimes we’re so busy running around our kitchens providing for the wants and needs of our family, our friends, that we don’t know how to sit down with a cup of tea for ourselves anymore.

And occasionally we get stuck on the rooftop watching the stars and the clouds and then the sun and the birds and we forget that we also need to come inside and translate our dreamings into a reality.

Right now, for some us, there is a chance to spend some time in one of the rooms we don’t normally visit. Time to clear up some stuff that’s been gathering ominously in the basement. Or sit down with a cup of tea with a close loved friend (via zoom). Or lie on the rooftop and watch the stars, which can actually be seen in some places they’ve not been visible for decades.

And yet, we’re not always able to. For too long we’ve been avoiding or distracting ourselves from doing differently as it

feels scary, or kept so busy that we’ve forgotten how to, or we’ve not learnt how to do them at all, or we’ve been hurt before and are protecting ourselves from pain by not going there again.

And yet, and yet. Something big, something little, something the size of a soul murmur, is asking us to do, to be, a little different right now.