Making Sense of the Past
So the click of the keys are muted under the constant hum of the fan whirring nearby churning the tepid air into a soothing breeze. I sit looking into the screen as a description takes shape and letters appear on the page. White space gives way to meaning as it is rhythmically and methodically placed into language through a common agreed upon alphabet that you are reading.
Descriptive for sure, and we are not always mindful of the things that we do in such a mundane way and environment that just becomes the norm. And yet one event happening can alter all of this in a millisecond. Have you ever noticed how clear and quiet the house becomes when one has a power outage? I have. It’s eery in it’s own way, how sounds change when there is no electricity to power the many types of devices we have in a modern American home.
So I started this post just thinking about being descriptive and being engaged in attempting to convey a sense of curiosity and pleasure in slowing down what we don’t often take the time to do. Listening to the taps of the keyboard. Noticing the coolness of the air. Noting the sounds around us. Taking a moment to use our senses instead of forging on in the focus of the day. It relates I suppose to the title of the post in that if I am making sense, then there is some active point in me attuning to the input of the copious amount of things in my environment that tell me where I am, and what is happening around me. Although the Celina train tracks are something I’m still not quite able to tune out as my office is a 300 yards from a busy railway.
Making Sense of the Past…
Well some would say the Past is the Past - move along lad you can’t change it and the moment you can change is becoming the past as we speak.
Well, whatever the past may be in your world, or process - I note it’s hard to make sense of what has happened because my brain doesn’t fully recall all of the inputs from the near past or far past. If however I am to make sense of the past, I increase my attuning to the memory of what I think I know, or listening for something specific.
My wife talks about the birth of one of our children in specific terms. She becomes teasing and playful toward me when she reminds me that I was shouting out during the time when she wanted to be hearing the cry of her newborn baby. To her the cry meant that everything was safe, good, or normal. I being in the vantage point I was, found my voice exclaiming “It’s a boy! It’s a boy! It’s a BOY! - and she in her status of focus, was finding my expression to be an irritant to her process of making sense of the past few months, days and hours of carrying child in her womb. She just wanted to use her hearing to know that the baby was healthy and alive. That’s phenomenal to me. She in her state of prior pain and exhaustion simply used the sense available to ascertain what she longed to know. Her child is safe.
So how do your senses give you an understanding or insight into the past?
A recent educational video I viewed on neuro-biology emphasized the connection of the brains ability to be very specific about details when it is under duress due to fear. The particular study was noting that victims of different types of violence are frequently able to ascertain pr provide detailed descriptions if the emphasis is not placed on a linear dialogue of time. Rather allowing the victims to express the state of their confusion and allowing the pieces of the story to be explained through their 5 senses, gives a more complete or connected narrative to trauma.
I love this little piece of info because it is something that I want to focus on when interacting or interviewing clients who are working hard to tell me about their stories of pain and abuse. The 5 senses are now, in my mind, a portal, connection, or way to engage a client blocked or overwhelmed and not able to put into words their victim stance.
So maybe the “title”of this article - which is now quite past- is the way to making progress and movement in the area of trauma support and ongoing reparative healing.
Making (creative behavior),
Sense - 5 inputs of our parasympathetic system focused on providing helpful info about our environment.
Past - a focuses on something that originated before and not in the now.
Thanks for reading through this post…
If you are considering meeting with me I can’t wait to meet you where you are. Please reach out so I can join you in prayer or just attune to what is happening so my brain can engage your brain in the art of healing. - 972-716-3841