Passing the Baton: Leaving a Legacy
When you pass your baton to someone else you leave a legacy that can touch countless individuals that you will never meet.
When you pass your baton to someone else you leave a legacy that can touch countless individuals that you will never meet.
This sonnet describes my internal conflict between the truth and a behavior pattern that seems impossible to break.
Between my Junior and Senior year of college, George, my childhood mentor, and father figure became my lover. I still had no idea how I understood how to react and how to please but being with him felt familiar and, in a distorted way, safe.
Childhood trauma often causes the child to retreat emotionally and mentally into a safe place. Sometimes such mental retreats become a new reality for the individual. The child creates a new persona that is happy, playful and safe from harm. In cases of extreme abuse, the created safe place replaces the memory of the trauma…
leaving the security of familiar coping mechanisms is terrifying. Especially when nothing seems to ease the fear and pain like what I knew. When the “new life” became difficult or not what I expected, I wanted to return to the comfortable. I wanted what was comfortable even though it was dangerous and painful.
Notifications