Granddaddy groundhog Lillian Lake photo
I needed to look no further than my backyard for inspiration for this week’s column. Lumbering into it was the granddaddy groundhog residing under our barn for a few years. He loves summering on our pool cover at this time of year. By the time we reopen the pool, he and his family have headed off somewhere else until the following spring. He and his mate have disputes from time to time when she wants not to be bothered, and he remains persistent. It’s amusing to see him roll away to pout from a distance and she goes on pretending he doesn’t exist. Well, funny from my perspective, of course! Probably not so much his.
Sometimes I feel out of sorts, I look out, and there he is, as if he knew I needed a nudge. Again, he reminds me to rely on intuition and to restore balance in my life. This time though, he also reminded me to return to my roots. I wondered if that idea was a metaphor or a direct meaning. I thought about the groundhog digging tunnels. And in those tunnels, I imagined boulders that he had to move.
We have boulders in our lives formed from painful experiences. For example, I’ve been talking a lot about bullying lately and led a discussion two weeks ago about bullying. Out of that discussion came a common thread, and that was the issue of bullying in school. Not one person said they were interested in attending their class reunion because of it. This idea ties to going back to my roots. As I’ve mentioned, I was bullied constantly in school and much later years in the workplace.
Heavy like a boulder, I carried the effects of experiences, like bullying and other trauma, that had caused me harm. It was always with me.
So I imagined these painful experiences as a boulder in my living room. I walked around it. I eyed it, and it watched me back. I knew this boulder allowed me to hide, prevented me from getting close to people, and stopped my spiritual growth. This boulder represented the lies I had come to believe about myself. So I imagined taking a sledgehammer to it. With each hit, I smashed it and disavowed the lies. I replaced the lies with truths. These truths were how I wanted to be and came from my heart. I did this every day. With each smash, I avowed the release of my pain. We have acquired a belief system that says we must suffer. I was finished with this belief.
My boulder was formed of the anger and fear I had held on to and was not only causing me pain but resulting actions affected those around me. The good news is that affirming daily that I was releasing that energy positively impacted my life and those around me.
Envision what we want to release. Name it and replace it with living pain-free. We can’t be meek. We must do it with velocity.
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