Posted by Partlycloudy on September 14, 2008, at 9:49:33
In reply to Well now I've gone and done it., posted by Geegee on September 14, 2008, at 0:37:25
Sometimes I think that these moments of catharsis happen for very good reasons, and we actually serve ourselves well by allowing them to happen.
A couple of summers ago I wigged out on my sister during a cross country trip - it was disruptive enough to end the journey a few days sooner than we'd originally planned. Although I too used language that I don't usually in polite company - and definitely not in our uptight family, I felt that at that time, my sister had stepped over a line that simply shouldn't have been done. I trembled with the enormity and perhaps the irreparable damage that I might have done by what I said to her that day.
In hindsight, though, I'm able to see that I was struggling mightily on that trip to establish a much needed boundary that she had regularly and apparently joyously trounced all over me, for decades. For one hard won moment, I was able to flip it back on her, and hold my own ground.
We tippy-toe around each other now - which is appropriate, in my book. I SHOULD be wary of her, and she's got a new-found wariness of my behavior. Maybe, this is called Growth.
(((((GG)))))
poster:Partlycloudy
thread:851888
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20080906/msgs/851918.html