He was always one with a story.\u00a0 He had spent most of his career treating Vietnam Veterans with PTSD and doing research with this group.\u00a0 He said, with his soft voice and subtle southern accent, \u201cDid I ever tell you \u2018bout the time I was pick\u2019in up leaves out by the pooool?\u201d\u00a0 He always had great stories, so I was surprised I had not heard this one, but I hadn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d I replied.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was sitt\u2019in out by the pool with my wife and I started picking up leaves–one at a time.\u00a0 I would get up, pick up a leaf, and bring it to where I was sit\u2019n. Then I\u2019d sit for a few minutes and do it again, and again.\u00a0 I did this about ten times. My wife said to me, \u201cWhat the hell are you doing?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI didn\u2019t really know what I was doing, but I said to her without hesitation in a voice deep with sadness, \u201cI\u2019m picking up wounded and broken soldiers.” Then he\u00a0offered a bit of advice,\u00a0“You make sure you take care of yourself with this work.\u201d<\/p>\n
I guess I know why God does not give up on humans. He doesn\u2019t give up on humanity because of people like my dedicated professor, and like my friend, colleague, and EMDR therapist, Gwen who looks out for me, and because of the wounded, tortured souls that do not give up on themselves.<\/p>\n
I suppose God\u00a0doesn\u2019t give up on humans because of the victims, who despite their unanswered prayers for salvation still love God.\u00a0 Or perhaps they may hate God, and I think God understands.\u00a0 Robert Bly explains this struggle when he quotes from ancient wisdom in his book titled Little Book on the Shadow<\/i>. He says, \u201cIf one loves and worships God he may come to an understanding of Him in twenty or thirty years, but if he hates God he can do the same work in two years.\u201d\u00a0 Not all of the people I have treated love God, as you might imagine, and perhaps rightfully so.\u00a0 Some hate God because they feel so abandoned by Him and everyone else for that matter, as they endured a life of torment completely alone and betrayed.\u00a0 (In my secular practice we rarely discuss God but with some people they insist God be part of the work.)<\/p>\n
Even after their abuse has long since ended the torment continues.\u00a0 Even with the perpetrator long since dead or jailed, the torment continues. Even with the war long since over, the veteran remains tormented by the memories.<\/p>\n
I hate having to ask these people to relive their horror.\u00a0 Believe me; I think they have endured enough. I wish there was another way, but I know of no other way.\u00a0 I would never invite them to take this journey if I wasn\u2019t sure it would transform them and bring them peace.\u00a0 I know it\u2019s the best shot they have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
He was always one with a story.\u00a0 He had spent most of his career treating Vietnam Veterans with PTSD and doing research with this group.\u00a0 He said, with his soft voice and subtle southern accent, \u201cDid I ever tell you \u2018bout the time I was pick\u2019in up leaves out by the pooool?\u201d\u00a0 He always had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emdreducatorsoffl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emdreducatorsoffl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emdreducatorsoffl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emdreducatorsoffl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emdreducatorsoffl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.emdreducatorsoffl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emdreducatorsoffl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emdreducatorsoffl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emdreducatorsoffl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}