My SoCal ACE friend Lou Godbold wrote on Facebook the other day about an experience she had, thinking of other people's "normal families" (see below):
"Couples preparing meals, families eating together..." she wrote...
My response? Too good to be true; this has never happened to me...
Schubert writes about it in his song "Der Wanderer:"
Wo bist du, Wo bist du [Where are you, where are you]
Mein geliebtes Land? [My beloved Land?]
Gesucht, geahnt, [Searched for, longed for,]
Und nie gekannt? [And never known?]
Das Land wo meine Rosen blühn [The Land where all my roses bloom]
Wo meine Freunde wandelnd gehen [Where all my friends wander]
Wo meine Toten auferstehen [Where all my Dead rise up again,]
Das Land das meine Sprache spricht [That Land my Language speaks]
O Land, wo bist Du? [Oh Land, where are You?]
Audio & translation at http://attachmentdisorderhealing.com/music/
But how many of us are actually "normal"? And how many Americans actually have some degree of attachment disorder which makes us so alone and puts us in such great need of deep healing? The healing can happen, I know it because it's happening to me - but first we must recognize, touch, and share the attachment wound.
So thank you, Lou, for being my friend and sharing what is on your heart. In the sharing, the healing begins.
Lou Godbold wrote:
"I found a webcam of the rooftops of Geneva - warm rectangles of light indicating the cozy lives being lived out under them - and for a moment I felt wistful. I feel that way when I visit Paris too - an outsider wondering what it would be like to inhabit one of those lives. Everyone seems so purposeful, so serene. I imagine couples preparing meals, families eating together, single women turning back covers and picking up a book, and older people hanging up their clothes. If they knew I was watching, they would look up in surprise and say "What? Why is this interesting to you? This is just normal life." How could I explain that I long for a normal that is without arguments and vulgarity, that has the self-assurance and continuity of people living in the cultures in which they were raised and will always have a place. By definition, even if I were to join those people that would not be the case for me.
And I am too long an emigrant to find my place in the culture I left."
[webcam at http://en.swisswebcams.ch/webcam/1306928257-Gen%C3%A8ve-City-%281204-Genf%29_Weather]
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