We all look for beacons, touchstones, way-markers…lighthouses to guide us, to show us the “correct” path, to let us know that we’re going in the right direction. Very rarely, is the lighthouse our final destination; rather, we tend to see them a rest-stops where we can refuel our energy, take a much-needed break, and plan our next moves…before venturing onward, hoping for another lighthouse to guide us.

I don’t fear the unknown nearly as much as I do those things, events, or persons that have harmed me. Repeated disappointment, expressed by myself or others, knowing that I’ve “missed the mark”, and that no-mans-land between exposure and invisibility have left me with a lattice-work of scars that continue to try and haunt me to this day. Alternately, I welcome the unknown like a new friend; I revel in being surprised. If anything, the small fear that I may experience is overcome by the potential of discovery.

I’m a huge proponent of living in the present, while honouring the lessons of one’s past, and preparing oneself for possible future(s) events. I spent a great amount of time living in the past when I began my healing journey some 30 years ago. It took years of listening to those I trusted with my health, applying the tools that they showed me, and then living those tools for me to develop the sense of being in the present that I now have. Back then, my present was a catastrophic mess and I didn’t see much of a future; living in the past seemed the only other option. I learned that while I absolutely needed to honour my past traumas and their effect on me, I didn’t have to let them guide my present. I am grateful, every day, for having learned this.