Lions, Tigers and BEARS Oh MY...Fires, Train Wrecks and STORMS Xmas Week...Holiday depression & A Hero's Journey. Vids

EDITED: 12-21-2017 UPDATE

This is a LONG READ...but worth it if you suffer
as I do from "Holiday Depression."..And our current NEWS
is not helping. If you--or someone you know--seems to have
this seasonal mood-swing, please watch the videos I've
included. I've found some relief from these insights and
hope it helps those who are uncomfortable during the Holidays.
(You don't need to respond...just take what you find and pass it on if it is helpful.)

Thread: A Christmas Prayer...



My theme for this thread is an idea I had while considering
the reality that at least some of the people experiencing the
"SUDDEN DISASTERS" (both natural and man-made this past
week that include fires, quakes, storms and the latest
train derailment near Seattle) will walk away from the
experience this Christmas week with a "crisis of faith"
and at the least...HOLIDAY PTSD. Indeed, with emotional baggage, one doesn't
even NEED to have external disasters around the Holidays for
residue from the past, isolation and disappointment bring
us to a feeling of dread. What can we do?

My own experience with HOLIDAY PTSD centered around the eruption
of Mt. St. Helens in 1980 (when myself and my family
suffered great physical and financial loss) that still seems
like "emotional baggage" for us even decades later. I
came across a REMINDER (thanks to the thread link I post
in the intro paragraph below) that if we "frame" our
personal crisis in certain ways (like the "Hero's Journey"
as Joseph Campbell explains it) or understanding "The Power
of NOW" (as author Eckhart Tolle explains it)...we may be
able to find some resolution that has eluded us for years.
If this is something you're facing this Holiday--maybe
these suggestions will aide your efforts to resolve YOUR OWN
or a loved one's distress at this year's holiday season.
(And, of course, remember to stay in Prayer.)

Have a very Merry Christmas and wonderful new year!



END EDITS




Seems like there have been more than the average # of "disasters"
the past few weeks...take just this week alone. The Train derailment
in Washington...continuing insane wild fires in CA...the big
quakes world-wide taking lives and property in only a moment's time.

In today's news (12-18-2017)


[link to youtu.be (secure)]

7 min duration. Train derailment between
Tacoma and Seattle today.

[link to www.nbcnews.com (secure)]

Watching these tragic events on the news from the comfort of
our home with family and friends around us can never really
put us in their "shoes." Living within miles of "Ground Zero" during
the 1980 Mt. St. Helens eruption ...brought home for me how SUDDEN
can be natural (or human-caused) disasters bringing the terror of looking
"into the Abyss of Disaster" right in your face. The experience was truly
life changing. I can look back many years later, though, and
realize I'd been living with a false sense of security--and
that my personal walk in my faith was very shallow for the
challenges what I would face in my life.



I Remember when looking at distant disasters...to check my shoes.

So...how do we process all this when we are personally
involved with these kinds of events? For me when reflecting on
markers in my own life that were life-altering-- I feel
as if they were "fated." But even though "fated" I still
had the thought I'd been "singled out" somehow. Like the
old chime you hear in your minds-eye: "Why ME, Lord?"


But is there another way to process sudden disaster or major loss in our personal life?

I can just imagine how having these experiences folks in
WA...GA...CA are facing right now. Some might frame them
like a "test" for other people part of one's Karma. Of course,
it is assumed that time in prayer and meditation will help
us the most, but can we go even further to escape the
baggage such trauma can carry over? It pained my heart to
think someone walking away from these disasters this week
might have a crisis of faith (like I went through in 1980)
that might be far-reaching...maybe even requiring therapy.

I had just had this thought about my own brush with 1980 disaster
--the St. Helens eruption--and how it would have been nice to hav
had therapy for my PTSD...when scrolling down the Forum Board list
I saw this thread that made me laugh out loud.
Thread: I’m so pissed about Star Wars I need therapy

It hits me like a ton of bricks: STAR WARS is the CLASSIC..."Hero's Journey."


The Hero's Journey is about choice, courage AND A MIRACLE
...Just as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars we could process
this sudden loss with BOTH prayer AND the "template"
of "The Hero's Journey." I recall the famous Philosopher Joseph
Campbell addressing the value of embracing the Hero's Journey as
we faced the obstacles in our own lives. The series called
"The Hero's Journey" on PBS was excellent and I completely
had forgotten how it helped me years ago.


[link to youtu.be (secure)]

2 1/2 minutes duration
Star Wars as seen by Joseph Campbell in his interview
with Bill Moyers in "The Power of Myth"

The 17 Stages (reduced to 12 in this video) of the
"Hero's Journey" as originally explained by Carl Jung
can be seen in the beautiful graphics of this video
presentation.


[link to youtu.be (secure)]

11 minutes duration.
One of the things that we hear repeated in films dealing
with sudden disaster and loss is summed up as:
"It was terrible...but...It was really the best thing that
happened to me." (You can't really grasp this idea unless
you have actually experienced some level of personal
loss or disaster.) It seems impossible that we could
find a perspective about SUDDEN tragedy in our life to move
it from the position of being "the worst thing" that ever happened...to the BEST thing?

THE BEST THING THAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED TO ME?



[link to youtu.be (secure)]


Author of "The Power of Now," Eckhart Tolle has even
mentioned in a few of his presentations...that these
experiences with SUDDEN disaster can turn out to be
"the best thing that ever happened." When I heard this
the first time, I almost turned off the video. But...
now I am beginning to "get" what he is saying.


TheOracle'sCookie

Last Edited by TheOracle'sCookie on 12/22/2017 02:47 PM