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Here it is, the graces of that awful ghost. The one who hides in the recesses of our mind, waiting to spring forward and inject its venom into our heart, that nameless demon who seeks to destroy all that has become of a man.
As if draped over my shoulders like a wet blanket, I shrink and collapse under its weight. The power I once felt evaporates in a flash, and I am left without even a memory of what it once was. This must be the most dreadful feeling a man can experience. Helpless, hopeless, and weak. I notice a part of me spring forward with vengeance in an attempt to slay the dragon and annihilate any evidence of such feelings.
Break-out and break-free immediately, I must!
And yet, it is no good. These feelings of shame are not meant to be blasted by the masked avoidance of quick action; they must be felt in the gentle surrender of a man.
Behold! A great moment of seeing the pattern unfold!
As if a pathway back to childhood, we are given the opportunity to see where it all began. It is here we can begin to bring softness and compassion to the little boy that cries out from within us. He seeks only to be heard and held, and he has never strayed far from our grown-self.
In this space of compassion for the young one, here is the true dragon to be slain; to speak up and share our vulnerabilities with another who will hear us and hold us. As if a surrogate for our own grown-self listening to the child within, we invite another—a trusted one—to hear us and see us in our time of darkness.
It is here that the true healing begins to take form. Our little boy feels heard and seen, and our grown-self has reached the summit of yet another mountain.
It is a good day for a good man.
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Photo credit: Getty Images
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