Have you ever heard the idea about our shadows being our
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darker self lurking deep within[?]
[Carl] Jung believed that our shadows are the composite
of all the shameful emotions, nasty impulses,
and negative aspects of our personalities
that we attempt to bury in order to show an
acceptable face to the world.
Think of the raving lunatic the family keeps
locked in a tower in gothic novels,
or...Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,
and you get the idea.
Unfortunately, not knowing is what hurts us,
especially when sublimating our shadows.
Joan Borysenko describes the fermentation of our
"ghostly double"as "getting up a head of steam,
getting wilder and wilder inside us, informing our
behaviors without our consciously knowing
they are there" until they express themselves "
quite suddenly and explosively in accidents,
impulsive behavior, illness, lapses of judgment...
In other words, an unexplored shadow leaves us stuck
without understanding why, assaulted by strange impulses,
and powerless to change."
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Then Sarah asks us if we've ever seen the show
I was previewing this day last night,
I just glimpsed through the day, like didn't read it at all.
Sarah's title for today is Absolutely Fabulous,
and then I saw her mention the tv show.
Then when I was browsing Netflix, it was there!
So I started watching it.
And it was awful.
When I put the words "absolutely" and "fabulous" together
I think of my mom, she says that phrase often,
because she is absolutely fabulous.
So I go from the mental image of my mom,
to these two superficial, alcoholic women who do drugs
and take no responsibility for anything.
No poise, can hardly be called ladies...just awful selfish people.
It was horrid.
To some it may be funny, but to me it was just painful.
I guess it's just not my kind of comedy.
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They are vile, vain, vapic, vacuous.
Shallow, selfish.
Dumb and dumber...
Edie was my evil twin, my shadow.
I recognized her instantly.
Eddie Left, Patsy Right
I suspect there are many women who identify
with some part of Edie and Patsy...
All these women are out of control,
so watch out.
But we can't afford to be;
there are people who need care and
there are jobs waiting to be done.
But if we could shed every responsibility and inhibition
for a half a day, perhaps we'd resemble one of these dolls.
for a half a day, perhaps we'd resemble one of these dolls.
And while that's amusing, it's not pretty...
Our shadows are only to be feared if we repress them,
if we refuse to give them the recognition they need...
In our search [for our authentic selves], sweetie darling,
we must not ignore what Dr. Estes calls
"these discarded, devalued, and
unacceptable aspects of soul and self,"
unacceptable aspects of soul and self,"
even if they make us feel uncomfortable.
Especially - sweetie darling -
if we long for our lives to be rich, deep and absolutely fabulous.
Kiss, kiss.
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If you get a chance, go watch an episode.
You might enjoy it more than I did.
Like our failures, don't keep your shadows in the dark.
Get into the light so you can see them clearly,
where they're much less frightening.
***
Gratitude Journal
***
1) Robbie is home safe!
2) PB&J for dinner, the kids are like yum...thank goodness.
3) Today, we have 79 days left in the year. I'm so excited!!! I've said it before and I'll say it again, this has been fun and very educational, but I'm quite ready to start something else. 365 days is a long time.
4) Shaggy Dog, with Tim Allen! My kids had a ball, pun intended. We tried the rest of the evening to be dogs. Running on all fours is really hard.
5) It's Friday!!!!!
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