Dee's Blog
www.takecourage.org
Sun 01/01/2012
Darkness to Light

The dropping of the ball in Times Square illuminates the very second when we imagine a sudden new and powerful beginning to everything.  Is this yet another  illusion?  After all, what's the difference between the last second of one year and the first second of the next.  The change is just about how we mark time, isn't it? 

We like to think that it's also a change inside us, that suddenly all that has transpired in the past fades away in importance.  We have a clean slate.  We compare life to a new baby, just starting out without any baggage.

Oh, that it were that simple! 

Truth is that the moments of change don't come in neatly-spaced periods of twelve months.  They occur by a developmental time-table, according to psychologists who have clearly defined how "normal people" grow and development toward adulthood and go on to proceed through our "adult" years through stages.  Each level or stage brings "tasks."  It's all scheduled.  How simple it looks on paper! 

"My life has been rather boring," I've often heard.  This statement often comes from people who fit the mold.  They manage to rock on from birth to death without many earth-shaking moments.

If that's "normal," I dare say that the vast majority of earth's inhabitants are NOT normal!!   While each of us has a unique set of challenges, some far more than others, very few really fit the smooth, theoretical time-tables.  Our lives are defined as much by the tidal waves that come and wash away things we once took for granted. 

When all things become new through trauma, especially childhood trauma, something beastly can take control of our thinking.  The soul is shattered. 

That's what Peter Pellulo experienced when he was violently assaulted by two teenaged predators during a brief period of life, fifty years before he began understanding the power of that soul-shattering moment. 

Yet Peter went on to be a man of enormous power and wealth, even before he awakened.  This is what makes his story so unusual, out of all the stories I've read.  Yes, in spite of being a very successful businessman and, by all appearances, a devoted family man, he was living a lie with the power to destroy all that he held dear. 

Because of his resources, Peter was able to have at his disposal some of the most skilled therapists and to generously share what he has learned to enlighten others much less fortunate.  Not only can it bring comfort to survivors, it adds to the knowledge-base of professionals and those in the general public who are truly trying to further understand what we have learned these past few decades about childhood trauma.  He does all of this through the telling of his story (see www.betrayalandthebeast.com ).

Any story, once told, takes on a power of it's own.  This one has enormous potential because of who Peter Pellulo already was before the secret was revealed.  This story cannot be easily ignored.  Because of it's telling, many others have been able to do their own powerful storytelling!  See www.letgoletpeacecomein.org 

Only one thing concerns me--the future of each of these story-tellers.  Starting with Peter's future. 

For telling the story is only the beginning.  How much power comes from each story depends not on the past, but on how the new-found power of the story-teller is recognized and channeled with each new challenge that life brings. 

Organizations come and go, often because of the mis-use of power.  All too often this happens with survivor groups. 

I'm certain that there will be many more "new days" for Peter, his family, and this organization.  I hope and pray that each one brings greater opportunity to shed new light into the lives of many.   I have no reason to believe that it won't.

 

 

 


Posted by Dee Ann Miller at 10:08 AM CST
Updated: Mon 01/02/2012 1:48 PM CST

View Latest Entries

« January 2012 »
S M T W T F S
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31
You are not logged in. Log in