Topic: coping
A long-time friend, who encountered immense collusion in her church several years ago, just gave Ron and I a gift that we'll treasure for the rest of our lives. It's a plaque that reads: "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain."
At one time, I was convinced that collusion in the institutional church would just pass when people got over the shock that it existed and learned how to stop participating in the collusion.
My goals in this work were twofold:
1) Educate
2) Offer support to anyone who had suffered to consequences of collusion, whether a survivor or a professional.
I figured if enough of us chose to join the goal of educating, the collusion would stop. Then, the storm would be over, and I could get back to "dancing."
Long after I realized this was unrealistic, I was still hearing from people who refused to let go of that very thinking. It was often hard for us to be on the same wavelength because.....well......I guess I'd been dancing too long in spite of the rain. Though I never realized that until I got this wonderful gift, along with a note from the giver, saying: "Thank you for teaching me to dance in the rain."
While I don't take credit for being such an educator, it's nice to know that the message somehow was conveyed and came back in greater clarity to my own back door!"
