mission statement

Crazy beginning of the week, as usual. Classes on Mon and Tues evening are great for getting it over early in the week, but I feel as if I play catch up the rest of the week. Last night we were talking about family therapy...how no one individual can be understood isolated from their environment, or family of origin.
One funny remark was that the only 'normal' people are those we don't know well.

It is true that everyone has challenges and traumas in their life...there is no perfection...but what we do to survive and thrive is the important aspect of the story.
I read a quote recently by Pema Chodron that said, "All strong souls go to hell before they can do the healing they were sent to do." or something to that effect.
I have been focusing on the image of the wounded healer recently...
the ancient Greek myth of Chiron who lived with incurable wounds from a poisoned arrow or Aesclipius who developed the healing arts to treat his own wounds...
I think that I like this version better...
or one who is driven to develop or discover cures because of their own needs...I think I choose this one because it is creative and proactive.

Anyway, I have been wondering what my roles and goals will be in the future. If everyone inevitably suffers then prevention is not possible. Could it be that the experiences cannot be prevented, but our reactions to them could be made healthier. From what I have come to understand it is not the stress that makes people ill, but the failure to respond appropriately to our body's signal. If we are frightened and have the fight or flight reaction, we burn off the stress hormones and their by products...it is when we freeze or dissociate that we experience illness from these chemicals. So how do we respond to child abuse as a society?
Stop it all together...probably not...but we should try.
Teach our children to fight or flight...a good option...it is like our panic to restraint is a reenactment of being frozen at a time when we should have moved (fight or flight).

I was challenged to create a mission statement for my life (the rest of it anyway) that will guide my personal approach to working with the vulnerable. I have been working with alot of phrases...but haven't come up with a whole idea yet. It will certainly have to include wholeness and health...and consciously traveling the journey...

So what would your mission statement look like?

I have to help the youngest with a science assignment...
Maggie