Messages from the underworld

or, how we are when we are overwhelmed

Balance requires a strong centre.

True, and all well and good. But what do you do until you have a strong centre?

What if your centre is AWOL? What if you worry you have no centre?

I’ve been thinking about what I’m writing about - safer homes, all that. I want to slow down, and talk with the people who are most unable to access the help available in the health care, social services, and self-help world. Because if you’re overwhelmed, you Just. Can’t. Learn.

I’ve spent almost my whole life (I truly believe) in this subterranean place. It is not fun. It is not pretty. There is not a lot of light. You wander through mazes and they just go nowhere.

And it’s so lonely. Because the thing about overwhelm is, there are very few words.

So I’m going to try, as someone who is (I really think) emerging, slowly, much like coming out of a birth canal, with some effort and not a few crushing sensations, to put words on this world, for you, in there. You’re not alone. It’s just so dark it feels that way.

Photo by Andrew Lancaster on Unsplash