You may be familiar with the idiom ‘as the crow flies’, this was used to describe what has been originally perceived as the crow flying in a straight line. It was an observation of these birds behaviour prior to today’s navigational devices, but has now become outdated as awareness of animal behaviour has become more clear, crows have been observed flying in different manners, not least, flying round and round above their nest. It is nevertheless useful to consider if , not throwing this saying away would be wise, but rather broadening it to cover the various way these creatures communicate to indicate various situations.
Those of us who have high standards for our behaviour often fall prey to the ingrained messages behind them, part of walking in recovery must surely be to reconsider not just the behaviours, but those messages which keep us bound to strict codes of behaviour which are black and white, and do not allow one to accept natural human failures, and cut ourselves some slack.
It may be considered that the crow is a rather ugly bird, and when they congregate in groups they oft times get shushed away and are also considered in various negative and positive ways by different cultures, some of these cultures tab crows as spiritual messengers from another world indicating signs such as death, often the perceived messages are related to the number of crows seen and so on. I’m sure you get the idea.
Things are not always as they seem and accordingly it is good to live in a reflective way, to stop, and ask, WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE? so often we have impossible standards and beat ourselves up when we fail, today add some new information to your personal mental computer, stop, reboot the old one and start anew.
Following COVID 19, and we are still suffering from it, we have to stop walking in that straight line, look how much one misses if you never update your knowledge, not only do you become outdated, but you become rigid and without any means of escape from personal torment and the negative demands you make of your self.
I’m tired! said the client to the challenging counsellor, and left the room banging the door for good measure. He/She will always be tired because they may not be able to challenge the straight line experience, so think of the sidelines and the stops circle around like the crow, and sort out those negative messages, they contain meat for growth, and when you fail start again with new information gained from that experience.
The journey of recovery from Insidious ongoing traumatic stress IOTS is continuous at the moment, allow yourself comfort and in your walk in recovery mode have a sit down!
aoibheann thoughtful reflections 