{"id":938,"date":"2017-10-23T08:15:26","date_gmt":"2017-10-22T19:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/?p=938"},"modified":"2017-11-06T06:53:31","modified_gmt":"2017-11-05T17:53:31","slug":"healing-from-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/?p=938","title":{"rendered":"Scars – we all have them, but what do we do with them?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Scars – we all have them.
\nPhysical, emotional, mental, spiritual….<\/p>\n

Some we can live with and others we abhor with intensity.
\nIt is how we embrace them that matters.
\n1. we can cover them up and be unaccepting of ourselves and our self perceived ugliness.
\nOr
\n2. we can be completely unabashed, and unashamedly display them.
\nThe first is our natural instinct
\nThe second takes work, a hell of a lot of work.<\/p>\n

When I was quite young I had an altercation with a barbed wire fence.
\nIt left a raised horrid scar on my upper inner thigh.
\nI hated that scar with a passion
\nfor years
\nBut now I barely ever think of it
\nIt is still there
\nstill the same as it ever was
\nit is not a concern to me anymore
\nTime has healed.<\/p>\n

I have other scars
\nhidden soul scars
\nToo many of them
\nI chose the first route for years
\nbut there was so many toxins festering beneath them
\nI finally realised if I didn’t choose the second route I would never ever heal completely.<\/p>\n

I have only recently chosen to confront and display my scars
\nAnd in so doing am coming to a place of positivity
\nAnd a place of content\u00a0peacefulness.<\/p>\n

A year ago I had a most fortuitous encounter with a lovely woman who has since become a friend.
\n\"\"
\nSera lit up my life \ud83d\ude42
\nThat encounter unleashed so many opportunities.<\/p>\n

Looking back I love seeing the unfolding of chance encounters.
\nIs it really chance?
\nKarma?
\nFate?
\nCoincidence?
\nWe used to say that a ‘coincidence is just a miracle in which God chooses to remain anonymous’
\nWhatever way you look at it
\nthat meeting was the beginning of so many positive things for me.
\nSera <\/a>was wearing the most wonderful jacket.
\nBeing someone who loves mixed media I was immediately drawn to it and to the message it was portraying.
\n‘Be Still My Sacred Heart<\/em>‘
\nThat resonated so loudly in my damaged and vulnerable soul.
\n\"\"
\nThat jacket and it’s branding is the baby of\u00a0Amanda Betts
\n<\/a>She began Bridge the Gap Project<\/a> to support and empower young victims of abuse.
\nThe Heartspeak Collective <\/a>allows victims\/survivors to tell their stories through art and fashion.
\nI was so inspired and absolutely delighted to finally meet and spend time in Auckland with the dynamic and enthusiastically energetic Amanda a few months later.<\/p>\n

I then began communicating with Sera about creating my own garment with her.
\nWhen I began talking with her about Heartspeaking<\/a> a garment it seemed a natural progression to use my tattoo<\/a> as part of my creation.
\nMy phoenix is in a fairly private part of my anatomy
\nOnly comes out in summer \ud83d\ude09
\nMy eldest son reminds me often that scars are the tattoos of the brave.
\nThe Phoenix is my Brave rising from the ashes of my abuse and heartbreak.
\nPerfect!<\/p>\n

I also loved Sera’s cocoons so decided to combine those two loves.
\nWe physically connected a few weeks ago and began working.
\nWe spent the day choosing, cutting and piecing fabrics.
\nIt was so much fun working with her on the project
\nI was so in my element
\nBack in my happy space that I haven’t been in for so long
\nIt was feeding my creative mojo and incredibly therapeutic
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

I had to leave Sera to finish it as I needed to return home.
\nThe following week I was transiting through Auckland airport and Sera delivered the finished garment to me.
\nI was blown away
\nSo rapt
\nEcstatically happy with the results.
\nIt is absolutely perfectly Me \ud83d\ude42
\nThank you Sera
\nAnd Thank you Amanda
\nYou have touched my heart and helped towards the healing of my soul
\n\"\"\u00a0Each Heartspeak garment has a heart tucked in it somewhere.
\nMine is the large orange flower – of course \ud83d\ude09
\nAnd the words in the banner – also from my tattoo
\nilla alis volat propriis\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n(She flies with her own wings)<\/em>\"\"\u00a0I was also delighted to hear Amanda exclaim that the blue\/orange flames were cut from one of her old dresses.
\nSo I feel like am carrying a piece of her and Sera with me where I go.\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scars – we all have them. Physical, emotional, mental, spiritual…. Some we can live with and others we abhor with intensity. It is how we embrace them that matters. 1. we can cover them up and be unaccepting of ourselves and our self perceived ugliness. Or 2. we can be completely unabashed, and unashamedly display … Continue reading “Scars – we all have them, but what do we do with them?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,41,66,47,65,4,21,54,55,58,17,49,60,64,48,1,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=938"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":972,"href":"https:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938\/revisions\/972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}