Prolifically Raw: Rage Retreat Re-Entry

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Rage Retreat Re-Entry

There are great teachers and there are phenomenal teachers. Ruth King, author of Healing Rage, is one of the latter. I�ve just returned from a retreat with the formidable Ms. King, learning how to hold my head up high with a dignity that has long eluded me.

Anyone who has read my work and this blog knows a great deal about how life has taken that dignity away more than once. I�ve been on my knees so many times, they are dented and scarred. I thought that�s where I belonged, in fact, every time I was down on the ground washing the floors of my house, I�d tell myself �this is your place, woman.�

There is a time to be on your knees and there is time to get up off the floor.

Ruth showed me the difference between a woman in devoted prayer and woman in sorrowful despair. Through her skill, she retrained my body to know which was which so I will never forget.

What price can you put on dignity? As I write this post, I see this new quiet dignity is one pearl I have returned with. My bag of jewels, collected at the retreat, overflows.

As I sat this morning, this song filtered into the silence. How many of us remember this song and know it�s meaning?
If you do, sing along with me!

Hold your head up,
hold your head up
Hold your head up,
hold your head high

And if they stare
Just let them burn their eyes on you moving
And if they shout
Don't let them change a thing what you're doing

Hold your head up, hold your head up
Hold your head up, hold your head high

Thank you Ruth and all the sisters in the circle of Healing Rage.