Hi Margaret,

The song lyrics I reference speak about being taken away to the "funny farm" and express my conditioned fear from many lifetimes about being misunderstood, isolated, locked up, punished, and "done in" when speaking my truth. Fortunately, I'm able to lighten up and find a humorous thread in all of this in keeping with the satirical tone of the song. Enough to go out on a limb and post here anyway.

I'm happy to read that you connect with Sandra's experiences and feel less alone. I'm sure many of us relate to how you feel. I recently experienced a particularly dark time where I essentially felt completely isolated and unable to connect with anyone, not even my Openhand friends. So I withdrew and allowed myself to feel lost, betrayed, and abandoned, like I was the only one left in the cosmos, falling through a black hole, no direction home, with all the attendant rage, anger, and despair. I recognized that I was caught up in distortion, but I knew the only way out was to feel the pain behind it and not judge myself for being such a shitty mess. I came across a quote by Nelson Mandela that soothed my soul. "I'm not a saint unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying." Gradually, I've been finding a path of Light back to Source. My heart goes out to you.

Since moving to Victoria, I've met many women who have consciously changed their birth names to ones that click and resonate with their sense of uniqueness and oneness while living in a 3D world of this and that. I'm struck by their courage to do so. One of my delightful friends now calls herself "Marvelous!" And she most certainly is! I relate to how you feel when writing your name. I couldn't write "Catherine" anymore (my actual birth name that I took on in my 20's) so went back to using my childhood nickname of Cathy that friends and family called me. I recognize that choice as key in my journey to feel the pain and trauma of my childhood, but also the joy, to release identity to it. My sense of myself as "Cathy" is lessening as my grip loosens. Who knows where that will take me? Eventually, to what awaits us all: Absolute Presence in all things, identified with none.

Much Love to you,

Cathy