Dear Matthew:

“what in the movie has had such a strong influence on you that it managed to motivate you to begin your journey?”-

– one scene that comes to mind, perhaps the most powerful, is when Atreyu faces a mirror of sorts, and he runs away from it, and so does Sebastian while reading this particular part of the story. As I understood it, a crucial part of the Atreyu’s journey, parallel to what I call the healing journey (or the “Emotional Learning Journey”, as your title calls it)- is to see who we truly are, who others truly are- to see reality as it is.

When you wrote April 9: “I don’t feel that the world outside my home is hostile and dangerous. I never have”- this is a very strong, absolute sentence. And you stated you never felt it was dangerous.

In your recent post you stated: “It’s clear that I see my hometown or other similar places as being more dangerous than they actually are”- you feel that your hometown and similar places are dangerous- even more dangerous than they are.

So why did you make such an absolute statement earlier, that you never felt that the world outside your home is dangerous ? I don’t know how to proceed from here. How can I trust that what you tell me is close enough to the truth when you moved so far from the truth?

Back to the mirror in the movie: look at it, don’t overthink, don’t rationalize, don’t think what you prefer to think/ what is convenient to think. Instead- look at the mirror, see what’s there, don’t add anything to it. Don’t try to make the image you see prettier than it is. See what’s there rather than what you wish was there.

anita

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