Emotional Wounds: The Truth

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You have emotional wounds, I have emotional wounds. We all have emotional wounds to some degree. These wounds make us feel “less than” and they leave us drifting in a sea of shame. I am here to say that we don’t have to stay in the water. If we are open, “something” will always come along to lift us up, take us to the shore, and remind us of our truth. My “something” came exactly when I needed it, and I would like to share it with you.

For many years I had been reading self-help books and studying the topic of spiritual oneness. Still, on this particular day, there were some old beliefs running through my head trying to disrupt the self-esteem and self-respect I had gained. Something was going on in my life that made me feel as if I was back again at square one: the fear that I would never be acceptable. People would always see me as I really was; a frightened little girl playing dress-up in an adult world.

I’m not sure what prompted me, but that week I decided to start the homework for my spiritual class earlier than usual. A poem by Paul Williams was the first reading. As the words on the page penetrated my mind, I began to sit up and take notice. A shift was taking place within. My tears were being wiped away and a protective presence was comforting and reassuring me. I read the poem over and over as it reached out and spoke to me. It acknowledged my painful emotional wounds, and it responded to my distorted perception of who I was and what an adult is supposed to be.

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“Remember Your Essence” by Paul Williams
Picture a burning log, like in a fireplace, a hearth.  Now see it as if it were floating in the air a few feet in front of you, and notice that there are two elements here: the log and the fire that clings to it.  Now move the image of the burning object into your body, so that you can feel it like a warm, comforting glow inside your chest. The burning log is real, and it exists inside you. The inexhaustible log is called your essence; and the fire, the flame, is your life.
You are a source of warmth and light. Children who are cold or lonely or unsure come to you for comfort, and you always have comfort to give. Even at your moments of greatest doubt, when you feel totally closed down to the world and to yourself, the life still burns in you and your essence remains pure and powerful and untouched. Your fears and resentments may blind you, may cripple you, may seem to totally absorb you, but they cannot stop you from being a source of warmth and light.
You are who you are regardless of who you think you are. Your thoughts affect your actions, and they affect your perception, your experience of everything around you. Your thoughts control your experience of reality.  But your thoughts cannot affect or change or control or even touch who you are. You have a power that has nothing to do with what you do, or what you say, or who you know, or what you know or where you are, or what you look like, or your skills, or your talents, or what you have.
It is the power of your presence. It is the heat and light from your burning log.
And it touches everyone who comes in contact with you….

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This amazing poem was reassuring me that the wounds were there but they could not damage the real me. My essence, the core of who I am, cannot be destroyed … not even by me. The real me, my true self, will always be the essence of love, strength, goodness and peace. That will never change. And what is true for me is true for everyone.

Cheryl Gleghorn

Cheryl Gleghorn grew up in Milwaukee, WI where she attended St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church. The second of eight children, she started learning early on the power of love and compassion. Spirituality was her calling. Because of her affiliation with a marketing group while in her early twenties, she was introduced to the world of self-help and positive thinking … which led to the notion that there was probably a connection to God somewhere in all of that.
In 1996, Cheryl found Science of Mind; A faith, a philosophy, and a way of life. This is the connection to God she was looking for. This movement was started by Dr Ernest Holmes in the early part of the twentieth century… In 2002, after several years of study, she became a licensed practitioner under the umbrella of United Church of Religious Science (later- Centers for Spiritual Living).
Today she attends the Center for Spiritual Living in Bradenton, FL.
Cheryl teaches this philosophy, does spiritual coaching, gives prayer support, leads meditation and facilitates visioning groups.