Hope Frances Mahon has penned her bittersweet saga of life with an alcoholic father. I can relate to so much -- especially hanging on to the tiniest fragments of feeling loved. Hers involved a gunshot; mine include the smell of diesel and a hockey pin. Grace flows through the darndest things.
I didn't have an alcoholic father but a good father, but the "white elephant in the living room" syndrome is very often part of many families. A friend of mine lately told me her sister, right after her 18th birthday, committed suicide because of this white elephant in their own family...
In this society when we talk so much about communications, and Facebook etc... I am puzzled at the fact that we still don't know how to express our hurt to our own family members. We don't know how to do it because very often we don't know how to listen, how to express ourselves without an accusation. Our self-love interfers with it. It makes life so painful at times. Let's call on the Holy Spirit to heal us all.
Posted by: Anne France | Saturday, 30 May 2009 at 11:39 AM