I have teachers who tell me that an important part of healing trauma is to flood your body with pleasure and the things that feel good–but for a long time this was a hard thing for me to really feel all the way down. The thing that brings me back to it is the sunset.
When I was growing up, I was lucky to have a grandmother who would take stacks and stacks of photos. Often in every stack, there were several photos of sunsets, where she tried to capture the beauty in a shot but it never fully did it justice even with the beauty that *was* caught on camera. What can capture the beauty of a sunset? You just have to be there to experience it.
I decided to paint a sunset for my cover for Freedom year because it signifies a feeling for me that is very near and dear to my heart. It’s the feeling of being fully connected to myself and the world, of feeling a deep and enduring self love for every part of me including parts that are broken or sad or angry. It comes from moments in my life that were pivotal, including at the end of Freedom Year where I discover what I have been looking for all along.
I truly feel that there is something spiritually blissful about witnessing a sunset and other kinds of beauty in nature. It reminds me that I am part of everything.
I wonder what your vision of life is, when you truly feel alive, when things are working out even if it’s complicated. No matter what has happened in your life, when you remember it, you can feel that feeling again.
Do you have a moment in your life like this, or a vision that encaptures this for you? What is freedom for you? What is power for you? People can feel it in their bodies differently. After all the chasing I’ve done in my life, this is the most important thing of all.
If you want a free sample of my book “Freedom Year: how Trying to be a Dominatrix (and Failing) Changed my Life” go here.
