As I was driving home from work today, I was listening to an NPR interview with Rosanne Cash whose book entitled “Composed” is newly released. I have long enjoyed her music and that of her prolific parents Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. I was particularly touched by a description of a traumatic incident she witnessed. In the 8 month of her pregnancy, she wanted to protect her in utero little one by calming herself so as not to allow stress hormones to invade her body. She said that she was “borrowing from her future”, in essence seeing herself and her child healthy and strong (my interpretation) and having moved beyond the here and now. It sparked in me an appreciation for all of the times that I have been able to walk through otherwise fear-filled situations by tapping into a past or future ‘self’ and having a conversation with that aspect of me that either needed the guidance of the wiser, more mature Edie or was calling on the me ‘yet to be’ who had lived what I had not yet. In either case, I recognized the inherent gift of knowing that I had survived everything that had ever happened in my life, because I was here to tell about it.

In what ways have you been able to integrate the various aspects of yourself who have lived through joys and sorrows and allowed him or her to be your teacher and guide?