Pent up Pain

If you are ever stuck for a gift for me, you can buy me the latest Terry Pratchett novel (it’s only 9 months till Christmas, and soliciting never hurt anyone). In his book ‘Masquerade’ one of the prime characters, a cantankerous old witch called Granny Weatherwax, grasps a sword by the blade and doesn’t get cut. Her reason is that there was ‘no time’. Later once she has more time, and a handy needle and cotton, she allows the wound to appear. Got me thinking about how much can we bottle up emotional hurt because we have ‘no time’ rather than allowing us to feel and live through the emotion and deal with any issues that arise. With the ongoing process of grief after my mum’s death this has been only too apparent. It would be easy for me to loose myself in the ‘bus-y-iness’ of work when there is no real need to, just to avoid the pain. Except the hurt and pain is still there, undealt with and waiting for a chance to manifest at the first opportunity. How often do we gloss over the emotional scarring rather than using a good ‘needle and thread’ to bind the wound so that it heals without as much damage?