EMBRACE DON'T ERASE

 

A bit of a strange motif for a rubber, don't you think?!

I bought it when visiting the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam when I was visiting my son last month.  He happens to live directly opposite this church which is the oldest building in the city.  It's clock chimes every quarter of an hour - delightful at first, but after a while...!  It interrupts Seb when he's doing anything in his apartment and he goes into a sort of trance for a few seconds whilst waiting for the cheerful sound of 'The Lord's my Shepherd' to finish, so he can carry on with the music he's making or the conversation he's having.  It's very amusing to witness...

'Embrace don't erase' slides glibly off the tongue, but is quite hard to do in practice, neither the embracing nor the erasing.  Yet it is good advice if you've suffered emotionally, physically or mentally.  We know that nothing really gets erased but if we bury stuff and never process or look at it properly, it will only come back and bite us - sometimes very badly - on the rear end. It can deeply affect our day to day lives and ruin relationships. It is better to face our trauma, be it sooner or later. There's not really a time limit. I know there are some things I couldn't really process until years after the event.  It can often take even a lifetime before being ready to really work through moderate or severe trauma, as I have learned from friends or past patients in that situation.

I remember, years ago, witnessing a horrible car accident where a young girl was flung into the air by a car she didn't see coming.  I wanted to stop the images recurring in my head and bury the experience, but a wise woman told me to try, bit by bit, to look at the experience, process it, then file it away when the sting and horror had diminished.  I experienced my own horrific car accident many years later, applied that same wisdom to it and found it really helped.  Emotional trauma is not so easy to address, but I do know that in burying things, covering them up with all sorts of different coping mechanisms, you can end up losing touch with your real self.  But it's not easy...

The Oude Kerk in Amsterdam was built in the 13th century and dedicated to St. Nicolas.  It was a catholic church but in 1566 there was a revolution.  The whole of the Amsterdam population revolted against the excesses of the catholic church at the time.  In 1578 there was the so called 'Alteration' when the city became Protestant, which it is to this day.  The catholic paintings and artefacts were either  painted over or removed in all the churches (except for one I think).

However, today Oude Kerk is recognised as a building holding much history within its walls, and it is a tourist attraction. The catholic paintings of icons on it's ceiling have been carefully restored from their hiding place under the paint so all can see the original condition of the church.

I believe that our original condition is good, beautiful, intricately amazing, astounding in diversity and wonderful, for we were made in God's image.  He is always on our case to restore us to who we really are so that we can truly be alive.  I guess embracing not erasing is a part of that journey.  If it could speak, I think the Oude Kerk would probably agree!

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