Prisoners

When we are imprisoned by our past, we must remember that the door to our cell is not locked, only closed. We can push it open. And we push by staying in the now. With our feet set in the present moment we can stare the past down.

If you are talking to an imprisoned one, you must remember that only the imprisoned one can push on the door to their cell. The door only opens outward. There is no handle on the outside. If you push you force it closed.

If you are talking to an imprisoned one, you must remember the door is closed because of fear, fear of what might be on the other side. You cannot talk the imprisoned one out of their fear. You can talk to the imprisoned one about the fear, the hurt that put it there, and the losses they live with in their prison.

When you are talking to an imprisoned one, you talk in the now, trusting the person’s capacity to choose a different way as you talk. Trusting the imprisoned one is the helping.

Trusting people in every way they need to be trusted is the help they need. Once trusted, they move freely from past to present, back and forward, back again and forward again.

Imprisoned ones must not tear down their prisons. They cannot. It was and is home. Rather, what they must do is leave the door open, so they are free to leave and return as needed. What was home that became a prison becomes home again through the freedom of the open door.