The fall of the iron curtain can never precede the fall of the spiral curtain. We are witnessing, in real time, the dangers of allowing citizens to rise in power before transcending the human spiral, in a land barren of emotional and energy hygiene, under fire, under pressure. In communities of old, regardless of faith or tradition, we encounter “the human spiral”: cycles of fear, judgment, shame, and misunderstanding that wound us—and others—in invisible ways. The following story explores the luxury of being sheltered, and patterns of reactivity that pass silently through generations, even when we are “raised with love.” Through the wisdom of a trusted elder (*do you have one?*)—a Guru, an ‘Aunty’, an ‘Old Soul’, whoever *your* people recognize as wise—we learn to bear witness to this spiral, to sit with another’s pain and misunderstanding, ultimately finding liberation: transcending through unconditional love, finding the hope of safety to grow in.

Both fictional and deeply true, this story is offered in hopes of opening a new conversation about what “being good,” “being bad,” and “being love” really mean—as two “others” wrestle with blindsiding reactivity, in broken nervous systems and the hope for compassion, themselves.

Yet, nobody’s perfect. You don’t have to have a broken nervous system to see yourself in this story.

The Human Spiral: A Guru Story  *(Substitute your term for a wise, experienced one, in your community)*

Child raised with love
Taught—
To avoid the spiral
(Be careful what you say)
You can never take it back
Don’t be “bad.”
She Feared.

Avoid It At All Costs

Became a perfectionist
No longer seeing the spiral in herself
The luxury of the sheltered
Christians, her people
Point at it—
Shame it—
Condemn it—
Bad… Evil

They turn the other cheek and walk away, think they’re good.

All grown up—  The Child says to her wise one—
she, now caring
For a trauma survivor,
Raised in the spiral—
Traumatized
by the spiral,

Who didn’t know
The spiral
Existed—
(poor child)
“Othered”
Pointed at,
Pointed out—
Shamed by the sheltered
(Bad…)

The Child raised with love, to her wise one, saying

Now seeing,
Understanding,
Knowing—
More intimately
The spiral—

Her nervous system, broken by a pathogen, frayed, she could see it, now being in remission

It’s “happening” to her—

She now understood the lived experience of trauma. So blindsiding, so confusing, cascading. She was supposed to be a healer, a helper.

“If *she* didn’t spiral, *I* never would!”

Guru: “You are the spiral.”

Child raised with love:
Open-mouthed,
wanting—
To BE love

Her Wise One saying: “You really want to love?”

Let your thoughts
Pass through you,
Your emotions, too.
What rises—
in the silence?

One day, words tossed out by the “other” in spiral deeply wound the child, now grown. Wanting to be love, she takes her wise one’s words to heart. Goes for a walk. Lays down, leaning against a tree… writes of her experience…

Underpinning: Liberation

Have you tried to—
Surrounded by the whirlwind—
(The Human Spiral out of control)
Let your thoughts pass through,
Let your emotions, too
Sitting, in the silence—
Witnessing what happens
When you trust—
All you need,
in the silence
Desiring to love—
Will be available to you?
Stepping outside
reactivity, blindsiding,
Finding liberation of soul?

Eyes wide open. Surprise.

The warmth of love fills her chest,
It’s rising, falling, as if being breathed
Intuition of heart, of mind, come,
pure flowing—

Have you ever stood in the silence? Do you know the treasure there?

Wrapping the idea 
someone else has  in misjudgment,  
missing, in understanding,    
Reactions rendering,   
Spiralling your way—
First, in Unconditional Love?

Title: Fully Wrapped in Love

Intuition
Following
Two friends
Now surrendering—
to the possibility
It could be me,
I could be wrong—
I may not know—
I might be missing
Something,
perhaps,
we both—
might be.

Wrapped in unexpected unconditional love, beyond the reflex of reactionary judgement, the throwing up of defenses, offenses cascading, her dear one, no longer “the other,” opens up. In so doing, through the lived embodiment of love, they learn that words spoken by the other represented something much different, in fact quite the opposite of their understanding in the heat of the moment…hugging, afterward, both grateful to have understanding, compassion rising, truly seeing each other, and within themselves.

They could grow.

The Fall of the Spiral Curtain

When this happens—
Safety rising like the sun
Love fills the core,
Not romantic
Universal—
Expansive, in the chest
(It breathes you)
In the silence—
You can breathe
Past emotion, past all thought
(a university opens, in spirit!)
Down comes the Spiral curtain
(True sight, true wisdom)  Transmuting pain  that need not be  Avoiding the tragedy of cascade
(Understanding begins)
Spirits, transcending.

The possibility of harm

Note to Christians

We say, to turn
the cheek—
Be the bigger person,
Walk away,
Is this always love?
Or does our spiralling—
Look a little bit different?
Battening down the hatches—
Turtling within, fear,
Fear of another, the unknown,
Fear of ourselves, “being” bad
Just as harmful—
to development
If not more, than a volcano
spiralling your way.
Spouting, protecting,
trying to find safety
In a world, traumatizing
And scary,
Since birth?

 Is There No Balm in Gilead?

Whether the spiral erupts outwardly, or coils quietly inward… both wound, both cascade, both isolate, both break.

There is a narrow way
A road less chosen
A dark night
of the soul

There is a narrow way
It’s walked, wherein,
Dawnings cooooome,
Wonderment, and joy
Open up the night
Port to port,
Selah!

There Is a narrow way
And It Siiiiiiiiings
the soul—
In the journey
of the heaaaaaart

To Love, Come What May

There is a narrow way
Though—-
the niiiieyeeeeght
Is Looooooooooong
lift your head,
Dear one—  Be.of.good.cheer

Though it may feel,
the soul, that it is rent in two
Though it may feel that all is lost
Though the waaaaaaaves
Keep crashing in—
Mega stooooooorms,
collliiiieeedin,
Hold your way
Dear one—-
Anchored.
Still. Be in the silence. Youuu
Are Not alone. Rsën

In the end, the blindsiding of a nervous system—spiraling inward or outward—these experiences are part of being human. They happen until we learn to navigate our nervous systems with the qualities of love. They happen in moments of weakness or great distress. We don’t always know what another is going through. We don’t know the type of environment that their nervous system had to form in. Our own? In a given moment, are any of us perfect? We are all shaped by wounds, misunderstandings, and the longing to do and be good. And to receive the same. De-escalating the nervous system begins when we pause, listen, and extend compassion—to ourselves and one another—beyond the reflex of judgment and fear. It’s not as easy as it sounds.

There’s no perfect path, only the courage to travel the narrow way, meet each other in honesty and vulnerability, choosing to love, choosing to repair: seeking the gold reserved in the silence for us, come what may.

When we learn that the spiral is not our enemy, but a signal from within to pay attention, in safer ways to the message traveling beneath the surface of our shared humanity, this is an important first step. This life is a journey, learning to transcend the human spiral when life is overwhelming. In tending our internal landscape, healing and repairing along our way, we extend invitations to each other to grow, connect, and truly be well. This is another step forward.

And yet, if all this sounds a bit like rose-colored glasses, I get that, too. Unlike this story, we don’t always have the joy of the other in our lives, intending also to do the work of shedding what harms, to fully tune in to love. But entering into the silence, my friend, all wise ones know—this is where the mother lode is: it’s where we find our gold, that inner voice helping us continue along our way.

We live in a nation that is far removed from this type of wisdom, and it is barren of the knowledge of emotion and energy hygiene, a necessary support in such a journey.