Even a Pressure Cooker Needs to Vent

I have lived long enough to see ideas come and go...and then come again.  The pressure cooker was my mama's go to when a meal needed to be cooked quickly.  There was a valve on top that released the build-up of pressure.  Then you would put a whatchamacallit over the vent to hold in the pressure and cook the whatever faster.  Enter 60 years later and the Insta cooker. 

My life has had lots of pressure cooker times.  When life builds and fills with sorrow or stress, what do you do with that build up of pressure?  My wise sister once said, "Even a pressure cooker needs to vent once in awhile." 

This seemingly inane discussion of cookers leads up to my need to vent.  I truly strive to live life with love.  I want to be a voice for peace in an often contentious world.  There is one philosophy that pulls me in a negative direction, every single time.  I have been offered the wisdom by many that if I simply would quit manifesting negativity (by speaking about the challenges that I have faced) or if I would address the subconscious level of my past...my physical health would improve.

I met a psychologist at a holiday party.  She was charming.  She heard that I was dealing with cancer number two.  She explained that cancers are caused by unresolved issues of the past.  Kindly she offered me one free visit with her.  It was a party so I did not say, "Are you kidding me right now?  You are saying I CAUSED MY OWN CANCER?  Or that any and all of my health challenges were caused by something I did or didn't do in my lifetime?"

Simply discussing that brief conversation makes me passive-aggressive.  Sometimes being passive aggressive works.  In other words, it would have been inappropriate for me to yell at her or engage in a contentious discussion.  Yet I need to vent the negative energy somewhere.  This is where I chose to express and vent.

Please do not EVER tell me that the hard things in my life were caused by a previous bad incarnation.  Do not say that I cause my own health problems as a self-punishment for choices that I've made in the past.  I would race to quote the old idiom, "I was born this way, what's your excuse?"

I've learned a thing or two during my lifetime.  This is a truth that I will carry forward...shame and blame never fixed anything!  Telling an alcoholic that they have liver disease because of the alcohol, and then shaming them for their illness?  Good things are never accomplished by shame or blame.  Please NEVER tell me that my cancer, fibromyalgia, arthritis, spinal disease, will be CURED if I quit manifesting AKA venting or discussing them.  Do NOT tell me that my illness is my bodies way of punishing for past behaviors.  NEVER tell me that God is punishing me for some past misdeed in another life.

Here's the thing...stuff happens.  In this old world, you may bring genetic disorders forward from the past.  America went insane with nuclear testing.  They did NOT just test in isolated areas, they had secret testing sites throughout the U.S.  Dangerous waste from factories have been dumped in many rivers and water sources throughout our country.  Car accidents happen because a person is drunk, or texting.  Snow and ice cause accidents.  The bad choices of others can cause some of these things.  Our own bad choices CAN cause some of our problems.  DUMB old being in the wrong place at the right time can cause some of our issues.

What is my point?  There are many reasons why bad things happen to good people.  Telling those good people that they are responsible for those bad things just compounds their struggle.  I speak about my challenges to people because it connects my struggle to theirs.  It helps them to see that it IS possible to have a positive life experience even in the middle of the worst kinds of crap that life can hand you.

When I can offer a light to someone in the midst of deep darkness it gives me affirmation.  I'm far from perfect, but I live for times when I can use my experience to give hope to others.  One other truth that I've learned, there is ALWAYS hope!