Let me begin this blog for Will Street Wellness by admitting that Carlotta has been both my spiritual and practical teacher for over 30 years. She has patiently guided me, often against my nature and in spite of my ego, to an understanding of the power of forgiveness. This forgiveness power, as lived by Carlotta, is not only a spiritual practice but also an important practical approach to learning and living emotional healing and wellness. It is a form of mental Jiu Jitsu, which literally means gentle art, of which she is a master. She has taught this forgiveness not only in my relationship with others, but perhaps more importantly and powerfully with myself. She has taught me that forgiveness is not a soft discipline, it is never the easy way; truly the road less traveled.
The narrative arc of her story uniquely runs in two directions at once, one toward the future and the ways that she can and will utilize her gifts for greater education, understanding, and healing, a path she has chosen and a destination that she has consistently been headed toward her whole life. The other runs to her history, a childhood that was never really a childhood, "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” The facts of which are still being sorted out years and years after the events occurred, and parenthetically, should never have been allowed to happen at all. These are definitely two trains running on parallel tracks that only intersect with each other on Will Street within Carlotta herself. It is my goal to tell both stories, and do justice to each.
For years I have been trying to persuade Carlotta to let me, or someone, write her story. She has always stood steadfast and never given an inch on this subject. In fact, she has been so adamant in her refusal over the years, that I had nearly given up even mentioning the idea, knowing what her answer would be. However, to my utter amazement, after some particularly intense emotional EPT sessions that were part of her training, she came to me without explanation or fanfare and said simply, “Write the book.” It sent chills down my spine. For me, it was the equivalent of after years of sitting on the bench having the coach stroll over, grab me by the shoulder pads and say, “Get in there and win the Superbowl!” or Socrates walking over to Plato saying, “Hey, you might want to write some of this down.” Ok, I admit to being a little (a whole lot) nervous and even more intimidated, but after all I asked for it.
There are going to be at least two things going on in this blog: (1) I am going to be test piloting and fabricating parts of the story itself to see how it looks, runs, and holds together, (2) in post-”whatever we are calling it these days” fashion I am going to be running a “meta-narrative-behind-the-scenes-stream-of-consciousness-dialogical-unplugged “ feed of my research interviews, hard documentation, editorial comments, hits and misses, etc. to be sure that the sculpting doesn’t get too far from the sculpture.
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