OSL Stephen Ministries
Unraveling and Reknitting
Joan Bacon
In The Gifts of Imperfection, Brene Brown lists some of those unraveling points: marriage, divorce, becoming a parent, recovery, moving, midlife, the empty nest, retiring, experiencing loss or trauma, and working in a soul-sucking job. She describes the work in reknitting her life during a breakdown/spiritual awakening as messy and deep, slogging and exhausting, but a journey from which she emerged feeling different—more joyful, healthy, brave, calm, grounded, reconnected with family and friends, and significantly less anxious.
To me, Brown’s descriptions of both the journey through unraveling and the desired destinations feel accurate as does her book’s subtitle, Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are. They summarize what happened during my own unravelings, when I’ve had to let go of “supposed to” ideas about my life or myself and needed to find new visions and a more authentic sense of self.
