Whenever I travel through St. Louis, I absolutely love staying at a particular Airbnb that is built up in the trees. Not only is it peaceful and feels like a retreat, but it also reminds me of my dream as a child to build a treehouse for my mom.
I have absolutely zero skills at building things. In fact, I once started a basement remodel in our former home. When I realized I didn’t have the skill or talent to proceed, we had someone come in to help us. Their first comment was, “Who did this piece of crap work.” But that’s ok, my skills lie in teaching, writing, music, and creativity.
The desire to build mom a house was not based upon some longing to construct. It was based out of fear. Fear of my father.
My father was abusive to my mom. Although he never laid a hand on me, I witnessed what he did to my mom. I was afraid of him. As a boy of 5 years old, I thought, “How can I protect my mom? I know, I’ll build a treehouse with a ladder that we can pull up behind us so dad can’t get to mom.” Ah, the simplicity of problem solving by innocent 5 year olds. I wish it were that easy.
We did finally get away from him; we moved to Italy to be with my mom’s family. Although that solved the immediate problem of mom being abused, it did not erase the pain in that little boys heart or the demons my mom faced her entire life. I ended up dealing with the pain and working through it through the power of forgiveness. My mom took the pain with her to her grave.
What pain are you dealing with? I hope you will get the proper help to work through it. It’s a journey, but you can make it taking one step at a time, forgiving, and enlisting an army around you to help.
* James is a teacher of 25 years, but more importantly a husband, father, and grandad. He is available to share his story with your group in a humorous and uplifting way. Get his book Jimmy: A True Story of Abuse, Poverty, Forgiveness and Redemption on amazon. Find out more about James or book him to speak at www.jamesdivine.net
