Compartmentalize for Integrity: #SteeMeditate

Build a wall, and make the chickens pay for it!

It seems paradoxical that sometimes to preserve integrity, we "gotta keep 'em separated," as Offspring sang.

Up until a couple of weekends ago, our back patio was adulterated by the hens and their droppings. They would gather on the step and knock on the kitchen door with their beaks. Sometimes, they would fly on top of the granite bar and give us demanding one-eyed stares through the window.

They preferred to lay their eggs in "the junkyard" area alongside or behind the shed, and we wouldn't find them for days or weeks. The commingling was frustrating, dirty, and wasteful.

We had to establish a secure boundary for the benefit of all. The hens are not so safe foraging in the junk, and if they have access to the strawbale, they ruin it before it can be put to use as clean bedding. My family and our next door neighbors were plagued by the dirt and smell of the manure too close to our homes.

The chickens were very angry about their pasture getting partitioned. They paced back and forth along the new perimeter, clucking angrily. However, they have settled in and embraced their fate. Now it is easy to collect all the eggs each day, keep the coop clean and fresh, and enjoy stepping out of the back door!

As I #SteeMeditate on the benefits of compartmentalization, I recall my earlier struggle to integrate my damaged psyche. Facistbook played a big role in that. I got comfortable sharing the details of my life frequently and recklessly, and getting comforting comments and likes. I needed social acceptance, and I needed self acceptance.

As time went on and the social network started to take a darker turn, conducting nonconsensual human experiments, and exacerbating the viciousness of the election cycle, my mother's opinion of facecrack took on deeper significance:

"People share too much."

And so I started refraining from reactivity. My friends often share things that crank my tank, but I could titrate that triggered energy and journal privately. I saw that on Steemit, the social interactions are more polite, less flame warfare, more positive self statements. If I read something that enrages me, I now have the option to research and write an article of my own viewpoint. Zero conflict, pure expression.

I shared this realization in Somatic Experiencing Treatment session last week, and as always, the neurological release came as refreshing as spring rain.

All cells are wrapped inside a semi-permeable membrane. It lets the good stuff in, and barricades the bad stuff out. Pendulating between the two creates a sense of flow and ease.

I love interacting with my beloved hens on their side of the fence. And I am seriously enjoying my patio life again. My sense of peace has increased, and with it the motivation to chip away at that junk pile, as well as to cheerfully continue to develop the farm side of the yard.

May your semi-permeable membrane be healthy and resilient!

Love,Cat
@creationofcare