WHAT a beautiful June morning to start this writing adventure!
Mynah birds are merrily chirping, Aslagan (sunrise) spreads its warm light across my desk. This is Paraiso (Paradise) beyond all my imagination.
Come! Join me in this flowing happiness as I start today. Cozily stretch your back on an easy chair; lovingly raise your hands in grateful anticipation; open your mind to clear insights stored up and embedded in our earth’s terra firma; ultimately, you and I are one in our quest for knowledge.
Hmmm… let’s see here. Looking out the bay window, I distinctly observe the green, red and violet flowers waving their heads on the garden. Yeah! They are a marvelous sight.
Yes! The narcissus flower is a favorite flower of many Westerners.
The legend
Do you know its legend?
Narcissus was the son of Cephissus, the river god, and the nymph Leiriope. When he reached the age of sixteen, everyone recognized his ravishing beauty, but he scorned all lovers –of both sexes- because of his pride. The nymph Echo was hopelessly in love with him but she was hindered by her inability to initiate a conversation. Eventually Narcissus rejected her. She wasted away in her grief to become a mere voice.
A young man, spurned by Narcissus, prayed that he would love himself unremittingly. The goddess Nemesis answered this prayer by arranging that Narcissus would stop to drink at a spring on the heights of Mount Helicon. As he looked in the water, Narcissus saw his own reflection and instantly fell in love with his own image. He could not embrace his reflection on the pool. Unable to stand up and to tear himself away from his mirror-like image, he remained in that same spot until he died of starvation. But when they looked for his body, no remains were ever found. Instead they found a Narcissus flower in its place.
Lesson
Importantly, beware of flexibility, dominance and rigidity.
Persons known to have a narcissistic tendency, they step on the pathway of one-sidedness. All he or she obeys is her self-delusion and fantastic grandiosity. Her/ his common thoughts run in this pattern.
“I know best…. I know it all….. How dare you not follow my instructions…
My will should prevail….I have no need of you……I am superior than all of you combined…..Why you are a miserable weakling….”
Whew! What a complex being they personify. I have met persons with these traits in my family. What pain, harm and toxicity I felt. Thanks to my Goddess, I was able to overcome this woundedness at the hand of a narcissistic person.
Now in my middle life, I realized this truth. She herself was wounded and needed healing. She suffered from the early death of her father and felt completely abandoned by kin and kith.
Narcissists are often left by their partners, bosses fire them and their grown-up children abandon them.
Thus, they seek the help of professional counselors. Or in some instances, their own family members drag them to the psychiatrist door to initiate their healing journey.
What is essential is that they recover from their illness.
Finale
I just hope, pray and advise persons who want to go for counseling. Since these sick people are emotionally crippled individuals who need to find love, security and assurance, at best, a long-term healing process is warranted.