Interesting that this should turn up in my FB feed today as I watched a bit of ‘The Outlaw Josie Wales’ a few days ago…a great Clint Eastwood western that features Chief Dan George. George plays a very compelling and humorous role. Chief George was a chief of the Coast Salish people which are indigenous peoples of the area I live in…the coastal area of British Columbia. Hollywood, being Hollywood, most of the roles I saw George in were ones where he played an American plains Indian. Well, I guess that’s why they call it ‘acting’… 
So, what really stands out for me in the Chief Dan George quote below is this:
Without love we can no longer look out confidently at the world. Instead we turn inwardly and begin to feed upon our own personalities and little by little we destroy ourselves.
I don’t think I’ve heard a more succinct and accurate description of the effect of Developmental Trauma. I feel those words so deeply. They describe much of my inner-life over many years so perfectly. Self-doubt, self-criticism, self-blame…‘feed upon our own personalities’…I am filled with a deep and pervasive yearning to ‘look out confidently at the world’… which is an experience that has been very hard for me to maintain for much of my life. This is what brings me to The Circle and what keeps me here…
