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Alana's avatar

Thank you Chris for your beautiful, poignant vulnerability. I feel entirely seen. I resonate with practically every portion, particularly the exhaustion of growth, how it is ANYTHING but a gentle unfolding. I've written myself about how jarring, intense and precarious it feels. Poems about the "torrent roar of the lion. a violent rupture." I also fully relate to the concept you introduce, ambitendency—the simultaneous pull toward and push away from what we most need. I never had words to put to the feeling before. Thank you.

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Chris Wells's avatar

Thank you, Alana. Your image of "the torrent roar of the lion, a violent rupture" captures something essential that gentle unfolding language completely misses. There's a reason Dabrowski used terms like disintegration.

I'm glad ambitendency resonated. It's one of those concepts that names something we've lived but couldn't articulate: that maddening paradox of pushing away what we most need because we lack the structures to receive it safely.

The exhaustion is real. This is labor that requires real recovery. Thank you for reading and for letting me know it spoke to your experience!

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Alana's avatar

Thank you so much for having me in your community, where my vibrato can finally be heard, allowing me resonance, mirroring and belonging . So grateful 🥲

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Gazala's avatar

Thank you Chris for sharing this… so relatable.

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Chris Wells's avatar

Thank you, Gazala. ❤️

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Michelle P. Epona Creations's avatar

🫂💜

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Chris Wells's avatar

🙏❤️

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Robin Lindeboom's avatar

Thank you, Chris. ❤️

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Chris Wells's avatar

Thank you for reading, Robin. ❤️

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VedicSoul's avatar

A very good read

Thank you 🙏

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Chris Wells's avatar

Thank you! 🙏

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