Step 7. Honor our Interdependency

Dear Reader, taking time to know and love yourself is one of the most important things you can do to create a healthy, happy relationship.

A partnership is comprised of two whole Hearts that together make a strong Foundation. Each needs to be whole, complete and strong on its own in order to create a successful relationship together.

Being in a partnership does not mean that you lose who you are along the way. It is who you are as an individual that contributes to the whole.

Thus while you are still working with your partner to create a successful relationship, you also need to take care of yourself and what feeds your soul.

Step 7. Honor our Interdependency:

Although connected and supporting each other, you simultaneously honor your own experience, feelings, needs and reactions.

Take time to take care of yourself and your personal needs.

Honor your personal contentment.

Know that in partnership we are also individuals – allow room for the individual to flourish and grow.

Take responsibility for what we need, want and must create for self; know our thoughts and feelings, and accept them as ours.

Our feelings and thoughts are ours – we are experiencing them, we decide what we experience and how we respond.

Do you honor your personal contentment? Dear Reader, think about this and answer honestly.
What can you do to allow room for both you and your partner to flourish?

RUNNING THROUGH DARKNESS
MEMOIR OF A SPIRITUAL WARRIOR
BY SANTA MOLINA-MARSHALL ‧ RELEASE DATE: MAY 3, 2022

This debut memoir chronicles a woman’s spiritual exploration and growth as she overcame a disturbing childhood and helped others heal.

Brought to America from the Dominican Republic as a youngster, Molina-Marshall should have led a happy life. Her father was a diligent worker, and his large family wanted for nothing. But the author recounts that her dad had a drinking problem and was a serial philanderer. Molina-Marshall’s long-suffering mother left him for a woman. Then it was all downhill for the bright, 12-year-old girl, who was shuttled between foster care and relatives. According to the author, she was sexually abused by the husband of one of her siblings. This resulted in Molina-Marshall becoming alienated and moody. By 15, she simply tried to survive. In her favor were grit and a restless intelligence. She quit school, rented a room, and found a factory job. Time went by, and for a while she was happily married. Yet when her husband left her, her life truly began. She turned to religion for answers but decided that blaming God for her woes was a cop-out.

In this absorbing and moving memoir, Molina-Marshall’s vivid storytelling is fearless. She frankly discusses the truths she discovered and the indignities she suffered. These admissions are disclosed with a touch of resignation and plenty of bite. However painful, everything she experienced was a lesson, and she bravely realized that she was part of the problem: “The fear of being hurt, rejected, or abused often led to me feeling lonely and misunderstood. No one knew the agonizing pain I felt being trapped in my thoughts and anger. I was becoming my biggest threat.”

The author skillfully recounts her intricate spiritual journey. To deal with her psychic wounds, she searched for an inspirational system. Her open-mindedness led her to the interfaith concept—cherry-picking from various religions and spiritual movements, yoga, and Indigenous beliefs as a way of finding peace. Along with her female partner, she built a therapy practice, making use of every spiritual element that aided her and others. The road was bumpy, and she found that women of color in same-sex relationships were not welcomed everywhere. To do good works—and finally live on her own terms—she effectively overcame bigotry.

An engrossing, cathartic account of empathy and success through determination and confidence.

Pub Date: May 3, 2022 | ISBN: 978-0-578-38315-6 | Page Count: 264 | Publisher: From Trauma to Triumph | Review Posted Online: June 13, 2022