The Glass Crutch

Sustain - [Verb] To bear, support, carry, keep up, prop up, shore up, reinforce.

Substantiate - [Verb] To prove, give substance to, verify, authenticate, endorse, validate.

Subserve - [Verb] Promote, encourage, foster, cultivate, nourish, nurture, boost.

I have often referred to my disability as the glass shoe, or the glass slipper. To me this implies that I am delicate, sensitive, and gifted. The glass slipper invokes thoughts of fairy tales and magical wonderlands. I visit these magical wonderlands with my gift of being sensitive or psychic. Though, we all know that fairy tales and magical wonderlands have evil witches, dangerous plots, and risky adventures within. I have made an attempt to embrace this “lens” through which I perceive life, because if I don’t, the shadows become pressed and condensed, and turn into nightmares or in-flesh sin and evil. 

I write about and promote my mental illness in a healing way, and I describe my gifts in the terms of creativity and spirituality. Everyone is capable of, or burdened by these things, and creativity and spirituality are interchangeable, and lead to healing. Often what we perceive as function and achievement, is making something hidden or suppressing what is inside, and as long as we fear and resist any and all symptoms, fantasies, errors, or mistakes, we avert creativity in our lives, and fail at truly making a mark in human evolution, or contributing authentically to nature and society’s quilts.

My man, uses a cane, and is re-learning how to walk and function physically after a debilitating spinal surgery. The term Glass Crutch, borrowed from a Loretta Lynn song, got me thinking about the fact that his cane consists of similar embodiments as my glass slipper. That there is magic in his cane, and beauty in his disabled-ness. Very quickly, the magical crystal cane can become an evil crutch, if not reinforced, validated and nurtured. Just the way that mentally-ill folks can end up in jail, or alcoholics can become homeless. People who suffer with addiction, may have glass canes or crutches, and people with psychological disorders may have glass shoes, but we are all the same; supplementally sensitive, and thus gifted. We actually have increased opportunity to open the gates to our creativity and spirituality, and to become healers and artists. Maybe you prefer a different metaphor. Maybe you have an emerald music box, a golden hammer, a silver paintbrush, or an egg spun out of the finest sugar and color. Whatever the “metaphor”, tool, or gift that you choose to use, see your challenge as an opportunity, always. Lean into the trouble. Walk toward the annoying and loud person. Embrace the trigger. Accept your sin.

Perhaps if we use these three words: Sustain, Substantiate, and Subserve… we can proactively change our own lives through reinforcing, validating, and nurturing others and our world. Remember through action, service, and balancing our karmic debts, we are making the world a better place. Embrace the connection and the confusion. Be all that you are; no more and no less. Trust the universe, as it draws you into her shadows. There is fertile knowledge and opportunity to be had on her dark moist breast.