i've been thinking about cursed objects lately. not as in, some kind of supernatural phenomena, but how things do end up carrying a sort of negative charge to them if they aren't dealt with.

like, the rose bush my former landlord planted in my backyard has grown so much and is so gnarly, it cuts me [and my beloved garbage bag jacket] up if i'm not too careful. when i stand up to go back inside, i have to actively avoid it or it'll hurt me.

so, in a very physical sense, it's become a cursed object. it's been ignored and now, if i'm not careful, it hurts me. but if i just took a little time to go back there and trim the gnarled branches, it's no longer cursed; it causes no more problems.

obviously this also applies to ourselves and our own parts & multiplicity. namely, if a part of ourselves is routinely ignored, it becomes cursed, maladaptive, prone to inconvenience at best and destructiveness at worst. but if you take time to sit with it and tend to it...

...it doesn't have to be cursed anymore. it doesn't have to be a burden or thing you have to fear or outrun. like picking up egg shells so you don't either step on them or exert too much energy to step around them anymore.

my most productive therapy hasn't just been DBT—which, to me, more often than not is just emergency protocol than a lasting, long-term solution—but has been about learning how to sit with and take care of these parts of myself. mindfulness helps with that, but it's the 1st step.