The night Childline was launched twenty years ago in England over fifty thousand attempted calls were made and the vast majority of calls were about sexual abuse.  The opportunity for children to break the silence on their dreadful experiences of sexual neglect heralded a realisation among adults of the degree to which children had been left unprotected.  A similar breakthrough occurred in Ireland and the sad statistics emerged that one in four children had been sexually violated.  As often happens when great neglect has been perpetrated, an over-correction occurs which can result in children being neglected all over again, albeit in a different way. 

Recently a niece of mine gave birth and though it was a difficult pregnancy and birth she told me she would do it all over again.  She did say to the male anaesthetist following being given an epidural that ‘all women must fall immediately in love with you.’  Parenting is one of the most unselfish behaviours that I know.  It certainly is the case that adults cannot change how they were parented themselves, but they can change how they parent their children.  However, unless potential and actual parents reflect on how they were parented and in their own relationship with self continue the positives and correct the neglects experienced, it is likely they will repeat the parenting patterns they encountered.

The recent spate of male teenagers dying on our roads has given rise to many reactions to be heard on radio, read in newspapers, seen on television and overheard in conversations.  It would appear that there are a certain percentage of young men who are not heeding the call to slow down, to not drink and drive and to value their own lives and the lives of others.  It is important that not all males in their late teens are tarnished with the same brush, something that car insurance companies do.  There are a majority of young men who enjoy responsible driving and responsible drinking.  The small percentage who do not, need our help. 

How we are within ourselves is continuously mirrored in our bodies.  When we are persistently at peace and at one with ourselves, the oneness with self embodies itself and manifests as wellness or well-being.  However, there are not too many people who stay in that place of psychological and spiritual al-one-ness and if connection with self manifests itself physically, so too does disconnection from self.  When this disconnection from some or all aspects of self persists and goes underground (out of consciousness – out of mind – out of sight), the self finds a way through the body to manifest that disconnection and attempts to connect it, but at a physical and substitute level.  

Rugby followers will be very familiar with the term ‘sin bin’ to which players who have broken the rules of sportsmanship are banished for a determined amount of time.  Apart from the fact that the word ‘sin’ has so many associations with the hell fire and damnation of Catholicism in Ireland, the term ‘sin bin’ seriously misses the point of foul play.  Certainly, any player that offends deserves the side-lining sentence, but my guess is that he perceives being put in the ‘sin bin’ for ten minutes as a punishment, and not an invitation for him to reflect on the source of his foul play.  We all know of players who in spite of frequent visits to the ‘sin bin’ persist in their foul and aggressive play.