Frozen. While many of us may wish the ground were frozen and the snow would fly in January, the season can stand as a powerful and frightening metaphor for our hearts and minds at times. I remember working in a school for emotionally and behaviorally disturbed students, a school that embraced children from kindergarten to seniors in high school. It was a unique school. One para aptly stated that “the halls were filled with sadness.” Although there was laughter in the school at times, and a great deal of care coming from the staff, the emotional range of the students appeared limited. Frozen. A student was often either happy, angry, or numb. The rainbow of emotions like sadness, hurt, joy, embarrassment, shame, delight, and all the complex emotions humans have were frozen down to two emotions. Numb doesn’t count. Frozen. I frequently stood at the door of the school with other staff and greeted students getting off the bus. In the cold of winter, it was not uncommon for a student to casually walk into the school without a coat, just a t-shirt. This puzzled me as it happened repeatedly. And then I began to speculate that, after a while, when emotions become frozen, so too the body often becomes numb to extraneous stimulus. Just as an adolescent may cut himself or herself to feel alive, the cold, frozen state of winter without a jacket may have reminded the child that he or she is alive, pain and all. Frozen. It is a state of depression that need not go on. It can be treated. Talking is powerful. Telling one’s story means “I am alive and I am important and unique. I am worthwhile.” And there is more to life than anger. Frozen. Spring can and will come but the seeds of growth need to be nurtured to thrive.
