Remedial Studies in Inner Work

My friend Matt recently mentioned that he was going to name his blog Remedial Studies in Inner Work. This was the first time I recognized the gumption I must have to be calling my blog ADVANCED Studies in Inner Work. I just want to enter a short post here in the way of attempting to defend, justify, explain, and/or excuse myself, lest any readers should go one day longer thinking, "What an ass!"

First of all, I'll knock our culture by saying that it doesn't take much to be advanced in this arena as an American. We are so extraverted that anyone who takes a moment to herself is regarded warily, at best, as a self-obsessed navel gazer! Americans are very skeptical of the inner life. We mostly don't believe it exists; or maybe we believe it exists, but that it is bad news and should be assiduously avoided. 

Secondly, I will say that, regardless of this, I, an American girl, got my first diary at age nine and never looked back. I remember the recurring dreams of my early childhood, and I always believed my dreams were important, even after my mother finally convinced me that dreams were not the same as real life. I have been a student of the Tarot for over twenty years and a student of the I Ching for almost as long. I have written so many journals that I feel guilty about leaving my children with the burden of dealing with them. It would take years to read them all. I have studied yoga, meditation, Buddhism, and Hinduism. I've been in therapy. I'm in therapy now. I'm getting my masters in clinical psychology. I write down my dreams, study them, and create artwork and perform rituals as a way of honoring them. I mean, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! If I've done anything in this life, and if there's anything I could claim to be working on at a deep level, it's inner work. 

So, when Doug suggested the title for this course, it felt like a course I really wanted to take. And that's how this blog came to be called Advanced Studies in Inner Work.