As social creatures, we are biologically hardwired for connection.  Our DNA affords us a powerful and inherent drive towards getting close to others.  Yet, we simultaneously seem to be quite adept at actively breeding disconnection in our lives.  We don't listen, we armor up, we get defensive, we grip resentment and we cling to contempt.  Or, if you are anything like me, you find yourself propping yourself up with perhaps the most insidious form of armor available to us - self-righteous indignation.  Our ego LOVES this defense because it is well-practiced at fighting shame with shame.  It's seductive powers are effective at making us feel "strong" and protected.  It feeds grandiosity by seeking to "one up" others so that we can delude ourselves in feeling "better than."  It's not pretty, it's not effective, it's not kind, and it's definitely not vulnerable.  

I couldn't have been more than 7 years old and there I was freezing my ass off with that ice cold water being sprayed all over my skinny little body while I did nothing but bravely endure.  My pride and determination were my only protectors, the source of which only grew with every passing moment of continued shivering and irrational thoughts of hypothermia eventually overtaking me.  It was an early spring day in Colorado where the chill of the harsh winter past still hung in the air as it fiercely competed with the sun's brilliant rays for attention.  My teen aged older brother stood gleefully in front of the four of us children:  me, my younger brother, and our two best friends, Joyce and Laly.  Who knows how or why he thought of this "game." but he knew that with us, he'd have some willing participants.  

And so it began..