Have you seen the movie Gaslight?
I have not and I am torn between curiosity and fear. Maybe I’ll watch it next week.
My husband handed me an article, “10 Things I wish I’d known About Gaslighting” by Shea Emma Fett. If I read no further than the first sentence it would have been enough:
“Gaslighting is the attempt of one person
to overwrite another person’s reality. “
When I googled the article to find ya’ll the link I was SHOCKED that so many articles with the same title existed. This is NOT an isolated or rate problem. It is good to know when you are not alone or crazy.
Gaslighting is the new black.
It goes with everything!
I grew up believing that TRUTH sets us FREE.
I still believe. It is the mantra inside my head, my heart, my body and my soul.
A liar knows the truth and chooses to tell a lie. A gaslighter may not know they are lying.
Unable or unwilling, to pay the price for freedom, the gaslighter creates a new narrative to change reality. Each time the narrative is repeated it becomes more concrete until it solidifies into their reality. At this point the alternative reality has become fact.
We all stray from the facts. Honestly, just how big was that fish?
Fish stories are not gaslighting. Fish stories are entertainment!
Gaslighters create their narrative to justify behavior. Sometimes gaslighting is a survival technique. When reality becomes too painful another reality is invented.
A gaslighter is often articulate, passionate and sincere.
A gaslighter passionately and sincerely believes the created reality.
To question that reality is to assault their character. 
Facts, as everyone knows can’t be changed.
Facts just are.
Except when they are not.
How do you resolve conflicting realities?
How do you communicate with someone who believes you are the liar?
How do you maintain relationships with someone who questions your heart?
A story repeated often enough becomes truth. Hitler was a master gaslighter. www.Snopes.com is a website devoted to dismantling oft repeated stories.
“Gaslighting is the attempt of one person
to overwrite another person’s reality.”
Gaslighting is scary s#it!
Having a name for it is helpful.
Freedom is never free. Truth, the price of freedom, is not cheap. Some pay a higher price than others. Life is not fair.
Now that I know the truth about gaslighting, what it looks like, and how it impacts lives, mine and others, WHAT AM I GONNA DO ABOUT IT?
Drumroll ………. What am I going to do with this revelation?
I don’t know.
I do not know.
When I don’t know I write, I knit, I walk, I ride, and I paint what I know.
I paint hope.
I paint beautiful abstracts that embody journey.
Hope and journey.
Parts of the journey are breathtakingly beautiful.
Parts of the journey are mundane.
Parts of the journey are not just ugly but they smell bad, too.
I paint.
Every brushstroke is an affirmation that beauty is possible.
I cannot imagine a way forward.
The way forward is not limited by my imagination.
I cannot imagine a way forward, but I hope for a way.
I hope for beautiful endings.
I hope.
I paint.
I search for the next step.
I paint hope.