Confronting the Lies Regarding Perceptions and Assumptions - finding the webcam - Part II

Today, we continue the search for the Earth Cam.  A search that involved all sorts of perceptions and assumptions - and skill sets.  A search which became a pivotal point in my journey towards recovery.  The part of recovery which realizes what the lies were and becomes aware that they were just that:  lies.

I've chosen today's and yesterday's pictures of the red walking tour line in Salem Massachusetts because I wish recovery were more like these pictures.  A line.  A bold, red line at that.  Marking clearly the way to go.  When to walk straight.  When to turn.  Etc.  With lots of neat things to pass by and enjoy on the way.

Unfortunately, recovery - especially recovery from trauma and PTSD after workplace abuse - is not like that.  It's neither clear cut nor straightforward  We have to make it up as we go along.

We have to learn to trust our perceptions and assumptions as to which way to turn, what to do, what not to do.  We have to learn to trust our instincts ... which at its basest perceptions and assumptions are.

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Obviously (if you've read the Togetherness post), you know that we did find the Myrtle Beach earth cam - eventually.

But how?

What happened to change my/our perceptions and assumptions as to where it really was?

A minor thing.  Something inconsequential really.

I simply picked up a brochure to read in the washroom, opened it and Voilla! there was a picture of the boardwalk we had seen from the earth cam.

I knew then that the key to finding the earth cam was to finding the boardwalk.

No address was given in the pamphlet.  So I went to the computer and started doing google searches.  It took me a few minutes and a bit of trial and error (drat those perceptions and assumptions on key words to use!), but after a bit I found it!

I found it!

On the computer.

I had a location.

Second challenge.  To get the car to go there.  Or rather to get the driver of the car to go there - as he had his own perceptions and assumptions as to where we were going and kept veering off to the beach way too soon.

The boardwalk area is in the heart of Myrtle Beach.  The city, in fact both cities, are laid out in a grid pattern made easier by the fact that the cross streets are all sequentially numbered.

Finally, we got to the area ...

... and started walking towards the beach.

It was right there.  The boardwalk I mean.  Now to find the earth cam.

It was Hubby who found it.

The first words out of his mouth were:  "There's the flags we saw."

He raised his arm pointing at the flags, then pivoted around with his arms still raised ...

... and stopped still pointing with his arm raised, "There it is!"

We had found it!  It took both of our skills ... perseverance, computer, practical, obersation, etc. ... but WE found it!

It also took both of our combined perceptions and assumptions as well.  After all, he was the one who clued in because of the flags that we were in the exact right spot.  If we were at the spot with the flags, then we had to be at the spot with the earth cam.  If we were seeing the flags, then we needed to realize what angle we were seeing them from on the web and deduce the location from that perception, that knowledge, which is exactly what he did.  It's called deductive reasoning.  It's a skill.  An asset.

Hubby standing at the place where we made the phone calls.  Notice that he's wearing a U.S. t-shirt.  Maybe so that people passing by will perceive and assume that we're just crazy Americans - not the crazy Canadians we really are?

 The next morning we came back, cell phone in hand and called each of our daughters in turn, asked them if they were close to a computer and then instructed each on how to access it - and us.

We talked - and waved - to each.  It was hilarious as people walked past these two weirdos waving at the sky ... or was it a building?  They didn't know.  They had no clue.  While our daughters watched the whole thing from Canada.

They had their own perceptions and assumptions - based on what they were seeing.  And also on what they were not seeing.  The earth cam.

One couple stopped and talked to us so we pointed out what they were missing.  They too were from Ontario - which gave them bonus points in our eyes - and in our perceptions and assumptions.

They were staying for the winter and had passed that point many times - and never seen the cam - because they weren't looking for it.  They didn't know it existed.

 One of the first things, Mr. Observant Hubby noticed the first night we found the earth cam was that the small white Christmas lights which we had seen from Canada were still on the railings.

The next morning, they were gone.  Actually, we discovered that they were in the process of being removed.  We found and spoke with the young guy who was taking them down and said we'd seen them from Canada - on the earth cam.  He had been there for two years and had never noticed the earth cam even though he worked in the building right beside it!

Right around the corner from the earth cam

Perceptions and assumptions.  We all have them.  We cannot really navigate through life without them.  Our perceptions and assumptions include feeling pain and knowing that we need to do something about it; when to get off the highway; even things so base as hunger and the need for the washroom.    There's nothing wrong with them.

Never has been; never will be.

Ironically, even those in the workplace who sneered at me because of my perceptions and assumptions had their own.

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 And so I bid you farewell today.

Have a nice day wherever you are.

See you tomorrow ... as we are once again exploring the path (or rather paths) leading to debunking the lies.

Another facet of perceptions and assumptions coming up.

Until then ....

Post Workplace Abuse: Confronting the Lie "Perceptions and Assumptions" Part 1

 The road to recovery post workplace abuse, is not always a road.  Nor is it always well-defined or even in a straight line.  Sometimes it's like a dirt path across a field. Sometimes it's an offshoot of a well-defined path. It can even be a sidewalk or a staircase.  Or climb up a mountain.  It's always changing and evolving as the survivor passes through from one piece of recovery to the next.  It's also different for each survivor as each one of us comes to the path with different experiences, different strengths, different weaknesses and different injuries from the experience.

Whatever.  

Our paths are usually pretty vague.  And not very popularly travelled.

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Today, we're continuing on the path of debunking the lies we internalized during the abusive situation.

I say "we" because, while the lies I internalized which have been holding me back from full recovery are specific to not only my situation but to this one particular situation (note that I had two back to back workplace bullying situations and the lies were quite different in both), each one of us has our own version of the lies we internalized in our own personal and unique situation.

We are alike in that we're on the same journey towards recovery from a horrific situation in our workplaces.  Yet, we are also different in that our injuries, our lies are unique to us.  Specific to our own situation, strengths, weaknesses and personality.

So today I present to you, my loyal reader, the beginning of my journey debunking the lie key I internalized in my own situation:  perceptions and assumptions.

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Lat week, I reposted a post about an experience hubby and I had shared at Myrtle Beach in 2013 called Togetherness.  Today, I will revisited the same place, the same timeframe, even the same experience - from a totally different perspective.  That of debunking the lie.  The lie regarding perceptions and assumptions.

My journey toward confronting head on that lie began, whether by intent or coincidence I cannot remember, in January 2013.

I had swallowed that lie hook, line and sinker.  So much so that whenever I said something that was not a hard fact and could not be verified by hard evidence, I would always add the codicil but that's just my perception and assumption.  Meaning it had no value.  Devaluing myself, my thought processes, my cognitive skills, etc.

My dear hubby who has been my longest and most loyal support would say something about my perceptions and assumptions being amazing.  However, I could neither believe nor internalize that at the time.

Hubby loves to watch an earth cam of Myrtle Beach.  Before we left, he showed it to one of our daughters who was going to house and cat sit for us.  She remarked that it would be fun if we could find it and then call her from that location and watch us talking to her.

Me, I was sceptical.  But out of that simple statement, the great "Myrtle Beach Earth Cam search" was begun.  We spent our week at North Myrtle Beach searching for this earth cam - which proved to be very elusive - at first - for us indeed.

First of all, we had a misperception.  We thought it was in North Myrtle Beach which is where we were.  Why?  Because at one point there had been a web cam at one of the resorts in North Myrtle Beach and we had even located it once.  For another, the earth cam page had originally been (mis)labelled as North Myrtle Each - for whatever reason.

So, we ended up looking for this elusive earth cam in the wrong area.  Approximately 20 miles north of where it actually was.

Needless to say, we didn't find the earth cam - at least not in the original part of the search, but we did find areas of North Myrtle Beach - and environs - which we had no idea existed.

Like these and dunes at the very, very end of North Myrtle Beach.

A fishing pier - which, of course, we'd never seen before.  I had the opportunity to take lots of pictures of this area which in and of itself was a piece of recovery for me.

Note:  most of these pictures reflect late afternoon sunlight as my energy was so low that I had to rest most of the day in order to go out for even an hour or so late in the afternoon.

I'm not sure what this is called whether it's a creek or part of the intercoastal waterway - which we hadn't known before existed either.

It began in that rugged beach area I've just shown in pictures.  Again something I would never had seen or experience had it not been for our search in the wrong area for this earth cam.

The vista at this far end of the beach at North Myrtle Beach totally fascinated me reminding me in some ways of South Padre Island in Texas:  the dunes, the wildness, the isolation.

We also found an area of North Myrtle Beach where homes are built with their own boat docks to cruise the intercoastal waterway.

We found the intercoastal waterway which we had never even heard of before.

We found a boardwalk over a salt marsh.

A salt marsh

Incredible photo opportunities.

a red-capped woodpecker

even a flying blue heron

All of this because we were searching in the wrong place.

But, alack and alas, no earth cam - because we were searching in the wrong place.

I began to give up on the idea of finding this earth cam.  I was having so much fun starting to experience and enjoy life on the search.  The search itself turned out to be more fun than actually finding the objective.

I had gained so much positive that finding it would only add the whipped cream and cherry topping on the sundae of our experience.

I learned later, much later, that perceptions are based on the information that we have available at the time.  My perceptions of where to look for the earth cam were based totally on its having been originally labelled as North Myrtle Beach and our experience of finding the resort-based cam years earlier.  Was there anything wrong with my perceptions and assumptions?  Not really.  They were simply based on the information I had at hand at that particular time.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.

Tomorrow, we continue the experience.

See you then.