Even though I might get angry emails, I have a confession to make – I’ve never read a Harry Potter book.  I’m sure they are great, but my stack of “books to read”  is high enough without adding the thick tomes of Harry’s adventures.  That being said, I have seen most of the movies (don’t worry, I’m sure the books are much better).

I was recently watching the movie version of The Order of the Phoenix.  What stood out to me was that the characters kept calling Voldemort (the bad guy) variations of “he who can’t be named” or “he whose name you aren’t supposed to say”.  Harry’s travails are exacerbated because he struggles to find anyone who will believe that Voldemort is back, much less help him deal with the problem. They are all too busy hushing him from even saying Voldemort’s name!

So here’s my question.  How often do we have troubles and situations that “can’t be named” or “whose name shouldn’t be mentioned”?  Whether it’s a societal issue, a family problem, or tension between two people, if you don’t even want to name it, the chances of resolving it are pretty low.  We feel that even mentioning a problem gives it power and so it sticks around because if you don’t know what the problem is, you can’t take steps to solve it.

Where in your life are you avoiding an issue?  What don’t you want to even mention, much less examine?  The first step I’ve found to moving past an obstacle, is to “call a spade a spade”; because when you do that, you give yourself the power and the freedom and the space to relate to issue from a place of confidence instead of fear.