Wind

I was walking late night, the breeze lifting my hair, lifting my hair from my forehead. I was walking late night, the breeze lifting a weight from my shoulders. A weight was carried for me. I was cared about by the wind, talking to me in the trees, the trees, tall black silhouettes, held air [...]

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2 poems

Post PTS Me Will the real me please stand up! No, not that hypervigilant rabbit. The real Wendy No, not that self-effacing nobody. The real Wendy Not the one who reaches out to others in learned helplessness. Where is Wendy free of trauma? Is there such a one? Can I ever truly know me, sans [...]

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To Form a Question

Sometimes, in order to ask a question one needs vocabulary–amygdala, neurobiology, the biochemistry of trauma–phrases that position tongue in mouth. Sometimes, exposure to an idea must be repeated before one can edge to the lip of the platform and sail off into the water below. Again and again, we step to the ledge, pause, wait, [...]

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After Meditation, My Body Speaks a Poem

Do not be afraid of me. I am your body, your smell. I soothe you. Come close, inhale, comfort yourself.   Do not be afraid. Not like your mother who would not bury her face in your baby belly, afraid you’d pop and go dead.   Let love press its face into your gut, your [...]

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Self-talk: Own It!

It is so important to monitor what we tell ourselves if we care about how we feel. At any point, we can change negative self-talk and bring happiness to our experience.  Here’s a recent example of this process in my own life, as I continue to heal from a head injury I sustained last spring, [...]

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Our “Fourth Quadrant”

Two weeks ago, I attended a storytelling workshop, Retracing Our Steps (But I forgot the bread crumbs), given by Dr. Hetty Rodenburg, a medical doctor from New Zealand. Her own personal story was one of the most moving and inspirational stories that she shared that day. Years ago, she had signed up for a workshop [...]

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A Poem to Uplift

LIFT UP YOUR BANNER    by John Fox ©1984 Such a banner is for the greatness of wildflowers kissing their way delicately through glaciers, for the beauty of the mountaintop from which your soul undoubtedly has gazed. The next step you take shall bring you home if you but release your cares and think instead that [...]

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How beautiful you are

How Beautiful You Are Do you love your soul? Have you talked to it lately? What does it say? Do you love your inner voice? How does it sound, and what feeling does it convey? Have you felt joy in re-union? Are you walking as one now? Are you an undivided self? Are you a [...]

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Steps to Take on the Path to Ease and Joy

How can survivors of infant surgery and/or invasive medical procedures performed without anesthesia begin to move away from a lifetime of re-enacting symptoms of trauma and move toward a lifetime of experiencing health, fulfillment, and joy?  How can we get our pain, anger, and confusion out so that we can feel peace, clarity, and compassion? [...]

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Castle Fear is Folding

Fear and anxiety have been constant companions in my life–symptoms of what Dr. Tinnin, in his blogpost about infant surgery without anesthesia, calls chronic post traumatic stress. Until recent year, my body was a source of shame and danger; my body was frozen. I am finally finding comfort and peace in my own skin. This [...]

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