Boundaries and A Bill of Rights
Boundaries and Relationships by Charles L. Whitfield, M.D., scared me. It’s not an imposing book (there are only about 250 pages); there are no freaky graphics, and the writing style is rather straightforward. I’ve owned a copy or two since February,…
Worth the Work
This morning, I wrote in my journal about how I still get surprised when I cross a new threshold of healing: There’s been so much already—I’m not done yet!?!?! But it’s true, and I imagine that it will long be…
Feeling the Emotions
At least part of each of my days now includes reading old blog posts that I used to spend at least part of each day writing. So many words. So many ideas that belonged to others and that I thought…
Get Behind Me
Once again (twice? thrice? who knows?), I have come across the statement, “Get behind me, Satan.” It was there the night before last when I opened the pages of a notebook. “Get behind me, Satan”: those are the words Jesus…
What Is Shame Good For?
If you want to break a pattern, respond differently. Such a simple statement. I would call it deceptively simple, and by that I mean more easily said than done. In fact, I would contend that, although responding differently is essential,…
The Importance of Being Heard and Acknowledged
Yesterday I shared a few paragraphs from Alice Miller’s The Body Never Lies. Today you get different writers, but the focus is the same: the conflict between the unconscious mind and the conscious mind that threatens to break us. In What My…
Free Yourself
Early in life, we build cages to protect ourselves. From the inside they look the way Wonder Woman’s jet does from the outside: invisible. Sometimes other people see what we’ve built and furnished and comfortably live inside, but in order…
What State Do You Live In?
My writing used to be characterized by perfect first sentences. Dennis would marvel at the way I’d struggle until a deadline to write something, then, at the last minute, craft the perfect opening line and have all the other words…
Boxer Brains
The Art Therapy Way: A Self-Care Guide by Kendyl Arden is the latest in the string of books on trauma and healing that I’ve acquired. Filled with 50 art therapy exercises, the book begins with a great explanation of why…
Touching the Tangential
My husband is a good man with a great mind that he is constantly exercising. His daily workouts include writing, something each and every one of us should be doing. Did you know that writing things with a pen or…
Unacknowledged Does Not Equal Nonexistent
Our past is strewn with clues: some are as subtle as a phrase, habitually repeated without thought, while others are as obvious as a dead body. Which symbols, which images do we use over and over, perhaps without understanding why?…
Know Thyself
Thoughts of this languishing writing platform have been gnawing at me for weeks. I keep telling myself that I should post something new, but I always get stopped by those demons of doubt telling me I’m not good enough. That…
