I AM…

I am the rainbow these days                                                                                                                   The color and beauty of my emotions vibrating                                                                                   They spill upwards for all are fading                                                                                             Flashbacks of feelings separate from the happenings                                                                         No more do the dragon monsters of then wrestle caged within me                                         They have been slayed                                                                                                                 Replacing the darkness with the brilliant light of present                                                                 I live in the light                                                                                                                                           Breathe its sharpness in to cut out the then                                                                                           I exist from inside out spewing forth life                                                                                             I’m among the living now                                                                                                                       No battle scars as they burst out of me                                                                                                   They do not matter for they are not who I am                                                                                       They are not my reflection                                                                                                                         No.                                                                                                                                                                 My me is a rainbow of truth now                                                                                                               My me is light and love and now                                          My me is gloriously free                                                         I am me                                                                                     I am alive                                                                                   I am color and light and love                                                                                              I am a rainbow flowing free                                                                                                                                                     

 

NEW YEARS EVE ALONE

 

 

2016 found us last evening.

I spent mine home, alone.

Away from partying and celebrating, no other person around.

No televised broadcasts of dropping this or that, no cheering or reveling.

I quietly saw it pass and loved doing so.

Reveled in the contentment I experienced in being by meself.

This is a bit of a miracle for me, a sure sign of healing.

Holidays always are a challenge, in one form or another. Some to be triggers to abuse gone by or remind me of how alone I was. Oft I would find jealousy knocking much as Scrooge did watching Tiny Tim’s family through the window.

New Years Eve saw me not even giving this a thought beyond to be thankful to my Lord that He has healed me so much that it is natural to live in thankfulness, to see the beauty of what is now as it literally obliverates then from my heart.

I enjoyed a quiet night home, doing things i find relaxing and bringing in the New Year just the right way for me.

New Years Eve alone, a precious, cherished memory.

 

New Years Eve alone, that I experience contentment with self, celebrate the joy of life in Christ and come to understand that I do belong, I am loved and I am someone too.

Happy New Years to me and to all of you.    

 

A ME DAY

TODAY WAS A ME DAY

ONE THAT WAS ABOUT ME

FULL OF RESTING

LAZINESS

AND RELAXING

QUIET TIME WITH ABBA

PEACEFUL COLORING

THOUGHTFUL PUZZLE MAKING

NAP TIME

SNUGGLE WARM IN BED KIND

EATING WHEN HUNGRY

STOPPING WHEN FULL

TALKING WITH FRIENDS

WATCHING POINTLESS TV

DOING WHAT I WANTED

NOT DOING WHAT I DIDN’T

I THINK I CHILLED OUT

EMOTIONS WERE OK

MEMORIES SMILING KIND

LIGHTS ON

NO DARKNESS

A LIFE AS LIFE IS DAY

GOOD

NEEDED

HAD

A ME DAY

FOR ME

REIMAGINE YOU AS YOU!

I don’t often reshare, but this has so much truth that I am. Praying it blesses you as much as it did me.

Reimagine You as YOU!

To be subjected to sexual trauma and abuse distorts how you think about yourself. If you had these experiences when you were growing up, you came to conclusions about your value. If a predator or a passive bystander didn’t value you, your boundaries, or your humanity, it’s pretty easy for you to believe that you have no value or personal rights. If you had these experiences after you became an adult, where you once might have felt empowered and able to take care of yourself, you now know that you weren’t as strong or empowered as you needed to be.

These experiences shape – or re-shape – how we think about ourselves. We hear it from survivors all the time: “I feel as if part of me died.” The actions of predators and the inactions of passive bystanders twist in your mind and heart until you begin to see yourself as they saw you. You begin to value yourself as they valued you. Their warped disregard for you and your well-being often translates into a kind of personal derailment of the life you should have been able to live.

The tricky part of recovery is to be able to pull apart the tentacles of lies that have attached themselves to your soul. It is to untangle the deception and free yourself from its grip.

Think about how the actions of the predators and passive bystanders communicated their view of your worth. Now, ask yourself if you believe THEIR value system. If you can see it for what it is – that you have accepted THEIR twisted reality – then you can insist on redefining yourself in ways that are true to your value and personal rights.

Here’s a fact: they were wrong. Not only in what they did – their actions – but in how they devalued you. They were wrong. They were wrong, wrong, wrong! Got it?

So, take their definitions of you and dump them in the garbage where they belong. Take the time to think about yourself, untethered from their warped ideas. Reclaim you. Reimagine YOU, not as they saw you, but as you see – or want to see YOU.  And remember: “Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life”

(Golda Meir).

Written by Sallie Culbreth and Anne Quinn

©2015 Committed to Freedom / STAARR – Sexual Trauma and Abuse Recovery Resources

NAPPING MY HEART

i curl upon my bed, my me here

Feeling so much I never have before

I find that I feel safe lying down

Warm and secure beneath the covers

Not in a cowering or hiding way

as of old

beds are safe, I am finding

memories too

as I lie here

no more wrong wanting chasing me in my dreams

no more confusion within my heart

i am liking this new

loves unwrapping bit by bit

real love as love really is

fleeting touches that linger for days

butterfly kisses kind of ones

eyes full of seeing

me

smiles that curve more than the mouth

reaching my heart

I lie here

sleeping not

body resting, yes

within so alive

cascading truth washing over me again and again unto again

doors are open waiting for me

lights left on

inside is belonging, warmth and love

i am kept out in the open

free to come and go

playing allowed

sharing encouraged

truth what matters

heard and seen

found

all of this passes through me

again and again

my form learning from it

to rest

finding what truth is

even for me

my heart           

long last

at rest

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

Childhood Sexual Abuse
Have you ever really stopped, when hearing that someone is a survivor of this, to consider what it means for them?
Of course, the word sex, impacts you immediately with horror.
As it should.Rape on any level, is horrible, make no mistake, no matter the gender or the age.
Imagine if this is all you knew, from birth, from your Father…
While neglect and hate came from your Mother?
How would this impact one?
What I would like you to consider is this, that you can pray for these survivors as truly needed…
Here is what God is showing me are the emotional scars I am left to carry from this, for my childhood was such.

The child is left with only this…                                       

Love is sex, for sex is the only love I have known
Thus sex must be love too.

Touching has no boundaries
You have no rights.

Everything that happens to others is your fault,
Since you started it all by being born.

You wanted it to happen

No one cares since you are no one

Your sole purpose is to serve others wants

And on and on the list of twisted perspective you are fed goes, the pattern to continue, often, into adulthood. Why wouldn’t it? It is all the child understands.

I mean, think about it.

As a child…

Attention = sex
Being heard = sex
Being seen = sex
Touched? Sex

You get the picture? Sense the turmoil? Feel the frustration, the confusion, the utter lostness to understanding right from wrong? How twisted I was, how lost my heart.

How cruelest of cruel is childhood sexual abuse.

How betrayed I was of my parents.

All of this to be what my marriage was based upon, with my husband not showing me different.

How blind I was.

How Great is our God, that I am no more.

Being awakened to all the truth of what I endured, was horrible, hard, and overwhelming on so many levels

I have had to share things I don’t want to know or acknowledge let alone tell

There is no holding back the tide once the dam is broken

Only in facing the truth of what was can the truth of what is replace it

Truth is that I am loved, outside of sex
My Lord heard me even then, outside of sex
He saw me and wept for me, sees me now, outside of sex
Sits with me in my Spirit, communes with me, touching my heart, outside of sex.

Sex isn’t the sin I thought it was
It is a gift
One that was used against me
That doesn’t make the gift wrong
It was given wrong

Someday, perhaps, God will give me the experiencing of this gift right,
In marriage, a true one, built on giving, not taking
Or, perhaps, He won’t.

Thing is, He already is, in a sense
He has given me such a depth of His love and presence that it is enough no matter the future.

He is my Father, my Soul Mate, the Lover of my Soul.

Everything I need He supplies, I find no greater joy then in giving Him my all.

The past is done, the new begun.

The surviving done

That the thriving begun.

I AM BLESSED

I am weighted down

full of the abuse gone by,

the memories invade me

a stream of visits,

a turnstile of arriving,

never-ceasing

past remembering of that

which sank me lower to lower                            

my bed to carry my frame…

imprinted upon it.

for I was no form

rather a mold.

shaped to serve their sinful choices.

there was no me there,

only survival

I was strong for I had to be to survive…

I was indifferent in an attempt to convince myself that it didn’t matter.

I was anger and sorrow intertwined,

filled up of others sin

that I…

boiled over…

with wrath at the injustice.

I screamed out, in all the wrong ways.

for I was not heard, not seen, a no one to them.

an object to be forced down,

every part of me ground up.

I hated their faces full of leering and wanting and taking always

I went to my can…

with joy.

telling myself that if I curl up tight,

I can make-believe I am be within a womb

I can pretend tomorrow will be new’

that I am in the womb and will be reborn.

but, it never worked

I was still trash to her,                             

and his toy.

each day a horror I lived

so I became anger at night

indifference by day

i survived, I did

but now I am weighted with the memories

seeing me,

seeing them.

they are like lead drowning me in my slumber,

crashing into my dreams…

waking me.

that I must pull myself from this lostness…

this fog…

find me.

then I can be full of truth instead.

I resist the urge to go to where peace is,

to curl up outside, safe…

to be waken in love and gentleness,

to be found this time,

wanted and soothed.

I am going now, instead, to sit and be in Heaven awhile

Momma Mary is smiling at me,

she knows and is whispering, “Come.”

she will wrap herself around my nakedness

Abba will stand guard.

I can go home now…

to them

home.

it feels as somewhere I have never been,

that now I am.

and oh, how, precious beyond precious, it is.

UNLIKE ANY OTHER

Today was today, so different from any other day i have ever lived

A day that started out right and went wrong, as I found disappointment. Oh, how I found it, or rather it found me. Swallowed me whole is what it did. I felt crumbled inside, like my heart was bleeding out. I couldn’t stop the tears, I tried, oh, how I tried.

I don’t think I have ever allowed myself to truly feel this emotion before. I have spent most of my life disappointed, without even really knowing it.

When I called a friend and shared what happened, with my anger bubbling to the surface, my frustration with the persons I felt caused this let down, she said, “So, the issue is really that you are feeling disappointed.” I argued, “No, I am upset with so and so.”

How wrong I was. Past me wrong. I didn’t see this right away, but as more of my day brought me into this emotion more, I came to realize that she was right.

Disappointment.

So  much of my life has been lived directed by this,

Disappointed as a child that Momma love wasn’t mine

Disappointed that my Daddy didn’t keep me safe, brought me harm

Let down by those that knew and did nothing

I married for all the wrong reasons, which only added to my weight, of this load

Disappointed to not be wanted, seen and claimed.

Do you see what is happening?

My being disappointed led me to accept all as just how it was and to eventually become a burden, one I placed on God

I to be disappointed that He didn’t give me what I wanted-needed and deserved, I was sure.

I begged for all I missed out on, to be mine, now

It didn’t work that way, wouldn’t have been good for me if it had, not the part of me that matters

My soul.

NO, I really have no reason to be disappointed.

As a child, it was ok, as I was being robbed of what a child is to be provided with

But I am not a child anymore. I am growing so much in my Lord, I am more than circumstances and others choices.My days are directed of God, He is in control, thus my disappointments can be used of Him, to His glory, if I open myself to Him.

My friend helped me to see this too, challenging me to give the day to the Lord and thank Him for how it went. I didn’t like that but I found that I couldn’t stop my mind from going over all my past pains so I started reciting the Our Father, and soon I  could move on. I asked the Lord to show me what He would have of me, He told me to walk away. To value myself and forgive.

So, I did.

I took time for me. I asked Him to guide me and open my eyes, soften my heart towards myself and realize that people are people and it wasn’t the end of the world it felt like.

Then, I had a day, unlike any other

I was in the city, Baltimore, and I simply started exploring. Walking the piers and seeing, for the first time ever with eyes that were open to what I would enjoy, to spending time on me, to simply relaxing and taking life in.

Oh, the sights, the wonders I discovered!

I sat eating an ice cream cone as live music was performed, watching an older couple dance together with the slow rthym of knowing each other to a depth that moved me.

I saw people being people, not fearful of what others thought, but being themselves. Feeling free and expressing who they were in their dress and style.

I watched singles sure of being alone, couples linked  and families bonding. I saw so much with my eyes that my heart had missed all these years.

I felt with my body too, the wind as it swirled around me, the scent of the harbor, all the heartbeat of creation

I saw that life is out there, for me too. It may or may not be the life I envision, but life it is.

Waiting for me.

Gifted to me

Mine for the claiming

So, no more wallowing in what isn’t that I wish was

No more trying to lay plans for how I feel my life should go

No

Instead I shall rise each day and wait upon the Lord.

Praise Him  for A day like no other

In the Sun

Through the rain

Amidst storms

And even in disappointment

In the end, all I need, I have

That being, my Jesus ❤

KEEPED

I have a phrase stuck in my heart these days, people keeper. I don’t even really know what it means to me, except it makes me sad in a, “I am not one kind.”

People keep people in lots of ways, I am noticing.

Family, friends, hi and by kind of seeing. Some long lasting, others blowing by like the wind.

I think I am seeing my people around me in a better way when I think people keeper. Am I a keeper for them or should I be less bothersome, ask less and do more my self because i am not theirs to keep me.

Then I feel confused because I know I am someone to them but I don’t know how to balance that someone or something i is.

Feelings are confusing, this i do know. i am so lost in them of late. different kind of lost then i have ever felt before. i wish someone could help me understand.

i have to trust momma mary and Abba to do that. 

What confuses me most is this, i am so full of feeling, it is in me, under the skin there kind of in, but i am not sad or anything like that yet i still wish i could sit with someone. Spend the day sharing space and being able to talk about this.

i have always needed hugs in a craving way but this is different, i don’t want one to feel better or to get attention, like i have often, no i want one to relieve the pressure. When i get one it feels like there is release, but i have to pull back right when it starts or i know i will want to hold to long.

These are lots of feeling and not to be gone in a minute

so, i am confused.

i am 51 in numbers, 100 in feelings never freed and only 12 today in understanding.

yes, i know what that photo up top means, all to well

me.

I am lost in the vastness of me

Having traversed all there is

was

Teetering on the edge

of what

I do not know

for sure

I simply feel

…

This so new to me

I wish to know

How do I circumvent this abyss?

Do I fall over the edge

as I did yesterday?

Is that ok?

To be lost to the point of self

Gibberish the only language found

To flow so easily

To feel right

Even as one doesn’t know what one is saying

…

I fell into this abyss

I stand at its depths looking up

A swirling sea around me

Confusion

Words lost

For letters surround me

Floating

Sinking

Drifting away

…

I struggle to not embrace this end

for that is what it feels like

…

I found my form the other day

Felt the contours of shape

The freedom of thought to give movement

I wondered as a babe must

In the finding of toes

The flutter of eye lashes

Delicately felt upon my palm

I found my creation

…

Now I needs must turn to my Creator

In this my endness

Physical form spent

Emotions lost

Eyes to tear

no matter if I wish otherwise

An undone done

…

So I shall float within this ocean

Resting on my life ring

God

To weary to cling

To spent to move

To done to care

…

I leave the caring to Him

…

I leave the supporting to Him

…

The holding

…

or not

…

for perhaps it is in the sinking that healing will come

…

for these waters are His

…

perhaps there is strength to swim

…

 

in Him