Your roots teach us The meaning and stability of secure attachment That through grounding We too can grow Your leaves invite us To trust the cyclical nature of life That surrender is not goodbye But rather a requirement for evolution Your buds, blossoms and seeds Remind us to feed ourself And thank, not only the…Read more Shinrin-Yoku
CPTSD
Safe
Home Plate, Photo Credit: Nathan Vines It’s taken half a lifetime to afford the stability that allowed me to tackle the hardest parts of my healing. Things are relatively more peaceful but the blooming onion of life has a hell of a lot of layers. Pass the fancy sauce. There’s a reason we find ourselves…Read more Safe
Golden
Miracles surface when we keep going and humbly surrender to this bizarre experience called life. Less becomes plenty. Chaos transforms into peace. Unfathomable pain is cured. Questions answer themselves and one day there’s nothing left to do but look into the light and whisper ‘I wonder what will happen next.’ I wish it hadn’t taken…Read more Golden
Fall
The moon rises In Pisces As retrograde Libra Attempts to leave her In pieces on the front porch Of confessions through a screened door Forgive me mother, father, brother, sister For I have sinned against Harvested orgasms Organs Silently screaming At the incisions Of hot and cold karmic seasons Where gaslit fires blaze With misguided…Read more Fall
Believe
Photo credit: Nathan Vines Once upon a time, I tried explaining my ‘container belief’ theory to my therapist. For whatever reason, when I’m the client, I lose all capacity to make rational sense and instead ramble on in half-baked metaphors loosely beaten with full blown emotion. She’s somehow always understood me and for that I’ll…Read more Believe
Holes
Photo credit: Nathan Vines The ones you made in the wall Where we compressed unanswered questions Between skin and printed memories Incomplete stories Haunt the space that embraces What’s left Inside the holes made In your body A bloody cave Seeps into the empty tomb Feeling up Necrotic wombs Breeding generations of unhealed wounds Where…Read more Holes
Contortionist
noun: contortionist; plural noun: contortionists an entertainer who twists and bends their body into strange and unnatural positions. Contortion is a performance art in which performers called contortionists showcase their skills of extreme physical flexibility. Contortion acts often accompany acrobatics, circus acts, street performers and other live performing arts. Contortion acts are typically performed in…Read more Contortionist
Hand Me Down
The truth is, it didn’t start with any of us. We were created as catalysts. A disastrous miracle in a mastermind’s head, bashing ourselves against each other’s shadow and light, from one generation to the next since the very beginning of time, until one day we finally implode back to nothingness. It’s all so foolishly…Read more Hand Me Down
Shavasana
For several years I was a mental health consultant and assessor on a multidisciplinary team addressing school and community threats made by kids; all of whom, we discovered, as absolutely no surprise to me, were suffering from untreated trauma. Trauma, as I define it, is anything that separates us from love. I will shout love…Read more Shavasana
H.A.L.T
According to folks in recovery, if we’re about to run straight into the arms of our next fix we should H.A.L.T.; as in stop and think about it for a second. Common sense, right? Instead of drinking, snorting, cutting, starving, shopping, smoking, sexting, eating, beating or getting into yet another disastrous relationship, we should ask…Read more H.A.L.T