Category: writing
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The holidays are sometimes a difficult time for me. That’s not a complaint, just a fact. This year feels different though, more exposed. It’s the first holiday season in decades that I’m doing without alcohol or benzodiazepines. No numbing. No softening the edges. Just me, just as I am. I don’t regret that. In a…
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I want to begin by saying something clearly and respectfully… one doesn’t have to be Christian to enjoy Christmas. I realize that may already be obvious to many people, but I’ve had thoughtful questions from Christian friends about what Christmas means to me personally, as a Buddhist who also sees the world through an animist…
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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how sound has helped me heal. At almost a year off benzos now, my nervous system is still relearning how to be at peace. And what surprises me, maybe more than anything else, is that one of the most powerful tools I’ve found for recovery isn’t modern or…
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It’s far too easy to become distracted by everything that’s wrong in the world. So easy, in fact, that it can blot out everything that’s still good. With so many news companies competing for our attention, we’re inundated with headlines from the moment we wake up, unless we take steps to protect ourselves. For me,…
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My grandmother had little in the way of formal education by today’s standards. She didn’t get a 4-year college degree. She never owned a car. My grandparents had an outhouse until my father and his brothers finally built them an indoor bathroom. She didn’t get a telephone until I was already a teenager. And yet…
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The storm rolls in, dark, knocking me back again. Wind thrashes at my defenses, testing every fragile fortress. Still, I feel hope, as long as she is with me. ~Buck
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I am surrounded by beauty, mountains, forests, rivers, and streams. For so long I was unable to see the beauty all around me. Blinded by despair and subdued by chemicals. But now clearheaded, I realize there is no time to waste mourning time lost. Now is a time for living, basking in this newfound clarity.…
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I woke today after nightmares once more haunted me. I was relieved to see the light of day, to wash away the horrors I did see. It was just another dream, no matter how painfully real it seemed. I am safe here in this sacred place, despite the shadows that I used to face. I placed my palms together and whispered a…
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I absolutely trust mine. They’ve saved my life more than once. There have been times when I had no logical reason to feel the way I did, yet something in me knew. One of the earliest and clearest examples was when I suspected I had diabetes. I wasn’t overweight. I had no family history. None…
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Here in the mountains of northern New Mexico, October feels like the world exhales after the long heat of summer. The air shifts. The light changes. The mountains take on that deep, quiet glow as the days grow shorter, and the sun hangs lower and weaker in the sky. But the real magic, for me,…
Whispering Wyrd 