Category Archives: Healing

The Day the Christmas Tree Fell Down

Posted on January 30, 2015 by jenny

In the week since that painful therapy session  I’ve been through a lot of ups and downs.  But one thing made me hopeful.  I talked to a friend about activities I needed to do with someone, and it’s like she didn’t … Continue reading →

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Returning Someone to Themselves

Posted on January 26, 2015 by jenny

I’m reading Tattoos on the Heart, subtitled The Power of Boundless Compassion.  The author, Father Greg Boyle, tells about his work with “homies” (kids from the gangs) in the worst section of L.A.  “Empowerment rests in returning folks to themselves, … Continue reading →

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Difficult and Painful

Posted on January 22, 2015 by jenny

Yesterday I had the most difficult and painful therapy session I’ve ever had.  I’m going to record it here in case it is helpful to someone else.  It’s likely to sound very strange to anyone who’s not had the experiences … Continue reading →

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Nancy Napier

Posted on January 17, 2015 by jenny

Nancy Napier’s book “Getting Through the Day; Strategies for Adults Hurt as Children” has been a really helpful resource for me.  At first it simply validated my despair and sense that there was no way out. For children who were … Continue reading →

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Despair

Posted on January 16, 2015 by jenny

I’ve been having a really bad time.  It started with “that twilight feeling,” the first experience of depression that I can remember.  I was 12 years old.  I was left alone at our summer house in Maine, with three younger … Continue reading →

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Rescue Dog

Posted on December 1, 2014 by jenny

I brought Damien home a week ago.  He mostly stays in his crate, but he does come out to eat, to drink, and to use his wee-wee pad.  (I’m very grateful that he always pees exactly in the middle.)  He’s … Continue reading →

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Writing the Real Story

Posted on October 18, 2014 by jenny

I’ve been rereading Writing for Your Life, and I wanted to find some things I had written, either inspired by the book or written in workshops with Deena.  I went looking for the material and have already posted some of … Continue reading →

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Muffy

Posted on October 15, 2014 by jenny

Muffy is a little stuffed dog I bought when missing Bella got to be too much for me.  He is a “transitional object,” like the “security blanket” a child uses when she is learning that she’s apart from her mother, an … Continue reading →

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The City That Ended Hunger

Posted on October 8, 2014 by jenny

From the “Daily Good:” “The City That Ended Hunger” by Frances Moore Lappé A quote: Behind this dramatic, life-saving change is what Adriana calls a “new social mentality”—the realization that “everyone in our city benefits if all of us have … Continue reading →

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Vocation

Posted on October 7, 2014 by jenny

I started reading Stephen Cope’s book “The Great Work of Your Life” which is about vocation.  I had only read a little way into it, when it became abundantly clear that my vocation is the work I am doing with … Continue reading →

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