There is a comfort in knowing that you don’t have to pretend anymore, that you are going to do everything within your power to heal.

Garrison Keillor read several of my poems on 'The Writer's Almanac' and I've heard from listeners nationally and internationally. That's one of the great gifts of email.

Allow yourself to release the emotions you have struggled all your life to contain.

So often survivors have had their experiences denied, trivialized, or distorted. Writing is an important avenue for healing because it gives you the opportunity to define your own reality. You can say: This did happen to me. It was that bad. It was the fault & responsibility of the adult. I was—and am—innocent.” The Courage to Heal by Ellen Bass & Laura Davis

Then you hold life like a face between your palms, a plain face, no charming smile, no violet eyes, and you say, yes, I will take you I will love you, again.

There is a comfort in knowing that you don’t have to pretend anymore, that you are going to do everything within your power to heal.

I live in Santa Cruz. I moved here in 1974 and couldn't leave.