Daily Prompt: Fight or Flight Write about your strongest memory of heart-pounding, belly-twisting nervousness: what caused the adrenaline? Was it justified? How did you respond? ~*~ As someone who’s spent her life surviving the slings and arrows of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to the point of almost burning out my adrenal glands, I suppose I could … More Freeze and Thaw
~*~ Abandoned in the woods of my mind The music I used to make. The songs I used to sing. The choral symphonies and A cappella wonders that resonated So deeply at the time I could never Imagine my life without them. Then life happened. A new chapter unfolded. A change of direction. The … More Music Never Dies
This post is written in response to a challenge offered by Lana of Living with Post Concussion Syndrome. Please take a moment to visit her inspiring blog. The challenge: What Dreams Are Made Of … For this writing event, share a dream or two that’s had a great effect ~ even after waking. ~*~ I always pay attention to … More A Simple Message
At this middle-age stage of life I wonder: “Is there time left for me to see and be my truth?” Recently, at therapy, a discussion around anger. My anger suppressed and turned inward. Emotionally-abandoned as a child, my MO became to hold all my hurt and anger in so as not to create any more reasons for the adults in … More Giving Voice to Anger
A girl after my own heart! (This image is so full of meaning for me I hardly know where to begin.) ~*~ There are no coincidences. This is something in which I have firmly believed for some time. For good, or ill, life gives us what we need to learn and develop as spiritual beings … More #FWF: Spirit Bear
Traces of Them We are admonished by some that history belongs in the past. And perhaps it does. I’m here to offer, however, that we ignore history at our peril, especially as it pertains to our family. The people who preceded us were shaped by world events and their experiences. How they were shaped, shapes … More Traces of Them; Traces of Me
Free writing is a great exercise and a little more challenging when the memory is involved. As mentioned in my last Free Write Friday post on the Childhood Gift, my childhood is very much a blur. During last week’s free writing exercise I couldn’t think of anything to share besides the bear story. Which is fine … More #FWF Reprise: Childhood Gift … The Arab Tent by Henry Landseer
From: Dear Me: A Collection of Letters Addressed to Various Aspects of My Self … ©Dorothy Chiotti, Aimwell CreativeWorks 2013 ~*~ The third letter in a series addressed to my critical Self. The date is the actual date it was written as a free writing, and freeing, exercise. July 10, 2013 Dear Critical One ~ Perhaps you have noticed … More The Critical One: The Third Letter in a Series …
~*~ A free writing exercise inspired by a dream … Trust and the Broken Four-Year-Old The light had gone from her eyes by the time she was four. A vacuous wary stare filled the big, dark eyes with an expression of distrust. “I cannot trust you,” she seemed to say. Not a word was spoken … More Trust and the Broken Four-Year-Old
How often has your life with all its good intentions and dreams been hijacked by some aspect of your Self with whom you just haven’t been able to connect? Mine has. Many times. So many, in fact, that four years ago I finally enlisted the help of a good therapist to lead me to a … More Dear Me: A Collection of Letters Addressed to Various Aspects of My Self
Shedding Light on the Family Tree 