Why ReStory?

I have officially moved from myincision.wordpress.com, where I’ve blogged for three years, to this new place, www.restoryyourlife.com/blog. I don’t feel entirely comfortable here yet, but I’m glad I’ve come. I have started a business, ReStory Your Life – Freedom After Trauma, and the new website and blog address reflect this move. Through speaking engagements, workshops, and classes, I want to help people acknowledge the role that trauma has played in shaping their lives, and rediscover and allow that precious essence, with which they were born, to come forward and establish itself more deeply.

I am still developing the website and soon will be finessing the categories on my blog, so stay tuned. In the meantime, I am posting to the blog weekly and publicizing the workshops I’m leading in the coming months under SPEAKING. Classes are on the horizon. Eventually, my two poetry chapbooks will be purchasable online.

As many of you know, I retired early from my community college teaching job in order to pursue this new direction. It’s scary sometimes because I don’t know exactly where I’m going, but it’s exciting, too; I’m scattering seeds and seeing what pops up from where they land. Reaching the broader community, and hence the larger world, is my goal.

National PTSD Awareness Day is coming up June 27^th, so I’m looking for places to deliver a talk about this topic. If you have any ideas, please let me know. Most people don’t really understand what PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is. Many know that combat veterans who have experienced trauma have the condition, but PTSD is more common than people think. In my talks, I will demystify what PTSD is, who has it, and why it is important to understand.

I have had this disorder since my surgery for pyloric stenosis at twenty-six days old. Trouble is, I didn’t know that I had it until I was in my mid-fifties. Had I known, my life would have gone a lot more smoothly and some of the dreams that I had for my life may have come to fruition. In any case, I would have understood myself more had I been aware.

I have healed a great deal over the years and would like a chance to share my knowledge and strategies with the wider community. If you have a specific organization in mind that I could contact, please let me know. Or if you have a more general idea, I am open to and welcome all suggestions. Post-traumatic stress awareness is key to healthy communities. Help me spread the word!  Thanks.