And of course, that news was on top of other news that was on top of other news and on and on. And I’m just talking about news about violence against women right there; my god, if we add all of the other news that is constantly hitting us, it’s no wonder we can even still breathe and move about some days.
But the rape academy news was what broke me. Last week, I could barely write even small posts, much less the longer writing I’ve been loving doing over at Substack.
After a bunch of conversations with smart and loving friends and a bunch more in my own head, I finally came to some conclusions about what was happening to me, the larger picture in terms of shared trauma, and a way out of freeze and into a more functional state.
My way out included a novel, which makes 100% sense when you know what a reader I was when I was younger and how much I hid away in books when things were scary and how much book after book saved me.
Books didn’t just give me a safe place but taught me that there were other ways of being and living in this world. They gave me a template that was worth surviving for.
And they are doing it again for me, at the age of 57.
Go here to read the piece shown in that photo. And hey! If you have a minute to spare, could you go to my page over there and maybe respond/react to some of those smaller bits of posts? I would be super grateful!