Poem - Not Quite a Blog..

Thanks for jumping right in.  I'll be sharing this with some clients.

Edith

What a lovely poem, Robin. Thanks for posting it!! Post more!!

Wow - your beautifully written poem speaks volumes, Robin - and touches home so deeply for me because of the generations of secrets in my family. Thank you for sharing.

Robin and Cissy, As I continue to educate myself around the language of ACES, your written pieces are a part of my process. Thank you for sharing from the depths of who you are. -Madeleine

Robin:

I read this over and over because it's SO packed and there are so many lines. You captured that floating, untethered, not grounded or insecure vulnerability. "twin planet" as a parent. WOW. And there are so many lines that stand utterly alone as well as all together.  

"you didn't tell me and I didn't tell you."

and

"Roots of a place weren't real
I grew up everywhere and nowhere
Still have that in me
not quite touching the earth."

"Easy talk was not ours
no girl talk - learned on my own
living in my head
not knowing my heart."

"Every straight line
became a question mark."

It made me teary-eyed to read this. Your AUTHENTIC voice is NEEDED. That voice, in all of us, is so important and it's often the one we hold back. That's why I LOVE expressive writing so much (and bonus that it helps ease traumatic stress symptoms). When Peter Elbow was teaching writing classes he used the free-writing style to warm up the class and found instead of a warm-up it was actually what created the best writing because it was not the writing of trying to impress, sound smart, be deep or light, but just someone's true and authentic voice without filters, judgements, censoring. So often, we don't get to hear that in our own selves or in others. And if we've had ACEs, that voice can be so distant because it wasn't mirrored/affirmed/nurtured or requested.

THANK YOU for this post, for the poem, but also for that meeting in December. I admire ALL of your work and leadership in the trauma-informed / ACEs movement.  Despite my passion and need for writing, I doubt and qualify my writing and voice as well. So to hear that when I don't do that actually matters and inspired you just makes me emotional in the best way. It's a gift. THANK YOU! WE need your voice, your experiences, your words, IN ALL FORMS. And if you are writing in the voice and tone most comfortable for you - YOU GIFT US AND REACH US. What I love here at ACEs Connection is we are an open platform and we share studies, essays, articles, ideas, insights, struggles and we do so in our own voices. EVERYONE is WELCOME to POST. 

Also, it's SO NECESSARY to this work we do. Because as a mom with ACEs, I can say that the all head and not knowing my heart and not being grounded, embodied and rooted, when I became a parent was BAM. That conflict IMMEDIATELy was like, "Uh oh... All I did and needed and used to survive, distance, numbing, compulsive busyness, checking out, drowning in cards or fill-in-the-blank was going to be of no use to attaching, attuning, attending, responding and I learning how to live with feet on the ground... STILL a challenge. So, I'm going to share this over at Parenting with ACEs too because it stirred the Parenting with ACEs part of me as well as the writer. And also in Practicing Resilience because THIS IS PRACTICAL RESILIENCE and self-care and healing and relationship-building

And also, I think writing from our deepest and most authentic voice also helps others who are doing this work who do not have shared experiences. Because what people think the issues or struggles or complexities are, often aren't what the actual issues, struggles and complexities are. And sometimes a poem can show that or drive it home when delivered with a study or research or sometimes it speaks entirely for itself and is so clear as this poem is. THANK YOU.

KEEP writing. Keep sharing. And share some images of your art work as well. It's all THE WORK and your unique voice is a beautiful blessing. THANK YOU for sharing YOUR most natural and authentic voice. Cis

Thank you, Robin and Cissy. 

We need to have the REALITY talk !  It is REAL!  Thank you for affirming!