10 Comments

writing a poem and publishing your truth is the high road to me. As Emily Dickinson says, "Tell all the truth but tell it slant —"

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That ED line is a keeper❤️

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Right?? ❤️

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I looooove that ED line. Thanks for the reminder!

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Yep... the poets have our backs! It is where we go to say the unsayable.

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Absolutely!

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Oof. This poem was good.

When we first got out of the cult (masquerading as a church) we were in, I wouldn’t tell anyone what had happened because it was ingrained in me to “not gossip”. 🙄 Then someone told me something very wise: it’s my story. It happened to me, & I am free to tell it. It changed my whole perspective on it, & I’ve been able to be more open about it now. So I’ve (we’ve) got your back. If they didn’t want to be talked about, they shouldn’t have done shitty things to you. 🤷‍♀️

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Thank you, friend. It's wild how people can do shitty things no problem, but the person exposing the shitty things is the problem.

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I was recently at an event where my father was drunk and acting like a big old teenager while others were praying in earnest. I noticed no one said anything. Were they being polite? Sacred? Co-dependent? As a recovering co-dependent and a studier of Marshall Rosenberg's system of non-violent communication, I spoke up. And I got lambasted. But I did not betray myself and my need for integrity.

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I'm a recovering co-dependent too. For yeeeeears, I tried to smooth over every awful thing my (ex) husband did/said.

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