coping
Life presents variables; learning how to cope in order to master, minimize, or tolerate what has come to pass.
Do I Blame Myself?. Content Warning.
Do I blame myself? Yes and no. I went with this guy fishing one day. He asked me, and I said yes—believing that my tomboyish style made me just one of the guys. I didn’t think much of it. He was my father’s friend. Not one of the older ones, but still someone I thought I could trust. I didn’t expect him to be so determined—or that he would have everything planned.
By Jessica Higginbotham11 months ago in Psyche
When Silence Becomes Sin: A Prophetic Word for Survivors
These are the verses so often used to shame survivors into silence — as if naming abuse were a greater sin than committing it. But Scripture’s intent is the opposite. It warns against those who twist truth for gain, not those who speak it for healing.
By THE HONED CRONE11 months ago in Psyche
Discovering Radical Self-Acceptance with Somatic Tracking
I lay awake as the minutes changed to hours and the hours moved up the number scale—11, 12, 1, now I'm at 4 (wow!) 5… Something was different. I wasn't struggling with my insomnia. Instead, I noticed myself looking at the time and then going back to whatever I was doing, as if the numbers were just a mundane shade of beige on the wall—something that was always there and would always be there, but not a significant factor in my actions.
By Aekta Bandodker11 months ago in Psyche
God, the Narcissist, and the Shadow That Saves
This is not a story about good versus evil. It is not light against dark, or God against the Devil. It is the myth of oneness: how God uses shadow to teach, how the predator becomes the teacher, how the abyss itself can become the threshold to your rising, your refinement, your rebirth.
By THE HONED CRONE11 months ago in Psyche
Am I a Narcissist?
In the age of pop psychology and armchair diagnosis, “narcissist” has become one of the most weaponized words in the human vocabulary. It’s used to silence, to shame, and to project. But what happens when a deeply self-aware person—especially a trauma survivor—starts to wonder if they are the problem?
By THE HONED CRONE11 months ago in Psyche
The Light That Knows Its Way Home
I met Dr. Joseph Murphy one night between sleep and sunrise, in that trembling space where dream and eternity hold hands. The air was thick with moonlight, and the silence seemed to hum with the pulse of unseen wings. He stood before me, calm and luminous, his eyes shimmering like twin seas of remembrance. “Tony,” he said, his voice carrying both warmth and authority, “the Divine healing does not live outside of you, waiting to be found. It breathes within you, patient and eternal. You awaken it not by pleading, but by speaking to it as you would a beloved—gently, confidently, with the knowledge that it already hears you.” His words sank into me like warm oil into cold skin, seeping into the places I hadn’t realized were starved for light. When I woke, the room was awash in the blue-gray light of dawn, and his message echoed in my heart like a low bell: Talk to the Divine within you—it is listening.
By Tony Martello11 months ago in Psyche
Hammond House
I didn't expect to inherit anything, least of all this. The lawyer's letter said "Hammond House" which felt like a contradiction until I stood before it. Five bedrooms, three and a half baths, more house than I'd ever lived in, wrapped in gingerbread trim and painted ladies' colors that had faded to ghosts of themselves. The front yard sprawls wider than it should, dominated by an old tree whose bristles—I can't call them branches, they're too wild, too reaching—scrape and tap against one of the upstairs bedroom windows like they're asking to be let in.
By Parsley Rose 12 months ago in Psyche
