A New Town and A New Calling

As you know, on December 28th I relocated from Portland, Oregon--a major U.S. city--to Chehalis, Washington, a very minor U.S. city.  By that, I mean I'm now living in rural America, where the sign on the nearby Laundromat says, "No horse blankets, please."  If I had not lived in this area previously, I might experience culture shock, but since I lived here in the 1970s and 1980s, I can remember the experience, and the memories cushion the shock. 

For the most part, I love being here.  I've led too sedentary a life for the past six or seven years, but that's mostly because I could not walk to the places where I needed to go and took public transportation, instead.  However, the fact that I've been recently diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes adds to my sense of having come to the right place to live.  I've been walking a mile a day--when it's not raining too hard.  I'm hoping to reduce my A1C score and avoid taking medication, but I'll see .  .  . 

So what does all this have to do with the purpose for my blog, to spread the word that people can heal their C-PTSD and PTSD and to give people hope for a life without the symptoms of PTSD?  As I'm discovering, this relocation is opening up a whole new part of my healing and is leading me into new experiences connected with the mission of my blog.  Thus, in the near future I will have more to write about and more posts to publish on my blog!  And that means that maybe you, my readers, will find more useful information and inspiration for healing.  This is what I hope will happen.  You will judge for yourselves, of course.

To begin this new part of my life, I spoke recently to the women in a domestic violence support group, telling my story.  Since much of the spousal abuse I endured and the sexual abuse of my daughter took place in this local area, my audience was immediately interested in what I had to say.  I, in turn, was interested in the changes within the local legal system regarding the crime for which I reported my husband in 1981.  I learned, for instance, that had I reported him for the same offence today, he would certainly have served time in prison.  In 1981, he got off with three years' probation and court costs of $60 for the damage he did to our daughter.  Now, that's quite a change!  During the past thirty years, there have been a few areas of progress here.  On the other hand, the services here for domestic violence victims and survivors are still woefully underfunded, and that's the area in which I hope to help bring about change.  I aim to do what I can here, anyway.

For starters, I have tentatively agreed to participate in the production of "The Vagina Monologues" in March, a fundraiser for the local domestic violence agency.  The first meeting regarding this production is at 2:00 P.M. today, in fact.  I am going to attend and make up my mind if this is something I can or want to do.  It's a tough call, for "The Vagina Monologues" is pretty intense stuff.  Some of it I can relate to, and some I cannot.  I'm not sure how I feel about being a part of it.  But I'm going to check it out and then make up my mind.  I certainly DO want to support the effort, but I'm just not sure I can do it this way.  More on this in my next post. 

Have you ever felt "called" to do a thing?  Well, I realized the other day that I felt called to come here and work at trying to bring about change in the way the system here deals with domestic violence and the victims of domestic violence.  When I left this area in about 1987 to go to graduate school, I thought I had left for good, never to look back.  But I know now that was a mere illusion.  I know now what I didn't know then, that I was supposed to return one day to try to make things better than they were when I left in 1987 and better than they are now.  Right now, the help for victims still has not evolved to the state where it needs to be in order to give victims the most chance to get their lives back and have hope for their futures.  I had that chance because I got out of here and searched for the help I needed and found it. 

My goal or calling is to play whatever part I can in making it possible for victims to have that chance and find the help right here in Chehalis, Washington.  More on this in future posts!