Recovery Gals Art Exchange - Winter Solstice 2017

Happy winter solstice! For this recovery gals art exchange our theme was healing. This was a perfect theme for me because I feel like I've been healing from a lot this year and of course recovery is a constant journey of healing. From trying painting and crafting during my previous art exchanges, I knew this time I wanted to write. Writing is like coming home for me. It makes me feel. It's therapeutic and fulfilling. And lately, I've been experimenting with writing poems. I think they're a great way to express deep feelings and work through trauma and other topics I might not otherwise be able to communicate in a blog post.

Plus my partner for this exchange, Jess, lives around the other side of the world in Australia, and sending her something through the mail might take awhile. She is early in her recovery and it made me think of writing a poem about our topic, healing.

When I started typing the words started flowing and I just illustrated what it feels like for me to be sober and on a constant journey of healing. I hope these words help Jess and anyone else out there who might be feeling this way. I have attached an audio clip of me reading the poem because I felt like it needed certain emphasis in certain areas of the verse. I feel like the end result was a powerful one. I hope you all enjoy it.

If you are interested in joining the Recovery Gals Art Exchange please send an email to kelly@sobersenorita.com with the subject "Joining Recovery Gals Art Exchange" and your email address associated with your Facebook account in the body of the email.

Happy Solstice! 

Am I Healing?

 

Healing is something sick people do.

Healing means there’s something wrong with you.

Healing means you lack.

Healing means you’re out of your head, or your mind, or your body.

 

How do I know if I’m healing?

Do the tears ever stop?

Do the negative thoughts ever leave?

Does the trauma become digestible, or will it always wake me up in the night?

 

Healing.

Why must we heal?

The truth is we’re all healing from something.

We experience trauma every single day.

Some of us more than others.

 

But we aren’t filling our wounds with drugs and alcohol anymore.

No, we’re no longer using poison as a coping mechanism.

We’re no longer tied down by the chains of addiction.

We are no longer stuck in the cage.

 

We’ve finally found our taste of freedom.

Oh yes - we’re healing.

We’re free.

Not from the pain, not from the dark days, not from the aching memories.

But we’re free, from the poison.

 

We’re free from the shackles.

We’re healing.

It’s not easy, but what other choice do we have?

 

Now that we know the light, there is no going back to the darkness.

Our emotions are raw.

This freedom is raw.

But we’re awake.

We’re alive.

We’re healing.

Below is a shareable graphic if you'd like to share this on social media.