Here’s me, doing my bit to participate weekly in Kelly’s Seven Quick Takes over at This Ain’t the Lyceum.

So here’s…

This Week’s Resources for Catholic Trauma Survivors

Takes. Best described as quick. Seven of them.

1. I came across “Abuse or neglect in childhood is linked to fear of self-compassion in young adulthood, study finds,” and found it revealing. It points to a likely explanation as to why once someone tells you her trauma story, it’s usually just the first trauma story that person has to share. The less self-compassion we have, the less we are likely to keep ourselves safe? It rings true in this brain.
2. Topher Payne fixed Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree so that it’s The Tree Who Set Healthy Boundaries. I’ve always loved Giving Tree as both a simple acknowledgement of the pain that comes from having poor boundaries and as a cautionary tale. Payne’s version makes some pretty warm points.
3. Another story about people being compassionate and changing the lives of abuse survivors? Yes, please! “Nonprofit helps with healing by transforming rooms of child abuse victims.”
4. “Responding with Tenderness to a Violent World” has a message that family trauma didn’t grow up hearing, but it’s a message we now can choose to seek out and adopt into our own recovery.
5. “Reflecting on ‘Thy Will Be Done’ in Recovery” over at Catholic in Recovery doesn’t just speak to the soul recovering from substance abuse but also to anyone recovering from trauma.
6. 5 Critical Things to Know About Family Scapegoating Abuse is an introduction to a topic being looked at critically by Rebecca Mandeville.
7. This Sunday’s gospel journaling page for trauma survivors will come out in a few hours, so please sign up here to get yours free through the end of November, 20202. I also invite you to join in some discussion over on my Broken Grown-up Nation Facebook page.

I kinda want to ask about tenderness here. I have to admit, that’s a word that makes me recoil, though I can’t quite put my finger on why. Is it because I’ve more often used the adjective “tender” to describe steak? Is it because I’ve experienced — and offered others — so little of it thus far in life? Anybody reading have some light to shed on the concept of “tenderness”?

Also, let me know how I may pray for you? Meanwhile, make sure you give Kelly & the SQT crew a look see.