Today’s inspiration comes from Bold Kevin at https://voicesofglass.wordpress.com/2015/01/24/my-worlds-beneath-the-covers/

His post on books was a delight to read this morning.  I struggled with reading but our school librarian introduced me to Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet, and other delightful stories.  My grandchildren are now old enough to enjoy these fun stories.  I am thankful I kept some of them.  I also collected many, many more books.  Books were the key that unlocked my mind.  Another book I read in my pre-teens was the New Testament.  Here I was introduced to a loving Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ that sure didn’t match the one described to me.  Here I found seeds of Hope that weren’t part of my childhood teachings.  My counselor used books to probe inside my mind.  I didn’t walk into counseling spewing about a rotten childhood.  When he asked, I had no memory at all.  He had me read a series of books and watched my reactions.  He started with Dave Pelzer’s book a Child Called ‘It’ and ended with Viktor Frankl Man’s Search for Meaning.  Each time I read a book he asked me about my reaction.  Each time I answered calmly, “What do you want me to learn from it?”  He assured me he was just watching my reaction, or in my case non-reaction.  Didn’t phase me to read the books.  I wasn’t horrified, upset, or even triggered.  I shrugged my shoulders with a nonchalant, “So bad things happen to kids.”  Fortunately, my counselor saw in my reaction the truth, I was so brutalized as a child that I didn’t understand that these books on extreme abuse were unusual.  Books were an extensive part of my healing process.  I learned from my mother that no problem exists that someone else had the same problem and wrote a book about it.  The Internet has expanded the wealth of information, fiction and non-fiction, truth and lies, negative and positive, brutal experiences and fluffy kitties vie for our attention.  The key is what we select.  I’ve listed several books that I read that were beneficial to me.

https://ptsd-acceptingcopingthriving.com/resources/books/

My to-be-read stack of books is growing.  However, sometimes I need a bread from the heavy stuff and enjoy something lighter like Facebook.  🙂

I am working on a list of helpful web pages.  I look for pages that encourage without sugar coating.  I also recognize that the Internet is fairly dynamic, here today and gone tomorrow.  Information age can cause brain overload.  Sometimes I just need time to be.