Adverse Childhood Experiences and the path towards healing. You are not alone.
I share my trials, my victories, and my stories with you in hopes that if any of you were ever touched by childhood abuse or neglect, as I was, you will see yourselves in my experiences and feel strengthened to voice what you had not been able to before. I hope we can learn together why we respond to life through a particular lens, and that there are ways to climb out of this prison of pain, silence, and shame.
My name is Bess Hilpert

 

 


ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES

Dancing With Fear

November 19, 2024
…and not letting it lead…

Welcome back, friends.

For those new to my blogs, I share stories from my life as seen through the lens of one who survived adversity as a young person and adult. I grew up in an environment ripe with physical violence, emotional neglect and abuse, sexual abuse, addiction, and caregivers with untreated mental health disorders. I share these stories to open wide the door of silence and shame; and, hopefully reach someone who needs to be seen, heard, and held. Is that you?

What is the lens that I see the world through; and how do I respond to events whether benign or challenging?

 

CONNECTION AND BELONGING

Grow the Good

November 8, 2024
Be the change that’s needed…

Welcome back, friends.

I am grateful for each one of you. I see you. I hear you. I am touched by your outpouring of love. You remind me that I am not alone in either my struggles or my joys. You live from your hearts and without judgement. Thank you for being here with me even when it is hard.

Yesterday was a tough one for me. I did not want to crawl out from under my pink weighted blanket leaving the security of its measurable weight.

 

HEALING

Calming the Storm

November 1, 2024
The row boat, the motor boat and the helicopter…

Hello friends!

I imagine many of you are, as I am, feeling an underlying sense of anxiousness as we count down the days towards our country’s unknown future. As a survivor of Adverse Childhood Experiences, this uncertainty triggers a deep sense of danger. A pervasive anxiety that is coloring my ability to find ease in the simple pleasures of life, let alone my grandchildren dressed in their lovingly handmade Halloween costumes giggling with delight at the anticipation of tonight’s festivities. Am I alone?

 

CONNECTION AND BELONGING

Would you like to dance?

October 25, 2024
Giving thanks for Dr. B…

Hello friends!

It is comforting to be in community with you as this past week I was quite grieved by the passing of Dr. Barbara A. Holmes, Core Faculty member of the Center for Action and Contemplation, President Emeritus of the United Theological Seminary, spiritual thought leader, activist, lawyer, writer, podcaster, and scholar. Her writing and teaching embodied a deep wisdom and grace that both challenged and grounded me.

 

CONNECTION AND BELONGING

Searching to Find Purpose

October 18, 2024
Soulfull Reconnections…

Hello friends!

It has certainly been a while since my last post. It doesn’t mean that I haven’t been thinking of writing, or even trying to multiple times, but, honestly, life got in the way, and I got out of the habit of sitting down to share whatever it was that moved me. So, I don’t know if this is the start of a new string of Finding I posts or not. But here goes…

One August morning, I sat as I always do, at the round glass kitchen table in the muted light deep in prayer. It was four in the morning. I like to believe that at this hour I am in unison with thousands of others around the world contemplating the mystery of our beings and the desire that love will prevail.

 

FORGIVENESS

Trust The River

June 12, 2024
Grace-fully Release Your Worst Stories…

Franciscan friar and founder of The Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque New Mexico Father Richard Rohr, encourages us all to “Trust the River.” In a recent Daily Meditation, he says the following:

“Grace and mercy teach us that we are all much larger than the good or bad stories we tell about ourselves or about one another. Please do not get caught in your small stories; they are usually less than half true, and therefore not really ‘true’ at all. They are usually based on hurts and unconscious agendas that allow us to see and judge things in a very selective way. They are not the whole You, not the Great You, not the Great River. Therefore, it is not where your big life can really happen. No wonder the Spirit is described as ‘flowing water’ and as ‘a spring inside you’ (John 4:10-14) or, at the end of the Bible, as a ‘river of life’ (Revelation 22:1-2). Strangely, your real life is not about ‘you.’ It is a part of a much larger stream called God.”


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