adversity - finding i

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

The Odyssey “Home”

An inward path back from adversity… I have felt like Odysseus in Homer’s The Odyssey for the past six weeks or so, navigating a myriad of medical tests, anxiety, loss of sleep, physical depletion, setbacks, loss of way, and a whole bunch of hurry-up-and-wait. For Odysseus, during the sack of the city of Troy, the… Continue reading The Odyssey “Home”

Its Not About Me

Open-Hearted Awareness… My lost feet found their way inside the large heavy wooden doors. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, my hand intuitively reached for the small vessel hanging on the wall. Two fingers dipped themselves into the holy water; and, wet with moisture, I instinctively made the sign of the cross beginning at… Continue reading Its Not About Me