Learn to gather supplies One at a time Even if the art may never come Learn to make and follow Patterns in the muck Perhaps that’s art itself Learn to catch The joys as they dart past Though they will slip Too fast Between my fading fingers #poetry #ptsd #depression

so much sorrow grief weighing on the whole of me it shadows every joy and flicker of a hope I want to make a plan identify that which will help escape this darkness but see there the sun is shining and there’s beauty all around it’s not enough 1/2 #poetry #grief #ptsd

departed from her habits sorrow slowly floating away on summer's breeze as if her breath contained traces of sadness dispersed like dandelion seeds she swayed alongside weeping willows sheltered her voice barely a whisper fading at dusk #vss365 depart #poetry

Dreaming sadness Unfound friends A family where the loss is tended - Still she hopes the flowers bloom But children, they are left behind Perhaps that’s better Then alone I sit upon the cold and drifting Finding - But it is too late I am alone Among them all Still tending Tending sadness #poetry

I have found my way again Into the oaken grove The benches wet from watering I sit and soak up coolness As the Garden’s temperature Creeps into city’s summer swelter How I long to be like fern and aster Resting in the shade Of tall green guardians #poetry #photography #aster

I assaulted him? How is the drunk one with established boundaries of no intimacy after alcohol the one at fault? Trauma established, rules made sober. He was in power and didn’t stop it. When a later assault was named, he claimed himself victim. Never admitted fault either time of course. #ptsd

Depression, it devours me It marks me, makes me crawl I want to carve its pain into my arms To tear the hair out from my head To rip my clothes and paint my face To scream and weep beyond disgrace I want collapse, I want destruction All things falling beyond function 1/4 #poetry #ptsd #depression

Yesterday I told my workplace I won’t be returning mid-July at the end of my Safe Leave. My career, all the support and work I gave my community as a therapist, wrapping up. My healing journey uncertain. Any future career unknown. I have so much grief. #ptsd

Someone set a salve beside me For tending of these wounds Then walk away There’s too much grief for staying When your own life might hold joy But if you could Return from time to time And let me see the ways It weaves into the arches of your face That I might touch them And remember #poetry #ptsd

Grasses dancing lithe Coaxing stillness of caught breath Every caress yearns #faesense #titillatingtextures #poetry #haiku #micropoetry

Vibrant sunset Dancing wonder Sands swirl with ancestors and earth Settling in desert valley nooks Where deep waters Heal and feed us all #poetry #photography #naturephotography #dusk #nightsky

Starlight joins red sky Moon-smile’s wafting willow seeds Owl song weaves the dusk #poetry #haiku #micropoetry

Coyotes cackle joyously Beyond the cottonwoods Owl hoots to me And I sing back As something flies behind my head It may be hope Though cloaked in darkness So familiar #poetry

last twilight of spring the fox carries fire under its tongue #haiku

Grief & pain well up From now & other times I’m not okay The days still strung With undone tasks And plans unmade My breakthroughs Are like fighting my own screams To stay & hope for safety And to feel it all But these Don’t feel Like hope They hurt It’s just Another part of hell #poetry #ptsd

Your daily affirmation: I’m allowed to be happy. I’m allowed to float through town wrapped in ancient magic and cosmic madness.

You came when I had given up On real hope, anyway On anything as full as this You came when I had shrunken Barely kindling a flame For someone I did not think could exist And I was scared But felt it Knowing deep within that you were it #poetry #lovepoetry 1/3

Heart hurts Mind calls out A shrieking inner dialogue I can’t escape I want to run But stuck Too much to do And nothing ever good enough For wraiths that haunt The eras I cannot escape Automated masks arise To hide it all Until I’m unsure I even exist As anything That’s really me #poetry #ptsd

Children in the creek Making friends With ripple & silt Childhood & wind Two become four Fairy houses & bug hotels Childrens’ paws join dog’s Along the bank They ask before they take a leaf Of me, as who is meant to know And their own sense Of right & balance #poetry #photography #creek 1/2

Toad! I was so excited to see this Fowlers toad on my path at the #DenverBotanicGardens. So fun! #herps #toad #naturephotography #photography

I have been a love-starved, tragic woman— familiar with the weight of being difficult to love through all my hunger. I have been manic, possessed, and searching inside— the place in me no one dared to go. Visiting worlds within myself, unraveling— endlessly, like my dreams. #Poetry #SkyPoet

Don't forget to hydrate. Don't forget to rest. Don't forget to disappear into art & books. Don't forget to make a mess & cause a ruckus once in a while. Don't forget to wander in mysterious forests, for a day or a lifetime.

Thoughts of you soothe cells Touch relieving years of lack Let us love always #haiku #senryu #micropoetry #poetry #lovepoetry

Tie the knot into the thread My Will take hold All doubt to shed Tie it twice for it has bled My Will be bold With black and red Thrice the bind so it is said My Will behold The plea is pled One Two Three And It Will Be #FolkWitchFriday #WitchSky

#FolkWitchFriday@folkwitchfriday.bsky.social · 2mo ago

A piece of twine, a leather thong, or spun wool—folk magic loves a knot to tie a spell or hitch a haint. Today, let’s talk cord magic, technical knotting, and string charms. How do you tie a job of work down or bind an intention in your practice? Share your lore! #FolkWitchFriday #WitchSky

I expanded this #Thoughtjournal post into an essay arguing that human behavior is not fixed identity, but state-dependent access to the self—shaped by nervous system state, stress, safety, and environment. This changes how we understand people entirely. #NeuroScience #NervousSystemHealing #cPTSD

State-Dependent Selves

How nervous system state shapes identity, perception, and change

alethianstrata.substack.com

Serena🪞🧿✨@alethianstrata.bsky.social · 3mo ago

#ThoughtJournal #Identity #IAM #Psychology #Becoming #NervousSystemHealing #HumanCondition #cPTSD

You fought, and you kicked, and you tried at every turn to do the right thing, but the darkness was always destined to swallow you, until you forced it to spit you back out, a hero. #Poetry #BlueskyPoetry #TheDescent #HerosJourney

Diving in between the frames Slipped into another plane Unsure if I can be seen Now a stranger kind of being One again I’m fae or wraith Surely from another place Woven with the wild gods Hooves kick up the earthen clods Through field & brush, I dance & run Until this merriment’s undone #poetry

Reality fragmented Interdimensional Some things are more While others are less Real Colors dance on a breeze I hear the trees & wind In conversation The sunlight speaks to me Through cloudy relatives A scratching at my ankles Hello winged friend We’ll be a while #poetry #naturephotography #moth

I’m mad on mad The trauma & the autism Turn sideways Slip between the cracks of my reality Where tethers slacken Wind & trees & spirits call Within the wild See them now I hear their whispers Clearer on the breeze In pebbles tumbling Through river bends In song’s laments #poetry #ptsd 1/2

I’m not myself The world has tipped and sound slipped Sideways Upside down the world went wide and I am here between Some places aren’t familiar like my lover’s home though still their voice is true And I may spin & laugh when I should weep And more is possible while others not #poetry 1/2