April 2019 closing words

Greetings Everyone!

The readers’ reactions to the April 2019 HOPE Against the ODDs Project were outstanding!

Followers

Thank you to the new and existing followers who gave encouraging comments, and left many “Likes.”

My Blessings!

I am blessed to have had the corporation of many who helped to make this project a success.

The HOPE Project featured;

• Articles from professionals, and organizations who advocate and walk with survivors.
• Survivors who shared their experiences through their stories or through their poetry filled with emotion and HOPE.
• Pastors shared prayers asking God to heal survivors, and for each survivor to believe God has a plan for their lives.
• I can’t forget the editors who edit my personal writings.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart!

In closing, I want to share the words of Judy Castelli and Thomas Merton

By ¹Judy Castelli | Feb 4, 2009

“It is not easy. It is worth it. There are children for whom we speak, who are yet unseen, unheard. Our collective voices multiplied again and again will be heard, stronger than any-one voice. Our voices will be carried by an angry and loud wind so that no man, no woman, no child will have to suffer alone and unseen, without hope, and in silence.

We hear you. We see you. We believe you. We know you are not bad. You did not do anything. You certainly did not do anything to deserve what was done to you in childhood. It is right that you survived. It is right that you live today. It is right that you grow to be happy and whole. You will survive this. It is for you to survive. It is a part of you. More than anything else, it is who you are. It is right, finally, that you live, alive and in life fully and completely.”

A Prayer from “Thoughts In Solitude” by Thomas Merton (1958)

“My Lord God I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that my desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

I hope the words Judy Castelli and Thomas Merton are as helpful to you as they are to me.

Thank you all for making the “Hope Against the ODDs and how to HOLD ON Project” a blessing and a phenomenal success! 

I serve at the pleasure of God

________________________

¹https://mental-health-matters.com/life-dissociative-identity-disorder-and-child-abuse/