I'm a wife, a mom of 3 grown girls, a retired preschool teacher, a nature lover, a writer, an eternal optimist, and a  s-l-o-w-l-y recovering perfectionist and people pleaser.

I am passionate, empathetic, intuitive, and a fierce believer in the power of love to overcome. I love hard, work hard, cry hard, and tend to put my whole heart and soul into everything I do. I am very hard on myself; I don't relax well (unless I'm writing); I'm challenged by finding a good balance in my life between giving to myself and giving to others; and I'm now wrestling with slowing my pace and expectations of myself as I age. 

Ok, so essentially, I'm like everyone else - a hot mess of perfectly imperfect (even though I try hard to appear otherwise), an up-and-down-and-all-over-the-place bundle of good intentions and inconsistency, and a canvas still being painted. But how wonderful is it that life constantly gives us the opportunity for do-overs, and the chance to rediscover and reinvent who we are?!

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The short story here is that I experienced more emotional and spiritual upheaval in my 50's than during any other decade in my life. Between helping care for my aging/ailing parents and subsequently dealing with the loss of both of them, as well as the deaths of my mother-in-law and a brother (all in just over two years!), I also grappled with the last of empty nesting, the letting go of the victim that lived buried deep inside me, the learning of how to forgive some really hard stuff, and some significant health challenges. There was also tremendous joy in the form of my three daughters' weddings, the welcoming of grandbabies, and first time traveling. In essence, my 50's were filled with HUGE emotional swings! HUGE!

Enter writing, which became my lifeline (quite literally), and a newly discovered love of the miracle that is nature, and I entered the decade of my 60's having caught my breath just in time for social unrest, COVID, political chaos, and all the uncertainty and change and grief that has come with it. One thing in life is certain; there will always be hardship, challenge, and grief to navigate, so the healing journey continues. And so does my writing. 

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Through all the highs and lows, the one theme that has remained consistent is this feeling that I am meant to be sharing with others what I write. It feels as though my whole life journey has brought me here to this moment; brought me to start Healing Through Poetry. This site is about Love, because what I've learned in these last several years is that it's ALL about love, EVERY. SINGLE. LAST. BIT. OF. IT!  All of life - all of us - are interconnected in the crazy powerful energy that is love, and we can access this truth by immersing ourselves in quiet solitude (meditation, prayer, nature, etc.). The key is to find what works for you and to let yourself fall into the beauty of letting go. I hope my words can help you do that. ♥

I confess I have little idea what I'm doing or where all of this will go, but my heart tells me that this is where the next leg of my journey begins. Bear with me while I learn how all of this blogging stuff works, and as I make changes to this site through trial and error.  It is my sincerest hope that this grows into something beyond my wildest expectations.

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I welcome you to join me on this wild ride! 

Thank you for being here.

♥Chris

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