Category: Grief, Trauma, & Resilience

topographia

A sanctuary for the profound psychological journey of loss.
Beyond the clinical, we explore the “Soul” language of grief and trauma—navigating the depths of disaster to find the hidden architecture of renewal and the resilience of a life forever transformed.

  • Fear is the Mind-Killer

    Fear is the Mind-Killer

    Now that I’ve been a widow for a year and a half, I’ve been reminded yet again about how fragile life is, and more specifically how fragile I am. I am a limited resource, living on limited resources.

  • Engaging Poverty

    Engaging Poverty

    One always looks for the way out of pain and crisis, because sitting in the crisis and feeling the pain seem unendurable. 

  • Perspective

    Perspective

    The truth is that we’re blind to reality. It’s usually blindness that gets us out of bed, not courage.

  • Doing the Work

    Doing the Work

    Life isn’t fair and there is no observable grand scheme for rewarding good and punishing evil in the temporal world. Those who are good, generous, and even innocent can and do suffer beyond measure.

  • Tendrils

    Tendrils

    An unhappy peace settled on me: This is the way things are now that my husband is dead. I don’t know how they will be in the future. I only know how they are now.

  • In Case of Emergency

    In Case of Emergency

    When something in our world shifts to threaten our survival, we find ourselves plummeting from zenith to nadir in short order.

  • By the Throat

    By the Throat

    What are my psychological survival tools? What will help me maintain my sense of self? What will I need to believe, think, or do that will help me keep hope and joy alive?

  • Broken

    Broken

    Sometimes broken means “it’s gone.” It will never be the same again. The life of the object is over. Its heirloom quality and the energy it carried for the ancestors is gone.

  • Cheated

    Cheated

    It’s especially painful when someone you trust, like, or even love cheats you. It doesn’t bother you as much when it’s an enemy, but when it’s someone you trust–oh, my.

  • Reflections on Losing My Child, Part 8: Tribulation is Treasure

    Reflections on Losing My Child, Part 8: Tribulation is Treasure

    Like many who have lost a child, I changed most in my understanding of what matters.