Today the feature video is Kool and The Gang "Celebration" because healing is worth celebrating!
Everyday after "it" happened to you, from the first breath you took, to all the people who showed up to help you, all the people who stood by you and prayed for you, all those who gave you sympathy and showed you compassion, are all worthy reasons to celebrate.
The hours, days, weeks, months and years you spent suffering, are also worthy of celebrating because you survived them too. You survived those who turned away from you, and the darkness to arrive at this point in your life when you decided that that misery needed to end so you could begin to be happy. You forgave!
So yes, celebrate this new chapter of your life when you are healing instead of grieving!
#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD
Yahoo! This is your celebration
Yahoo! This is your celebration
Celebrate good times, come on! (Let's celebrate)
Celebrate good times, come on! (Let's celebrate)
There's a party goin' on right here
A celebration to last throughout the years
So bring your good times, and your laughter too
We gonna celebrate your party with you
Come on now
Celebration
Let's all celebrate and have a good time
Celebration
We gonna celebrate and have a good time
It's time to come together
It's up to you, what's your pleasure
Everyone around the world
Come on!
Yahoo! It's a celebration
Yahoo!
Celebrate good times, come on!
It's a celebration
Celebrate good times, come on!
Let's celebrate
We're gonna have a good time tonight
Let's celebrate, it's all right
We're gonna have a good time tonight
Let's celebrate, it's all right
Baby
We're gonna have a good time tonight (Celebration)
Let's celebrate, it's all right
We're gonna have a good time tonight (Celebration)
Let's celebrate, it's all right
Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Celebrate good times, come on! (Let's celebrate)
Celebrate good times, come on!
It's a celebration!
Celebrate good times, come on! (Let's celebrate)
Come on and celebrate, good times, tonight (Celebrate good times, come on!)
This is a strange day. We kind-of know who the President will be...and we kind-of don't know. People are freaking out on both sides. That is why I thought today was a perfect day to have the feature video of I Hope You Dance."
I always find reason to dance. I dance in my car when I'm driving. Getting plenty of strange looks when I stop at a light. I dance at my desk when one of the oldies songs come on reminding me of when I was young and life was less complicated. I don't want to sit out my life now.
No matter what happens, there are reasons to have joy, to be happy and, and yes, even grateful. Your life should be filling up with hope by now. Hope that you can heal and are happier than you were before. Hope that others will help you heal even more...and hope in God.
"I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Livin' might mean takin' chances, but they're worth takin'
Lovin' might be a mistake, but it's worth makin'
Don't let some Hellbent heart leave you bitter
When you come close to sellin' out, reconsider
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance"
Healing PTSD is in itself a hopeful leap of faith that you took as soon as you decided to try. Don't give up on it because you had a bad day, or some jerk said the wrong thing at the wrong time. The "path of least resistance" was just settling for suffering but that wasn't doing you any good at all.
This is the road you need to be on....remember, its your life....get in and drive it!
Lee Ann Womack - I Hope You Dance (Official Music Video ...
I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance
I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Livin' might mean takin' chances, but they're worth takin'
Lovin' might be a mistake, but it's worth makin'
Don't let some Hellbent heart leave you bitter
When you come close to sellin' out, reconsider
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance (Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along)
I hope you dance
I hope you dance (Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder)
I hope you dance (Where those years have gone?)
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
Dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance (Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along)
I hope you dance (Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder?)
"You're all I need to get by" would be so nice to hear again but for far too many, they feel as if they cannot do anything for anyone, especially if they are dealing with PTSD. It causes inspiration and hope to be crushed. How can you think you can mean anything to anyone, if you don't think you matter?
Look at the people in your life and know that you do matter. Remember how much they mean to you and what things were like before you transformed from what a world where you knew what "normal" was like, and it all spun out of control.
There was a time when I didn't think my husband I were going to make it another week, yet we're still together after 38 years...we met in 1982. There was a time when he didn't believe he deserved to be happy again, until he finally knew why he did.
I think back to times in my own life when people showed me I mattered, even when I didn't want to even get out of bed. When they were happy to see me walk through the door, when I didn't even want to go there. Little by little, people decided to lift someone else up because it made them feel good inside. It sure as hell feels a lot better than trying to knock someone down.
A lot of people I know have been posting about how they feel used up. They do good for other people, yet what they did was not appreciated at all. I tell them to keep doing good because that wonderful feeling they get inside, is their reward. If it is taken for granted, then, it is the other person's responsibility. I forgive them, shake the dust off my feet and walk away. It does not stop me from doing good for someone else. That is what love is.
I try to remember that in everything I do and you should too!
#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD
Here is a story about what it means to be part of a miracle.
Stephan Wenz
October 17 at 12:35 AM
DID GOD RIDE THE BROOKLYN SUBWAY
Marcel Sternberger was a methodical man of nearly 50, with bushy white hair, guileless brown eyes, and the bouncing enthusiasm of a czardas dancer of his native Hungary. He always took the 9:09 Long Island Railroad train from his suburban home to Woodside, N.Y.., where he caught a subway into the city.
On the morning of January 10, 1948, Sternberger boarded the 9:09 as usual. En route, he suddenly decided to visit Laszlo Victor, a Hungarian friend who lived in Brooklyn and was ill.
Accordingly, at Ozone Park, Sternberger changed to the subway for Brooklyn, went to his friend’s house, and stayed until midafternoon. He then boarded a Manhattan-bound subway for his Fifth Avenue office. Here is Marcel’s incredible story:
The car was crowded, and there seemed to be no chance of a seat. But just as I entered, a man sitting by the door suddenly jumped up to leave, and I slipped into the empty place. I’ve been living in New York long enough not to start conversations with strangers. But being a photographer, I have the peculiar habit of analyzing people’s faces, and I was struck by the features of the passenger on my left. He was probably in his late 30s, and when he glanced up, his eyes seemed to have a hurt expression in them. He was reading a Hungarian-language newspaper, and something prompted me to say in Hungarian, “I hope you don’t mind if I glance at your paper.”
The man seemed surprised to be addressed in his native language. But he answered politely, “You may read it now. I’ll have time later on.”
During the half-hour ride to town, we had quite a conversation. He said his name was Bela Paskin. A law student when World War II started, he had been put into a German labor battalion and sent to the Ukraine. Later he was captured by the Russians and put to work burying the German dead. After the war, he covered hundreds of miles on foot until he reached his home in Debrecen, a large city in eastern Hungary.
I myself knew Debrecen quite well, and we talked about it for a while. Then he told me the rest of his story. When he went to the apartment once occupied by his father, mother, brothers and sisters, he found strangers living there. Then he went upstairs to the apartment that he and his wife once had. It also was occupied by strangers. None of them had ever heard of his family.
As he was leaving, full of sadness, a boy ran after him, calling “Paskin bacsi! Paskin bacsi!” That means “Uncle Paskin.” The child was the son of some old neighbors of his. He went to the boy’s home and talked to his parents. “Your whole family is dead,” they told him. “The Nazis took them and your wife to Auschwitz.”
Auschwitz was one of the worst Nazi concentration camps. Paskin gave up all hope. A few days later, too heartsick to remain any longer in Hungary, he set out again on foot, stealing across border after border until he reached Paris. He managed to immigrate to the United States in October 1947, just three months before I met him.
All the time he had been talking, I kept thinking that somehow his story seemed familiar. A young woman whom I had met recently at the home of friends had also been from Debrecen; she had been sent to Auschwitz; from there she had been transferred to work in a German munitions factory. Her relatives had been killed in the gas chambers. Later she was liberated by the Americans and was brought here in the first boatload of displaced persons in 1946.
Her story had moved me so much that I had written down her address and phone number, intending to invite her to meet my family and thus help relieve the terrible emptiness in her life.
It seemed impossible that there could be any connection between these two people, but as I neared my station, I fumbled anxiously in my address book. I asked in what I hoped was a casual voice, “Was your wife’s name Marya?”
He turned pale. “Yes!” he answered. “How did you know?”
He looked as if he were about to faint.
I said, “Let’s get off the train.” I took him by the arm at the next station and led him to a phone booth. He stood there like a man in a trance while I dialed her phone number.
It seemed hours before Marya Paskin answered. (Later I learned her room was alongside the telephone, but she was in the habit of never answering it because she had so few friends and the calls were always for someone else. This time, however, there was no one else at home and, after letting it ring for a while, she responded.)
When I heard her voice at last, I told her who I was and asked her to describe her husband. She seemed surprised at the question, but gave me a description. Then I asked her where she had lived in Debrecen, and she told me the address.
Asking her to hold the line, I turned to Paskin and said, “Did you and your wife live on such-and-such a street?”
“Yes!” Bela exclaimed. He was white as a sheet and trembling.
“Try to be calm,” I urged him. “Something miraculous is about to happen to you. Here, take this telephone and talk to your wife!”
He nodded his head in mute bewilderment, his eyes bright with tears. He took the receiver, listened a moment to his wife’s voice, then suddenly cried, “This is Bela! This is Bela!” and he began to mumble hysterically. Seeing that the poor fellow was so excited he couldn’t talk coherently, I took the receiver from his shaking hands.
“Stay where you are,” I told Marya, who also sounded hysterical. “I am sending your husband to you. We will be there in a few minutes.”
Bela was crying like a baby and saying over and over again. “It is my wife. I go to my wife!”
At first I thought I had better accompany Paskin, lest the man should faint from excitement, but I decided that this was a moment in which no strangers should intrude. Putting Paskin into a taxicab, I directed the driver to take him to Marya’s address, paid the fare, and said goodbye.
Bela Paskin’s reunion with his wife was a moment so poignant, so electric with suddenly released emotion, that afterward neither he nor Marya could recall much about it.
“I remember only that when I left the phone, I walked to the mirror like in a dream to see if maybe my hair had turned gray,” she said later. “The next thing I know, a taxi stops in front of the house, and it is my husband who comes toward me. Details I cannot remember; only this I know—that I was happy for the first time in many years.....
“Even now it is difficult to believe that it happened. We have both suffered so much; I have almost lost the capability to not be afraid. Each time my husband goes from the house, I say to myself, “Will anything happen to take him from me again?”
Her husband is confident that no horrible misfortune will ever again befall the. “Providence has brought us together,” he says simply. “It was meant to be.”
Skeptical persons will no doubt attribute the events of that memorable afternoon to mere chance. But was it chance that made Marcel Sternberger suddenly decide to visit his sick friend and hence take a subway line that he had never ridden before? Was it chance that caused the man sitting by the door of the car to rush out just as Sternberger came in? Was it chance that caused Bela Paskin to be sitting beside Sternberger, reading a Hungarian newspaper'
Was it chance—or did God ride the Brooklyn subway that afternoon'
Paul Deutschman, Great Stories Remembered, edited and compiled by Joe L. Wheeler
You're all I need to get by.
Like the sweet morning dew, I took one look at you,
And it was plain to see, you were my destiny.
With my arms open wide,
I threw away my pride
I'll sacrifice for you
Dedicate my life for you
I will go where you lead
Always there in time of need
And when I lose my will
You'll be there to push me up the hill
There's no, no looking back for us
We got love sure 'nough, that's enough
You're all, You're all I need to get by.
You're all I need to get by.
Like an eagle protects his nest, for you I'll do my best,
Stand by you like a tree, dare anybody to try and move me
Darling in you I found
Strength where I was torn down
Don't know what's in store but together we can open any door
Just to do what's good for you and inspire you a little higher
I know you can make a man out of a soul that didn't have a goal
Cause we, we got the right foundation and with love and determination
You're all I want to strive for and do a little more
All, all the joys under the sun wrapped up into one
Today the featured video is Bruce Springsteen, Hope and Dreams, This Train. It got me thinking of how people can get a narrow line of vision where all they see is what is negative. If that is all you look for, then you do not see what is good, what is possible and discover something to hope for.
With PTSD, you tend to cling to misery because it is what you know is there, but when you open your eyes to the hope of healing, that is what you begin to search for. It is a lot better to look at your life with hope than it is to settle for what you have.
#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD
Oh oh this train, I'm riding this train
Don't you wanna ride
(This train)
Oh get on, get on (this train)
Grab your ticket and your suitcase
Thunder's rolling down the tracks
You don't know where you're goin' now
But you know you won't be back
Darlin' if you're weary
Lay your head upon my chest
We'll take what we can carry
And we'll leave the rest
Big wheels rolling through fields
Where sunlight streams
Meet me in a land of hope and dreams
I will provide for you
And I'll stand by your side
You'll need a good companion
For this part of the ride
Leave behind your sorrows
Let this day be the last
Tomorrow there'll be sunshine
And all this darkness past
Big wheels roll through fields
Where sunlight streams
Meet me in a land of hope and dreams
This train carries saints and sinners
This train carries losers and winners
This train carries whores and gamblers
This train carries lost souls
I said, this train dreams will not be thwarted
This train faith will be rewarded
This train hear the steel wheels singin'
This train bells of freedom ringin'
This train carries saints and sinners
This train carries losers and winners
This train carries whores and gamblers
This train carries lost souls
I said, this train carries broken-hearted
This train thieves and sweet souls departed
This train carries fools and kings
This train, all aboard
I said, this train dreams will not be thwarted
This train faith will be rewarded
This train hear the steel wheels singin'
This train bells of freedom ringin'
Come on this train
People get ready
You don't need no ticket
All you got do is just get on board
On board this train
This train, people get ready
You don't need no ticket (oh I know you don't)
You don't need no ticket you just get on board (people get ready)
When you hear the expression, "You can't go home again," what does that mean to you? To me, it means that you cannot go back to what you knew before, because nothing stays the same.
There are times I wish I could go back and talk to a younger me to give me comfort and assurance that everything was going to be OK, but I took "her" with me instead.
How comforting would that be if you could go back to let yourself know that whenever you were hurt or afraid, that by some miracle, a future you could show up and explain that?
Well, you are able to do that right now. Not for yourself, but for others on their own journey toward a happier life. You are the "older" them because you were where they are and can give them comfort that the "wheel in the sky keeps turning" and the unknown doesn't have to be as scary as they think it is.
When you start to heal it feels like when the rain stops coming down, the sun starts to shine and drizzle sparkles. You find so much to be happy about your life will sparkle too!
"If you want to be brave
And reach for the top of the sky
And the farthest point on the horizon
Do you know who you'll meet there
Great soldiers and seafarers,
Artists and dreamers
Who need to be close, close to the light"
That is the beginning of the featured video today by Carly Simon.
To be touched by the sun is to feel the warmth and power wash over you, filling your soul and lifting you up.
Touched By The Sun
If you want to be brave
And reach for the top of the sky
And the farthest point on the horizon
Do you know who you'll meet there
Great soldiers and seafarers,
Artists and dreamers
Who need to be close, close to the light
They need to be in danger of burning by fire
And I, I want to get there
I, I want to be one
One who is touched by the sun,
One who is touched by the sun
Often I want to walk
The safe side of the street
And lull myself to sleep
And dull my pain
But deep down inside I know
I've got to learn from the greats,
Earn my right to be living,
Let my wings of desire
Soar over the night
I need to let them say
I, I want to be one
One who is touched by the sun,
One who is touched by the sun
I've got to learn from the greats,
Earn my right to be living,
With every breath that I take,
Every heartbeat
And I, I want to get there
I, I want to be one, One who is touched by the sun,
Today the feature video is I Can See Clearly Now. That is what starting to heal feels like 👍 PTSD only has as much control over you as you allow it to have.
#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD
I can see clearly now the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It's gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day
It's gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day
I think I can make it now the pain is gone
All of the bad feelings have disappeared
Here is that rainbow I've been praying for
It's gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day
Look all around, there's nothing but blue skies
Look straight ahead, there's nothing but blue skies
How much better do you feel on a hot day, after a rain storm comes through and cools things off? I love it when there is a sun shower ending the storm. That is the way it feels when you are in your own storm and someone says, "You are not alone" and you know that things just changed.
The featured video today is "Stand By Me" and there were 2 versions of it. I hope they remind you that fear does not have to be part of your life when you have someone standing by you.
That is what is happening all over the country as more and more people reach out to let you know they survived with the help of someone else, and so can you!
One of the worst things that can happen is when you lose your keys. Time to figure out what you did with them. You cannot go anywhere until you do. The keys you need to heal PTSD are lost too! The good news is, they are still where you can find them. #BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife
This was a hard one for me to do, but it is important. It explains how we are not in any of this alone. We have family and friends, who care about us. When they do not understand what is going on, they assume the worst. Usually they blame themselves.
We make it worse if we cannot explain it to them. Gain as much knowledge as you can about PTSD and then help them understand so that all of you can heal together.
Something happened when I was just 5 years old. It nearly destroyed my family but I was too young to understand it myself. It is explained in this video.
When you are fighting PTSD, it is important to choose your team and accept the help from them. Race car drivers do not get out and change their own tires. This is about how people can effect the whole family and how important it is to recognize how we impact them. #BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD
PTSD Patrol Stories from Wounded Times Kathie Costos May 13, 2020
With all the bad news in this country because of COVID-19, it is easy to become depressed. Social media has been spreading the bad news, division along with outright lies. Hopelessness follows. But within the pages of friends sharing thoughts, there are messages of hope, love, humor, inspiration and miracles. Hope is fueled. I take more comfort knowing there are people out there trying to make our days better than they would have been, than those constantly focusing on the negative. A couple of days ago, I started searching the web for stories on miracles for a book I was planning on writing. In all honesty, I was searching to help my own mood as well. Then it dawned on me that out of over 32,000 posts on Wounded Times, there is a treasure trove of miracles intended to fuel hope. I opted to drop the book idea and decided to put the posts up here until I run out of them. Judging by the ones already discovered, that should take a long time to happen. I am always being reminded that my work is saving more lives than I will ever know. I do believe that and it gives me hope that my work does mean something, even if people forget about where the good news came from, they do not forget the feeling they received.
1. Simon (who is called Peter) 2. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother 3. James, son of Zebedee 4. John, James’ brother 5. Philip 6. Bartholomew 7. Thomas 8. Matthew, the tax collector 9. James, son of Alphaeus 10. Thaddaeus 11. Simon the Zealot 12. Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.
But few know that Jesus also sent out 72 others.
Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-Two 10 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two[a] others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Luke 10
And when they returned to Jesus,
17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
18 He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
While what they did changed the world one life at a time, no one knows their names. Those 72 did not do it for fame, but for the Glory of the Lord!
Each one of us has the power to change a life by spreading lies and bad news, as well as spread hope and love. It is up to us which way we choose to do it.
No matter how many different ways you can discover how to get to where you want to be, you will not look for them, unless you have hope that place exists. The road to heal is real! #CombatPTSD and #TakeBackYourLife When I was going on a road trip, first I had to have the will to go, then get directions on how to get there from where I was. Back then, we went to the gas stations to get a road map. Not easy to read and really too large to hold it while sitting in a vehicle. Trying to refold it was nearly impossible! AAA came out with TripTik planners. We'd go, tell them where we wanted get to, and they would plan out the entire trip. We'd flip the pages until we arrived. To get back home, we'd just flip the pages backwards. Now we have GPS directions in our cars and on our cell phones. Makes getting where we want to go easier to find. Where do you want to go? Sometimes find out how to get someplace is not your biggest problem. Sometimes, having the desire even think about changing where you are is the hardest thing to find. When I was new on the road, it did not make much sense to look both ways before taking a right turn, because I assumed no one would be coming the other way. That is, until I almost hit someone trying to cross in front of me. Then I understood there could always be something I am not seeing, because I did not look for it.
It is the same way with answers. First you need hope there is an answer to find for whatever you want to know, or change. If there is no hope, you will not look. Hope is what gets us moving each morning. It causes us to open our eyes, but it is the desire to seek something better, that begins the search for what we hope for.
If you know there is a better road to take, then you will look for it. If you know that other people have been there, and can show you the way, you are not traveling alone. When you are packing a lot of pain from PTSD, it can be disheartening to be reminded of all the other people who lost the battle. They lost because no one showed them the way to get on the right road, or even inspire them to seek it. But if you think you are stuck where you are, here is a reminder that you were not chosen to be frozen when you survived the cause of PTSD. You defeated it and lived. #TakeBackYourLife from what was behind you, so you can move forward and heal.
