A Walking Miracle

This October, as I read survivor stories unique to domestic violence and intimate partner violence, it occurred to me that I am a walking miracle. Truly, every survivor can claim that moniker.

In my smallish everyday world alone, a friend of a friend lost her life at the hands of domestic violence, murdered in her basement. Last month. Two degrees of separation. Purple flooded my social media. Besides that, there were more who experienced violence but didn't die. Not everyone who gets beat, dies. Some do. It's a miracle if you escape this cycle that wants to kill you and steal everything from you. This year, I was privy to two other close calls--two degrees of separation--prayers offered up for safety, along with worry and angst; once they were free: they walked away as miracles.

Every story I read from a survivor is a miracle.

My miracle came in May of 1989. You can read about it here. Yet the most beautiful miracles I read are from the women and children who went on to finish educational aspirations, launch careers, find loving relationships, rear beautifully healthy children and live. Just plain and simply, they lived. They are a walking miracle--present tense--living full and thriving lives. That miracle was me. That miracle is me. I want it to be you, too.

If you are in a place where you are unsafe, please believe in miracles and walk toward a violence free future. Start by reaching out to others who want to assist you toward that aim. Domestic Violence Support | National Domestic Violence Hotline (thehotline.org)

In her song bringing awareness to domestic violence, Celine Dion sings in "This Time" that she's 'taking back all you took from me'. That thread of a lyric prompted my poem describing another angle to the prism of my healing.

A Miracle, Walking

You convinced me

that I was fatally flawed

you took my innocence from me

with your grubby little claws

But demons tell lies

The same wicked lies

And I finally found the Truth

I’m taking back

What you took from me

I’m taking back

All the places you didn’t see

The stolen pieces of my soul

All the pieces to make me whole

Cause I finally found the Truth

Thieves break in and steal

Liars, lie

You, you tried to make me a fatality

But I’m no longer convinced

That I’m fatally flawed

You can’t have my naïveté or my innocence

My heart, my soul or my sacred cause

I’m taking it all back

What you took from me

I finally found the Truth

And the Truth

Set me free.

A miracle, walking

Just me.

2.2.23

12:36 am