Change in 2025

          Change. Sometimes comes quickly. At other times it crawls by—but it always comes.
A few weeks ago, a bulb I had buried beneath the dirt three months ago began to sprout green leaves. A slow, but miraculous change.

Soon, it budded into a daffodil. Today, it manifested a faster transition.

In the morning, it looked like this.

By the afternoon, it had turned into a six-petaled star.

More evidence of change. Today, two ducks visited to enjoy breakfast in our backyard. (Click links for video clips.)

                                

I also watched in wonder as two birds flew back and forth, carrying twigs in their beaks to build a nest in my watering that hung on a post.
More change—and signs of coming births.

My Change
As you may know, I usually write historical fiction for students from ages 9-13, and 13-18. However, my next book project is tentatively titled, What’s in Your Suitcase?—A Journey From Wounded to Wholeness.

Many of us have experienced the truth that we are all broken in some way. Can we change? What’s in Your Suitcase is specifically written for men and women who have experienced childhood trauma, or who wish to help those with childhood wounds find a path toward wholeness.

Critical to this change of moving from woundedness to healing is to “become like a little child.” Here’s a sneak preview into a section of the book about “The Child Within.”

Effects of Childhood Trauma on the Child Within

One effect of childhood trauma can be compared to how to amblyopia, or a “lazy eye,” affects one’s sight. Therapist Randy Carlson shared that when his daughter had a routine eye exam, they discovered she had amblyopia. “Both eyes were not aligned properly,” Carlson said, “and one had started to shut off because her brain could not deal with conflicting [visual] messages.”⁶

 Suffering the effects of childhood trauma is similar to Dr. Carlson’s daughter getting mixed signals from her brain because one of her eyes wasn’t properly aligned. It caused the misaligned eye to “turn off.”  So too, those of us who have experienced childhood trauma at the hands of caregivers shut down certain  responses or memories because what we experienced is not what we expected or needed to receive.

One of the reasons childhood trauma is so destructive can be found in the fact that, as a child, we usually had little understanding of what happened to us, or any safe adult with whom we could share the event and its impact upon us.

Alice Miller in For Your Own Good contrasts the plight of those who experienced childhood trauma with that of concentration camp survivors. Former camp inmates did not doubt the tragic experiences they had in these prisons because, unlike many of us who experienced childhood trauma, the camp victims did not go through the atrocities of this internment alone.

Miller notes that camp victims “…will never attempt to convince themselves that the cruelty they were subjected to was for their own good or interpret the absurdity of the camp as a necessary pedagogical measure; they will usually not attempt to empathize with the motives of their persecutors. They will find people who have had similar experiences and share with them their feelings of outrage, hatred, and despair over the cruelty they have suffered.”⁸

That’s why we need God’s reparenting. He didn’t cause or desire the trauma we experienced. He hates what happened. However, because He has given people the gift of free choice, people do bad things. God is not a Creator who, like a clockmaker, wound up the world, then stepped away as He watched it work. Throughout the centuries, those who have entered into a relationship with the God of the universe have seen and written about how He partners with us in our pain and desires to heal and bring wholeness into our lives. When we reach the heights of this new perspective about God’s work in our lives, we can come to Him as a child and get in touch with our child within.

What kind of change do you currently see, or experience right now in your life? I’d love to hear your thoughts. You can email we at mesontag@gmail.com. For more information on my writing, see www.mariesontag.com.

I look forward to hearing from you!