RockWall Cottage Chronicles #10
A newsy, sometimes amusing, usually interesting fly-on-the-RockWall view of my life as an author with updates from my Substack adventures.
The small cottage where I live and write has been affectionally named RockWall Cottage because of the rock wall that divides our side of the property from the side of the property where our friends, the owners of the cottage, live. (Learn More)
What Has Been Happening at RockWall Cottage?
Not much. Well, that isn’t exactly true, which I will explain below. We did enjoy hosting our grandson’s 20th birthday. Lola, the Silkie, was agreeable to being passed around like a newborn baby—after Scott convinced her with a few mealworms!
Some information about Silkies: (Source)
“Silkies do not have a typical feather. Their feathers lack barbicels which are the hooks to hold the feathers in. This is what gives them their poofy look. Because they don’t have the standard feathers, they are not flyers. With that said, I’ve had younger Silkies seem to have no problem reaching higher perches.”
“They’re not known for their egg laying abilities as they only lay an average of 120 small eggs per year. Most people keep Silkies for show birds, family pets, or to brood and hatch eggs. Their eggs are every bit as good as standard sized eggs, but they are small.”
News, Highlights from Previous Weeks, What’s Coming, and Other Stuff
September Surprises: Just when you think you know what to expect from day to day here on my Substack, I will be changing things up a bit. After teaching for fifty years, I naturally feel the need to start fresh at the beginning of a school year. To shift gears, I will take a break the first week of September as the Trauma in the Pews Section II series concludes. The rest of the month will be designed around weekly topics before I settle into a routine again. There is good stuff coming!
About that Break: We are helping our daughter move this week and I realized self-care could not involve loading new content while life dissolves into moving chaos. Content is loaded through this coming Saturday and then I will return on Sunday, September 8th.
Small Church Conference VIP Bundle Subscribers: My break may chop off your free-month access a bit too soon. If that is the case, and you would like to see the new September paid subscriber content, reply to this email and let me know. I will add a week at the end of my break.
Part Two of this Guest Podcast is Available: What a wonderful conversation with my new Australian friend, Jacqui Cousins, ACMHN, AHPRA & PACFA (Mental Health Counsellor & Educator) In this episode, I say, “The church doesn’t need to be in the job of healing the trauma anymore than they need to be in the job of healing the broken bones.” I believe that the church can help those impacted by trauma to heal—so what did I mean by this? It was a rich conversation! You can access the podcast here .
A Zoom Celebration: This week completes Part II of the paid subscriber Trauma in the Pews 2.0 series. The Spiritual Practice of Celebration is this week’s focus so it seems appropriate to have a Zoom Celebration. Paid Subscribers, watch for the link. As usual, it is scheduled for the last Friday of the month at 3:00 Pacific Time.
The We Do Therapy Series: Beginning in late September, we plan to discuss the following topics/parts of our story. Don’t hold me to this—my writing is always a work in progress! We also plan to have video conversations and at least one Zoom Gathering. (This will be paid subscriber content.)
The Engagement: When Trauma Attracts Trauma
The Wedding: Glimpses of Baggage on a Picture-Perfect Day
The Honeymoon: Dueling PTSD Re-Enactments and Reactions
The Marriage: How Co-Dependency Helps and Harms
The Healing Journey: Not Taking the Messiness of Healing Personally
Hiding in the Church: How the Patriarchy Harmed Us Both
Church Teachings: How Toxic Theology Harmed Kept Us From Healing
Therapy Lessons #1: Arguments as Trigger Wars
Therapy Lesson #2: Recognizing an Off-Roading Event
Therapy Lesson #3: When No One Understands Boundaries
Therapy Lesson #4: Packing and Unpacking our Cigarettes (i.e. Baggage)
Therapy Lesson #5: Holding Tightly to the Good Memories