by Merita | Oct 12, 2024 | Shining on God's Character
God's Heart in Your Storm I confess. I’m consumed with my beloved North Carolina mountains and the heartache of its people. Pain and shock. Lives changed forever. Death. Landscape destroyed. All things familiar swept away or damaged. Infrastructure gone. It’s trauma,...
by Merita | Sep 21, 2024 | Culture of Silence
Part II of a deleted scene from "Heartache of Promise." JoAnne lay on her bed. Her arms held her legs, doubled up, close to her body. Her matted hair lay strung across the pillow like seaweed washed onto sand. Except for her heaving chest, she didn’t move. Rose-Marie...
by Merita | Aug 22, 2024 | Culture of Silence
Second-hand Trauma... You may NOT have received horrible abuse (thank God if that’s true), but if you were close to it like I was, its effects run deep. I can assure you, second-hand trauma ain’t fun either. However, trauma is trauma, and it’s not a competitive sport,...
by Merita | Jul 18, 2024 | God of Our Ultimates
Choose Your Fear - Guest Blog by JeriAnne Berry The world today is a fearful place. Our amygdala is in overdrive. It clangs a warning. On the news, we see destruction. Our own problems and traumas increase our fear. We hear the alarm. Do we take flight or stay and...
by Merita Atherly Engen | Jun 20, 2024 | Restoration from Abuse
Are you a Strong Self-Advocator who leaves or changes undesirable situations without a hitch? You know your limits. You take action and do so with no real fear. When others in an obviously abusive environment can’t do the same, perhaps like me, you’re tempted to wag...
by Merita | May 16, 2024 | Identity Restored
Are You Controlled? “No one controls me,” you say. Are you sure? Step back and take a hard look. What movies are available? What songs? What toys for your children or you when you were a child? What is repeated and emphasized in the “news?” The tragedies that are...
by Merita Atherly Engen | Jul 14, 2023 | Points of Light
I was in my mid-twenties—a mom of two small girls and wife to a skilled but struggling contractor who built custom homes. We lived on a virtual shoestring. Nonetheless, my life stretched ahead in an optimistic array of expectations, hopes, dreams, reality, and a...
by Merita Atherly Engen | Apr 15, 2022 | Childhood Abuse and Trauma, Culture of Silence, Points of Light, Restoration from Abuse
“The tired-er you get, the faster you go,” Dad used to comment when she was eight. Now, at seventy-two, her steps halt as my sister wheels her suitcase down the hall to our lodging at the conference center. JerryAnn isn’t going fast today, but she is going....
by Merita Atherly Engen | Oct 26, 2021 | Points of Light
Rose-Marie knew love existed—true, romantic only-come-once kind of love. That sense of belonging. That perfect fit she had felt way back when. Even though it had never been defined from the long-ago past, the seed lay silent and still in her heart. Maybe it would...
by Merita Atherly Engen | Sep 21, 2021 | Breaking through Darkness, Childhood Abuse and Trauma, Identity Restored, Points of Light, Restoration from Abuse
Rose-Marie* stood at the sink washing dishes. By hand. One pan was so dirty it needed special treatment. Like her heart. She knew God loved her, but her ability to love and forgive seemed wretched. How did God’s way work for her? Or anyone? She twitched her head....
