“Put It To Rest” Spring Highlights: Healthy Boundaries Is a Hot Topic!
Newsletter 24
I’m not sure I ever knew anything about having healthy boundaries.
Since I grew up in an enmeshed home and experienced “parentification ” (taking on physical and/or emotional tasks meant for adults) similar to the relationships that my parents encountered with their own caregivers, then the cycle repeated.
At first, I thought that some of my challenges were due to my weakness for people-pleasing which I’ve written about extensively, but upon more introspection, it turns out that creating healthy boundaries with friends, family, and colleagues is possible but takes patience and perseverance.
I’ve discovered that enmeshment can be such a complex issue in family dynamics, that those who are enmeshed make major choices such as estrangment because people struggle to maintain boundaries. I wrote about this in the article Cutting Them Off Is Not The Answer: Make Healthy Boundaries and Connections Instead.
While I’m aware that some people are not safe for boundaries, I would like to send an empowering message again: If the relationship is worth it to you then it’s worth learning how to put yourself first because practicing healthy boundaries is a choice.
Please enjoy poetry and prose highlights from the Spring that explore the topic of building and maintaining healthy boundaries in our relationships.
Poetry
Margie Willis Locomotive Gloom:
Remember those gloomy smooches
defiant . . . so sparing and reluctant
felt like a dizzying immersion in ink
indelibly etched by rattlesnake fangs.
Lucy Lewis I Remember:
I long for a time when I will return
transformation finally complete
Escaping my shielding chrysalis,
flying into the amber-kissed sky
My rebirth will be exquisite.
When you cringed, crawled,
and whispered into thin air
I painted a sun tearing through your smog,
the world could do with more sun
Joao Coimbra To become presence means accepting the risk of absence
to risk all of your comfort
it comes with great reward
but only if you come with gifts
of vulnerability
My happiness, my peace
It is mine
You cannot ruin it!
You cannot take it!
Life’s trials won’t break me, they make me strong,
I rise above, where I truly belong.
Through the punches I’ve taken, I’ve found my way
When you live and come out on the top
Tame the brain, flow over and through
You make the rules in the game
Vibe out on your plane…
Lindsay Soberano Wilson Mom On the iPhone
yes, sometimes,
mom’s gotta do what mom’s gotta do
and this small picture of her life
does not define her
as you tweet out virtue signals.
Non-Fiction
Chris Patton My Pain is Real, and it is My Muse:
Despite the fact that my pain remains hidden, it strangely serves as a source of inspiration for my creative pursuits. It has frequently acted as the catalyst for my most successful work.
Lindsay Soberano Wilson The Way We Celebrate Mother’s Day Is A Personal Choice:
I don’t know about you but I’m getting pretty tired of being told I can’t celebrate myself. Why is it that when someone falls within the realm of the status quo that they are supposed to shrink? Why is it that being a mom can’t be celebrated for being just that — a mom!
Open for Submissions
Put It To Rest celebrate the light after the rain and inspires writers to explore their voices to tell their stories and finally “put them to rest.”
So if your writing is raw and vulnerable and you’re ready to put it to rest, then consider joining our growing community of poets, essayists, and short story writers.
Put It To Rest accepts personal essays, poetry, and short stories about life experiences that have weighed on your mental health and that you wish to explore through writing as a therapeutic endeavor.
House your work here to Put It To Rest where you can grow as a writer and eventually be featured on Our Writers page.
I am happy to be an editor and help others grow their audience and improve their writing. I want to also help those who consider themselves new to writing to tell their story and reap the benefits of this exercise.
I want to help you to tell your story.
*Please follow the submission guidelines so we can do so together!*
Support the Put It To Rest writing community by following us across all social media platforms, including Medium, Twitter, and Instagram.
Lindsay Soberano-Wilson is a poet, teacher, and editor of Put It To Rest and iPoetry. Hoods of Motherhood: A Collection of Poems (2023) was recently released! Lindsay’s debut poetry collection is for anyone and everyone who ever had to learn to love themselves the way they love others (Prolific Pulse Press LLC) and is now available at online bookstores. Casa de mi Corazón: A Travel Journal of Poetry and Memoir explores how travel shaped her Jewish Canadian identity. Her poems and articles have appeared in FreshVoices, Embrace of Dawn, Poetry 365, PoetryPause, Quills Erotic Canadian Poetry Magazine, Canadian Woman Studies Journal, Fevers of the Mind, and Poetica Magazine. Find her on Medium, Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok.
Anthony O'Dugan Colleen Killingsworth Anne Shark Shirley Lover Boy in Space Jac Harmony GB Rogut Justin Farley Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld KooKooBananas Omosivie Edebiri Glassgirl Rina Zhubi Erik Burger Michael Centrone Aimée Brown Gramblin Carolyn Riker Vincent Pisano Michelle Renee Kidwell Doran Lamb Priyanka Srivastava JD Greyson Tre L. Loadholt Stephanie Parry Judy McCord kasey sparks Theodore McDowell Norb Aikin Verity Simmons Lorna Dr. Gabriella Korosi Morgen B. Nudel
