It is easy to get lost. One minute you’re hiking along a beautiful trail enjoying the wonders of nature, and the next thing you know, you have made a wrong turn and don’t know where you are. You look around for signs that will reorient you, but no such signs appear. It is then that your mind starts to panic, and more than anything else in the world, you long to be home again.
The outer world is only one place we can get lost. The ever-growing number of problems we are currently facing as a culture can put so much stress on us that we begin to lose the way that leads to emotional health and well-being. Some get lost in depression and anxiety, where they are trapped in an emotional torture chamber. Some wander into the dark forest of anger, where they fight an unwinnable battle against the rest of the world. Others get lost in the past as they grieve unthinkable losses and struggle to free themselves from the clutches of past traumas. Still others lose their way in their relationships as those once cherished connections start to sour and grow bitter.
The book, “What Rhymes with Therapy” is a road map for those times when we get lost and cannot find our way home. Using the unique language of poetry, “What Rhymes with Therapy” describes the way emotional and relational problems work and how they can be successfully addressed. Each poem is like a therapy session that offers insights and directions designed to make you strong and resilient in a time when the world’s problems push to erode and weaken. So if you are feeling the burden of being unable to find your way to the health and well-being you want and need, consider these poetic pathways as guides that lead back to the safety, peace, and health of home.
Pathways
It seems that the world that surrounds me today.
Is filling with problems that don’t go away,
And as the world fills with this terrible mess,
I’m filling with ever more negative stress.
There’s COVID and climate and corporate greed.
There’s outrageous prices for things that we need.
There’s misinformation that’s meant to deceive,
So much that it’s hard to know who to believe.
There’s ongoing battles ‘tween Magas and Dems,
And unending fights between us’s and them’s,
Where one side says something, the other side shuns
On racism, gender, abortion and guns.
There’s war in Ukraine thanks to Putin and friends
And some who say this is how everything ends.
While others say robots we program today
Will soon start to program us all to obey.
If that’s not enough to be stressed all the time,
There’s China, the border, there’s drugs, and there’s crime.
There’s those who claim wokeness and those that oppose.
There’s gridlock among the elected we chose.
Attempting to manage the stress and the blues,
I turn to my life and I turn off the news,
But wouldn’t you know it, I find when I do
There’s stress and there’s problems existing there too.
The place where I work’s wanting more for less pay.
My in-laws come visit and won’t go away.
My partner complains that I’m not up to par,
And now, once again, something’s wrong with my car.
My kids go to school where I worry a lot
They’ll get education without getting shot.
This morning I tried to take positive views
To find that the cat had thrown up in my shoes.
Surrounded by problems, I can’t catch a break.
They frazzle my nerves, and they keep me awake.
At times it gets to me, I have to admit
And then stress has me, ‘stead of me having it.
If you are like me in these challenging times,
Read on for within there are rhythms and rhymes
That show the way through and some ways we can cope
And most of all show there are pathways to hope.