Hi there, lovely writers.

This past week, Tania Pryputniewicz, a poet and artist friend I "met" online last year, posted a guest blog at Women of Wonder.  Called "Words as Spiral Path," Tania shares her story of rape, her poetry as a way of looking at what happened to her on many levels, and also explains the poetry. It's an incredibly-gorgeous-beautiful-honest-vulnerable piece that, when I read it, I asked Tania if she wasn't sure she wanted to reconsider posting it on my blog. I mean, it's so good that it needs to be somewhere beyond a blog, somewhere that might reach girls and women who have experienced sexual trauma, who think they're alone, who believe it's their "fault", who have oodles of hurtful comments that are still repeating around and around the fissures of their brain.

It's a very powerful piece.

With her permission, I'm sharing it here. Because....whew. It's damn good writing. But also because her post has taken on a life of its own. Many women have already responded because it touches in them a tender spot that needs some love and understanding. Others have written because they, too, are survivors, and they see themselves in her words. And the amazing beauty for many of us survivors is that through Tania's words, old layers of self-loathing, of self-hate, of negative self-talk are melting away. As Tania recently told me: "The writing of this post has helped me release the next layer of sadness, and move in to life with more joy."

And isn't that why we write?

Read it here. Comment here or on the blog. Share it with someone you know who needs to read it. Because we all know someone who needs to hear they are not alone.

Peace and blessings,

Ginny