Content
-
Final Message to the Misplaced: Accepting and Maturing
Dear Misplaced: As you age and mature as I did, you will learn about personal responsibility. To a certain point, you have dealt with the challenges of grief and adapting. It’s a chaotic process filled with a wide range of emotions and certainly some like us have gotten lost there. Of all the advice that I have to offer you, this is the most important. The mispalced who are stuck
-
Message Nine: Learning To Deal With Sexual Abuse
Dear Misplaced: No matter what you have gone through in the past, you have rights when it comes to your body. Like me, some of you have experienced situations in which you were sexually abused. If this has happened to you, then I am truly sorry. It is a horrible thing, and I know it all too well. If you have been reading along, and
-
Message Eight: Regaining Peace
Dear Misplaced: Briefly, as a young child, I felt it; inner peace. I honestly believe that this is truly when one is happy. A calmness in both mind and spirit. I also know what it feels like to lose mine. In a moment my life changed from peace to turmoil. I think that anyone who is torn from their family knows these two, very opposite feelings a little too well. I not only missed the
-
Message Seven: Misplaced = Valued
Dear Misplaced: I need to take a moment to clarify the language that I have been using to describe both your current and my past state of “misplaced”. On the surface, one might mistake the word “misplaced” for the word “lost”. While they are both similar descriptions, there is one very important difference, and that would be in the intent in which it is stated. For example, if I would state that
-
Message Six: Taking Care to Take Care
Dear Misplaced: If I haven’t made it quite clear to you yet; you matter! As you look to recover your life, you must learn that you and you alone are your biggest advocate. In that regard, you need to be responsible for your own physical wellbeing. No one else can really do it for you. At present, some of your physical needs like
-
Message Five: Building Your Base
Dear Misplaced: Regardless of your situation and background to this point, you may have discovered which tools and resources are at your disposal that will ultimately strengthen you. Strengthen what you might ask? Your mind; because it controls so much of your being. Every action and every attitude that you have starts with a thought. Those thoughts in turn affect both your body and soul. You may feel
-
Message Four: Taking Inventory
Dear Misplaced: Up to this point in your life, you may or may not be aware of the factors that have shaped you. What you think and how you think are mostly dependent on what you have been exposed to and how you have absorbed it. You are born with a lot of different things. The ability to differentiate between factors that are ultimately good for you and the factors that are ultimately
-
Message Three: Choosing The Right Savior
Dear Misplaced: I know the feeling quite well: the feeling of vulnerability. For people who have spent time as a child of the system, it is more than a feeling; it is a reality. It is the reality of hovering in a state of perpetual peril while the adults around you assign your worth; and most of the time, you will
-
Message Two: That Familiar Feeling
Dear Misplaced: I know that change is difficult. Unless you were a baby when you went to live in your foster or adoptive home, you have memories of that past family culture; it shaped who you are. You will find that in many cases however; those very familiar habits conflict with your new situation. Those established
-
Message One: Can You Relate?
Dear Misplaced: If you have read any of the fifteen memories that I have posted, you know quite a bit about my childhood. Perhaps your memories are a little better or worse than mine, but I think we definitely have something in common. I know about the hurt, the sadness, the scars, the isolation, and