A Recovery Blog

This blog is about my continuing recovery from severe mental illness and addiction. I celebrate this recovery by continuing to write, by sharing my music and artwork and by exploring Buddhist and 12 Step ideas and concepts. I claim that the yin/yang symbol is representative of all of us because I have found that even in the midst of acute psychosis there is still sense, method and even a kind of balance. We are more resilient than we think. We can cross beyond the edge of the sane world and return to tell the tale. A deeper kind of balance takes hold when we get honest, when we reach out for help, when we tell our stories.

Song Lyrics

Consenting Adults

The cycle of abuse
Insidious as it is true
Filled with rationalizations
And sealed in secrecy.
Passed on to the children
By consenting adults
Who once were abused children
In the same situation,
Also victimized by
Consenting adults
Who swore by the sickness
As if it were the Truth.

The cycle of abuse
Cannot continue without you.
Don't put fuel on the fire,
Don't just watch the flames get higher
While you and the children suffer
Through the cycle of abuse
Again and again and again.

(Kate Kiernan 2013)


Divine Plan

There is a divine plan for everyone
It doesn't matter where you stand
High or low.
Sometimes it shows itself in the distance
Or even up close
When you're least expecting it
Sometimes you're in the flow of it
Carried along effortlessly
As far as the eye can see
With every thing in its proper place.
The light shines in every face you meet
And the sunlight is everywhere
And the clouds all disappear
Into the blue of the sky.

(Kate Kiernan  2015)


Still Over The Rainbow

Am I still somewhere over the rainbow
Walking along the Yellow Brick Road
With my Ruby Red slippers to protect me
From the wiles of the Wicked Witch
Who wants me dead?

Where are my companions
The ones who need the help too
Who need a mind, a heart and some courage
To distinguish the false from the true?

Where am I going in this foreign land?
Who is the wizard now who can help me understand
The complexities of my situation
That have led me to this holy consecration?

Holy consecration
Making the ordinary sacred too
It is in each and every step towards freedom
That you can finally face the greater truth.

(Kate Kiernan  2015)


Sticks And Stones

Sticks and stones won't break my bones
Won't put me off guard
Won't make it too hard for me to see.

I have been crucified before
I know what's in store for me.

The times are a changing.
The times are a changing.
Finally.

We came out of the seas
Then hung out in the trees
Then put our feet on solid ground
And began to walk.
And began to talk.

Fire and bones.
Tools and a home.
A place for the family.
But we had to wander around
On uncertain grounds,
We knew that we weren't free.

Fight, fight, fight
Might makes right
For new territory.

(Kate Kiernan  2015)


I Want You

Oh yes I want you
Please don't stay away.
We've both been hurt before,
Used, abused and neglected.

But you've been hiding way too long
Way up in that prison tower.
And though your heart is filled with songs
It still comes down to abuse of power.

We once were children in the grasses, in the sand
Holding on tightly to our mother's hand
Following even then a divine plan.

We thought we would surely grow up
Despite the pain, the horizons remained
Out in the distance,
Yet close enough to see,
The sun was rising above the trees.

(Kate Kiernan  2015)


Not Romeo, Not Juliette

You're not Romeo
And I'm not Juliette
And our families are not fighting.

Our stars may be crossed,
But our love is not lost,
It's just in hiding.

You're in your corner
And I'm in mine
In two separate houses
Divided by just a few miles.

And though I've never met you,
I've seen you around.
I know the people in this town would call me crazy
The way I talk to you out loud
When I'm alone.

You're not Romeo
And I'm not Juliette
And our families are not fighting.

Our stars may be crossed,
But our love is not lost,
It's just in hiding, in hiding.
We're just in hiding.

(Kate Kiernan  2015)




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