PAULETTE HARPER

It's been almost seven years since I jetisoned my life in California and fled to Oregon. To a place I'd never been; to a daughter I didn't know, really--and into a huge unknown. Perhaps it was a mid-life crisis, but after a life spent jumping from crisis to crisis--a life full of chaos and ruin, it's hard to tell. All I knew was that I was done. It had gotten to the point that I longed for death. Again. But instead of death, I've found life and light and love and healing. And balance. I've learned that what's important is living in the now. I govern my life by one simple principle: First, cause no harm to anyone, anything or myself. And when my actions would cause harm, it ceases to bec an option. No matter how badly I might want to do whatever it is. After a childhood tainted with rape and abuse and incest, after a life of ruin, drugs, PTSD and bi-polar disorder I didn't know I had; after all the loss that I'(and my family) experienced because of them, I know what it is to live.

Life. All of it. The ups, the downs, the paths between. What a wondrous thing it is to be alive! Family, PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder, bi-polar disorder, loss, ruin, crisis, chaos, triggers, anchors, healing, understanding, Veterans, warriors, Indian, Native American, pow-wows, recovery, drug addiction, success, sanctuary, gardening, animals, victums, victories, growing, writing, photography, tanning hides, apocolypse, survival, balance, beauty, honor,

Greg