A REGULAR SAINT
FRANCIS
A reader emailed us the URL for this posting, and after reading Shoshie's Story we understand this Polin woman so much more. She really believes that God put her on earth to wipe the sweaty brows of the sick and needy. And like so many crusaders before her, her passion so quickly and terrifyingly turns to malicious scorn, especially when folks less holy than she dare criticize her. This is an edited version, to spare you her 8th grader’s prose. Go to the source for the complete life affirming mental orgy…
Because my time schedule is often different then most peoples, I've been borrowing a friend's dog to go with me when I walk in various local forest preserve. Shoshie is a great walking partner. I think she enjoys the walks as much as I do.
Shoshie and I had already walked just about 2 miles on a trail when all of a sudden she just stopped in her tracks. She wouldn't go any further. She was terrified. There was nothing ahead of us, and nothing behind us, yet she was like a deer in headlights.
My friend got Shoshie at a local animal rescue. Shoshie is a relatively young dog. I think she's about two-years-old. When my friend picked her out, she was told that the animal rescue found her in the middle of a highway, and she was frightened.
Then it dawned on me, we were on a different stretch of the path then I've taken her to before. Was there something that was familiar to Shoshie that was "freaking her out?" You have to realize that Shoshie had been traumatized. She has PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Yes, animals can react similarly to humans.
Shoshie was too afraid, too hyper-vigilant to be able to relax. There was no way I was going to get her to take a nap.
About an hour had passed since Shoshie started having abreactions (Webster's: "the expression and emotional discharge of unconscious material [as a repressed idea or emotion] by verbalization especially in the presence of a therapist"). I realized there was no way to get Shoshie out of her panic state. I realized I had no other option other then trying to pick her up and carrying her the distance of about another block to my car.
About another 20 minutes went by, when all of a sudden Shoshie looked at me, looked around where she was at, and just walked about a half a block straight over to my car.
I was stunned, and extremely happy Shoshie did that. I realized she was able to come back to reality. Her abreaction's to her childhood traumas subsided. Shoshie was able to re-orientate herself to time and place.
And now, the piece de resistance:
Shoshie’s behavior is not that different then many survivors of childhood abuse, prior to getting the help they need, so they could to learn to identity, process and verbalize what happened to them.
Son ova bitch...
Yori Yanover