Stories of Resilience: A Novel Reflects Our Complex Relationships and Wounding
Estimated reading time: 11 minutes
A psychotherapist draws from her client experiences to craft a novel inspired by human courage and hope in the face of painful circumstances
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After stopping to smell my twentieth flower, I took a deep breath and headed to the mossy spot I knew Josh liked. I found him lying with his arm over his eyes, his distressed pose. I sat down next to him, my stomach in knots.
“Sorry, Josh.”
“Okay.”
“It won’t happen again.” At least not for a while, and hopefully he would be the one to kiss me next time.
“Okay.”
He was lying perfectly still, probably afraid to move around me now. I was a bundle of jittery nerves, sitting there rocking my legs from side to side, tapping my feet together.
“Can we go back to normal?”
“Okay.”
“That’s not very convincing.”
He moved his arm to look at me. “My life is so not normal right now, Kai. And you just made it weirder. I would love for things to go back to normal, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.” He put his arm back over his eyes. I felt like I was going to cry but held it in.
“I really am sorry. I didn’t mean it.”
“Don’t bullshit me, Kai. If you want to
