Asked to share a bio...

I started on facebook back in 2009. In 2012 I was so tired of seeing posts that didn't really mean much to me personally and I had been helping out a friend as an admin on their page. I thought, why put all of my energy into someone else's page when perhaps I can help others, and myself, heal by starting my own?  I decided to start Smoothing Ragged Edges then, promising myself to keep it positive and healing.  At that time I was living in Paris France since 1998. My husband was French.

Smoothing Ragged Edges
I am a sexual abuse survivor. 

My page was to promote healing and positivity to every type of abuse and neglect survivor out there. It has morphed into healing also for those from drugs, alcohol, PTSD and any other type of mental healing needed.

I also at that time started a 'fun page', to help myself to find joy and laughter. Once Upon A Time - PIP's Phoenix the page and PIP was born. It stands for Pat in Paris. 

In 2013 my husband passed away 3 months before his retirement kicked in and the date we were supposed to return to Michigan, where, I was born and raised. I lost my husband, home, friends and my adopted country in 3 months time. I returned to the family home and within 2 weeks had my mother with dementia living with me and an old friend with back/bone problems living here also. Both have now passed. But I managed to stay busy between that and taking care of the house, yard, garden, cutting/splitting wood, preserving food and honestly, running from the grief which threatened to consume me if I stopped running. This past November, I stopped running.

This blog was started March 1, 2013. It was hit and miss for years. Just this last fall I have tried to write daily in it. 

Talking with different friends, page owners, and sharing a bit more of my writing with them they convinced me my writing, what little I open up myself to do, was good enough to put on a page and share it. Thus...on Valentines Day, I created Smoothing Ragged Edges-B4. 

My writing comes easier in bits and pieces, small posts, as I have done for Smoothing. Now a bit more has come out. I have such strong walls and defenses I suffer from headaches after almost every longer writing. My mind does not want me to go back. 

I am very introverted, empathetic, considered as a bit of a hermit. I am fighting every step of the way to open up and learn who I am, where I can heal and trying to be more 'friendly'. 

Thank you for liking and sharing my pages...you are actually sharing a part of me from each of them.

~Pat