Trauma can take the capacity for longing, for visioning, from us. By necessity it keeps us shortsighted, tied to the past and focused on tracking and assessing dangers in the here and now. In PTSD research, it is referred to as “a foreshortened sense of future,” a hypervigilance that leaves little room for dreams or visions. While the short term, the immediate, can appear to us in vivid detail, the long term, the future, is hazy. When we can’t perceive too far ahead, it’s impossible to imagine that we can shape what comes and create a future we’ve never seen.
