The Lord Is My Courage: Stepping Through the Shadows of Fear Toward the Voice of Love

by K.J. Ramsey

Trauma is about the suspension of time and the separation of the self inside, wherein our bodies struggle to differentiate between past and present. Small reminders or rising states of stress can make us feel lost in space and time. Even though we might be technically safe and heard right now, inside we feel silenced and stuck, trapped in the place where we were harmed. As Walter Brueggemann says, “the taproot of violence is surely silence,”4 of our voices being so shut up and shut down that our bodies carry fear that we no longer have any say in the future of our stories. Psychologist Francine Shapiro reminds us that “by dictionary definition, trauma is any event that has had a lasting negative effect.”5 Trauma can also include the absence of attunement. When we haven’t received enough soothing and support from those who were supposed to give it, we often experience that lack as traumatic. Whether you’ve experienced a massive traumatic event or bear the load of a lack of attunement, the presence of long-term abuse or rigidity and control, please remember Shapiro’s definition when you are tempted to discount the effects of evil in your story and body.