Why I Wrote Peace With Trees

Last spring, on separate occasions, two friends came to me for advice. They had been going through really tough times, including struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, and wanted to know “how I did it”. Both of these friends have known me for decades and know all about “The Accident”, but as longtime friendships often drift apart and find their way back together again, neither knew the particulars of how I managed to come back from the worst time in my life. They were only familiar with the end result, which is me happily married with a successful acupuncture practice who enjoys traveling and living a healthy lifestyle.

I didn’t know exactly what to tell them at first. How did I do it? As introspective as I’ve always been, I didn’t have an immediate answer, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that maybe I did have a story to tell. Clearly, these two friends felt that by hearing my story they could maybe learn something from me to help themselves. Maybe my journey can bring answers for someone else.

The brilliant thing that has come from writing Peace With Trees is that not only did I answer “how I did it” for myself but it also brought me insight as to what I need to do to continue to do to manage my PTSD in the best way possible. Who knew that by trying to help my friends that it ultimately helped me so much!