I'm grateful for rain because, when I was kidnapped, that meant that I had something to drink.
Elizabeth SmartRead
Privacy is so sacred, and any time a victim is returned, a survivor is found and rescued, privacy is one of the greatest gifts we can give them because if they decide to share, that's up to them, and they will come forward.
Interpretation
Privacy is essential for survivors to feel safe and in control of their own narrative.
In this quote, Elizabeth Smart emphasizes the importance of privacy for victims and survivors of trauma or abuse. She asserts that allowing survivors the space and choice to share their experiences is a profound gift, as it empowers them to regain control and decide how and when they wish to communicate their stories. The act of respecting their privacy not only supports their healing process but also facilitates their potential to come forward on their own terms.
In practice
During a speech about trauma recovery to emphasize the importance of personal space.
I'm grateful for rain because, when I was kidnapped, that meant that I had something to drink.
Yesterday from my office window I saw a crippled girl negotiating her way across the street, her shoulders squarely braced. At each jerky movement her hair flew back like an annunciatory angel, and I saw she was the only dancer on the street.
How can I be kind? How can I find bird-relief in the nest-building of day-to-day? Necessity supplies no velvet wing with which to escape. I am indeed and mortally pierced with the seeds of love.
That happened to me, but I'm so much more than that girl that was kidnapped.
Even when I get on airplanes, very often, as I walk down the aisle, I notice a lot of people staring or whispering. I recognize the fact that yes, to a lot of people, I will always be that 14-year-old girl who was kidnapped and who was held captive.
I think forgiveness is probably one of the greatest forms of self-love there is because you don't do forgiveness for anybody else. My captors will never care if I forgive them... It will not make a day of difference to them at all, but it will make a huge difference to me.
The most basic human desire is to feel like you belong. Fitting in is important.
A mirror reflects a man's face, but what he is really like is shown by the_x000D_ kind of friends he chooses.
You are going to share in the most intimate parts of your patients' lives. You will share in their moments of tragedy. But you will also share in their moments of greatest joy.
Well, you never knew exactly how much space you occupied in people's lives. Yet from this fog his affection emerged--the best contacts are when one knows the obstacles and still wants to preserve a relation.
Much of the time, the things we feel guilty about are not our issues. Another person behaves inappropriately or in some way violates our boundaries. We challenge the behavior, and the person gets angry and defensive. Then we feel guilty.
Ever since the Christmas of 1953, I have felt that the yuletide is a special hell for those families who have suffered any loss or who must admit to any imperfection; the so-called spirit of giving can be as greedy as receiving-Christmas is our time to be aware of what we lack, of who's not home.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.