Hugs,~Crystal
Wave Rider: Poetic Journey from Abuse to Wholeness
Genre
Spiritual Memoir / Poetry
Amazon Link
Goodreads Link
About
Wave Rider is a poetic reflection of author Rebecca Fitton’s long journey to heal from sexual abuse, abandonment, and neglect, building a new world based on wholeness of body, mind, and spirit. Her journey has taken a lifetime. To use the metaphor of waves, sometimes the undertow nearly drowned her—but she survived. Now her beautiful and profound book offers inspiration to others who have also suffered greatly from abuse.
Praise
"Rebecca’s journey, delightfully presented through her sacred poetry, resonates with an archetypal journey shared by many. The intimacy of her sharing and beautifully aligned prose guides us into a state of consciousness where peace can be found. Her book is a delicious delving into the sacredness of individuation." —Melissa Pickett
"It is said that the longest journey begins with the first step. Truthfully, something precedes the first step: saying “yes” to the journey. In her book of poems, Rebecca invites us into her journey—one that says a resounding “yes” to life and an emphatic “no” to abuse. Her voice found through poetry, Rebecca speaks with courage, determination, and delight. My life-journey is the richer after reading her poems." —Paul Chitwood, L.M.T.
"I have been reading Rebecca’s poetry for a few years now. Her choice of words in describing deep emotions, life’s challenges, and pivotal awareness-evoking experiences creates for me a rich and expansive tapestry of multidimensional memories, feelings, and a desire to explore further within myself issues and life mysteries raised by her poetry." —Emily M. Smith
Rebecca Pott Fitton explored different places and professional work. She grew up in Delaware and went to college in upstate New York. After graduating from Keuka College, she earned an M.A. in international relations at the University of Delaware. Then she headed to Michigan for careers in urban planning and health-care administration and an MBA from the University of Detroit. She continued working in health care in Ohio and retired as president of CareView Home Health in Middletown, Ohio. Retirement can be a busy time. Fitton brought her business acumen to service on five nonprofit boards. After her husband, Richard, died, she realized that the time had come to remake herself. As the lyrics of the song go, “I’d built a life wrapped so tight it was strangling me.” Freedom was a spirit call from Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Thank you to WOW! Women on Writing for allowing me an opportunity to participate in this book blog tour!
Be sure to check out some of the future blog stops on this tour:
Feb 14 @ Bring on Lemons with Tara Forst
Wisconsin mom, foster mom, wife, babywearing enthusiast, and business owner Tara Forst reads and review Wave Rider by Rebecca Fitton.
http://bringonlemons.blogspot.com/
Feb 15 @ The Constant Story with David W. Berner
Author and radio personality David W Berner reviews Rebecca Fitton’s book Wave Rider and shares his thoughts with readers at The Constant Story.
http://davidwberner.blogspot.com/
Journaling to Heal - today's blog post inspired by Rebecca Pott Fitton's Wave Rider
After reading Rebecca Pott Fitton's book Wave Rider: Poetic Journey from Abuse to Wholeness, I was reminded of the importance of journaling as a healing tool. Whether it be an abusive relationship, assault, a professional or personal set-back, the loss of a loved one, an illness, or any type of hardship, journaling can be a therapeutic way for a person to heal. For some of us, writing down our thoughts can seem difficult at first. I found that routine is the best way for me to keep at my journals. If I keep a journal next to the bed and make it part of my bedtime ritual it keeps me at it much longer than saying 'oh - sometime today I'll get to it' because life gets in the way. Another benefit to journaling from bed is being able to jot down my dreams as soon as I wake up in the morning. I'm not a huge dream journaler, but every once in a while I have an awesome dream that leaves me with goosebumps in the morning. I usually add those impressive dreams to my journal.
Another note I'd like to make is that you don't need to journal with the intent of healing. Sometimes you journal just to journal and then all of a sudden you realize you feel better after releasing things onto the page. Every day in your journal doesn't have to be the same, Sometimes you may want to write down the lyrics to a favorite song, a great recipe, a poem you made up, or you may want to draw a picture. The thing to remember is there aren't any rules in journaling and no one needs to see what you write (unless you want them to). I think it's very brave of people like Rebecca Pott Fitton to release their writings into the world - for me, it feels rewarding enough to release them onto the page.
I am a very empathetic person and I sometimes feel overwhelmed by new stories. I use my journal as a way to write a new ending to a sad story. For example, a mother who killed her baby and failed at an attempt to take her own life...I can re-write that any way I like. If I want to re-write the entire scenario I can have the mother recognize her depression and ask for help before the baby dies, or I can write the story as a fairytale where the little boy meets a happy village of mythical creatures and lives happily ever after is a primary colored jungle filled with excitement and fluffy clouds. There's probably a psychotherapist reading this who is thinking I need years of counseling - but this is MY journal and MY way of dealing with life.
Have you ever journaled to heal?
What are techniques you have used to help you stay on task with your journaling?
Have you ever written a poem about a particular point in your life?
What moved you to write that poem and what do you plan on doing with it?
Please feel free to leave a comment or ask a question - it's great hearing from YOU!
Information about today's author(that's me!) Crystal J. Casavant-Otto:Crystal is a secretary and musician at her church, babywearing cloth diapering mama (aka crunchy mama), business owner, active journaler, writer and blogger, Blog Tour Manager with WOW! Women on Writing, Publicist with Dream of Things Publishing, Press Corp teammate for the DairyGirl Network, Unicorn Mom Ambassador, as well as a dairy farmer. She lives in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin with her husband, four young children (Carmen 9, Andre 8, Breccan 3, and Delphine 1), two dogs, two rabbits, four little piggies, a handful of cats and kittens, and over 230 Holsteins.
You can find Crystal riding unicorns, taking the ordinary and giving it a little extra (making it extraordinary), blogging and reviewing books, baby carriers, cloth diapers, and all sorts of other stuff here, and at WOW! Women on Writing.
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