[SEATJERKER]

... Then I began to move my hands over the wall
...over names I did not know,
...slow at first then faster, almost frantically
...at first not knowing why, but then knowing.

...I was looking for one name,
...I was looking for the one groove that my hands would know the best,
...The one that would confirm what I always knew to be true, but was afraid to admit,
...A name that wasn't there, but should have been mine.

...It was that realitatizion, that surprize when it all rushed in,
...The horriblenes too horrible to remember,
...Too awful to forget
...When it all came back in on me, overwhelming me, forcing me to face what I could not accept
...The source of my guilt, my one great sin,
...I had lived, I had survived, I came back...

...I left the wall.
...I asscended out of that deep, dark hole of a different person.
...Tired, emotionally exusted,
...I stood there looking back where I had been.
...I knew my pain had not magically left me
...carry it with me today, but I carry it, It no longer carries me.

...This was the healing I could not find before

...The Wall told me my name was not there,
...and said go save your life, you do not belong here.

...And so I do, live my life now,
...beyond The Wall




...Patrick Overton, Ph.D
...Columbia, MO
...Excerpt form The Healing Wall



...One of the best short writings I have read,...

..."Welcome Home"

...ALL

...