Resources & Information
aerial sunrise
Wild Geese, by Mary Oliver


You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.


You only have to let the soft animal of your body

Love what it loves.


Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile, the world goes on.


Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

The mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.


Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.



 

evening-landscape
Low cost therapy


Therapy services for $15/session or less available from graduate interns. In Portland, contact

William Temple House 503-226-3021

PSU Counseling Clinic 503-725-4620

Lewis & Clark Community Counseling Center 503-768-6320


 

lotus
Surviving Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault 

Call to Safety (Pdx) 24/7: 503-235-5333

Safe Choice (Clark Co.) 24/7: 360-695-0501

National DV Hotline: 1-800-799-7233 



nature-crisp river


Urgent Or Emergency:


1. If you believe you are not able to keep yourself safe right now, it's an emergency. Don't overthink it: Call 911, or go now to the nearest ER.

2. If you are able to keep yourself safe from harm, but need immediate support:

(a) CALL (not text) your safe person/emergency contact.

(b) CALL (not text) 988 (24/7).

(c) Buy yourself some time: Go somewhere (library, Starbucks, popular park) // use a distraction technique // jump in a cold shower. Then, reassess.

(d) Go to a walk-in crisis clinic (check hours). Portland area: Cascadia (SE Pdx)-503-963-2575 / Hawthorn (Hillsboro)-503-846-4555





vantage-point

Everything is Waiting for You, by David Whyte


Your great mistake is to act the drama

as if you were alone. As if life

were a progressive and cunning crime

with no witness to the tiny hidden

transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny

the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,

even you, at times, have felt the grand array;

the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding

out your solo voice. You must note

the way the soap dish enables you,

or the window latch grants you freedom.

Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.

The stairs are your mentor of things

to come, the doors have always been there

to frighten and invite you,

and the tiny speaker in the phone

is your dream-ladder to divinity.


Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the

conversation. The kettle is singing

even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots

have left their arrogant aloofness and

seen the good in you at last. All the birds

and creatures of the world are unutterably

themselves. Everything is waiting for you.