Kelley O'Hanlon

The moon going from full moon to a red moon and starting to go back to a normal full moon, then my camera battery door fell off.

Here's my first edit on the March 3rd Lunar Eclipse. 15 moon shots, 1 foreground. Taken over a 3 hourish period.

Part of what happens w/ CPTSD is, we get convinced the voices of bullies & abusers we "hear" in our head are somehow more real than the voices of therapists, mentors, & other "good guys" we can also "hear"-- but the truth is, w/ practice we can CHOOSE who to "listen" to inside.

You've been conditioned to be mean to yourself in your head-- but no one can keep you from working to change that. No one can force you to KEEP being mean to yourself.

No one can choose FOR you, how you talk TO you-- once you decide to go off autopilot.

How you talk to yourself, ABOUT yourself, really will change your brain. That's real. It's happening now.

Every minute of every day we're either reinforcing what our bullies & abusers told us & made us feel about ourselves-- or we're scratching that old, sh*tty record.

If you're reading this, I want you to know that every tool, skill, & philosophy I talk about re: recovering from CPTSD is also applicable & available to you, whether or not you or anyone else thinks what you went through was "trauma."

Don't sweat the labels. Build the skills.

The intensity of our feelings is just the intensity of our feelings-- not a reliable barometer of what's happening in the world.

Our feelings absolutely deserve our attention & respect-- & also our realism about what they can & can't tell us about what's actually going on.

Three cute fluffy yellow Canada Goose goslings are swimming to the right across a pond. They are lined up one in front of the other.

These three little amigos are rocking today's #BirdOfTheDay theme of #SideView (birds that are side on to the camera) and also the Alt theme of #Yellow. (Canada Goose goslings)

#birds #photography

Black cat with big round eyes peeking from the bottom right corner against a soft textured yellow background. Handwritten white text reads, “I hope everything goes well for you today.”

Texas AG Paxton Declares Therapists Affirming Trans Youth To Be Illegal And Child Abuse The declaration echoes his 2022 efforts to target parents of trans youth with child abuse, and may force conversion therapy on trans youth in the state.

1. This morning, Texas AG Ken Paxton just released a chilling new declaration:

Mental health therapists, counselors, and psychologists must cease affirming trans youth - using their name and pronouns - or potentially face child abuse charges and loss of licensure.

Its a horrifying escalation.

Psychology says people who constantly apologize for things that aren't their fault aren't being polite. They grew up in an environment where someone else's bad mood was always their responsibility to ... That reflexive 'sorry' you can't stop saying was never about politeness — it was a survival strategy you learned before you had the language to name what was happening in your home.

"Psychology says people who constantly apologize for things that aren't their fault aren't being polite. They grew up in an environment where someone else's bad mood was always their responsibility to fix." share.google/LxDa6ftaoJmN...

Illustration of a small black cat with large white eyes sitting on a grassy field. The background is a textured sky blending bluish-gray tones with abstract warm orange shapes layered across it. The text above reads: “It’s almost never about being fully ready. It’s mostly about being brave enough to try and choose courage anyway.”

AS I KEEP REPEATING ENDLESSLY—(no, not "with the Right it's *always* projection, although yes, that too)—*do not trust* an oviparous lagomorph!

39 years ago, there were only 27 California condors in the world. As of 2025, we now have 607, including 392 that are living free in the wild.

"Put that in your doom and smoke it" -Ursula Vernon

www.fws.gov/media/2025-c...

It's hard to be, or explore, or develop, your true self when you have CPTSD hijacking your thoughts, feelings, & choices.

We don't work our recovery because we love thinking about trauma. We do it because we have an authentic self underneath it all who is waiting for us.

Things don't need to be "perfect" now, in the past, or in the future to create a livable, meaningful life.

That's not abstract philosophy or a trite platitude, it's a fact that's useful to remember as we approach this day, this hour, this minute w/ realism & self-compassion.

One of the biggest lies our trauma conditioning tells us is that, if we're not liked or loved by a specific person in a specific way, we are "worthless."

As if another human could arbitrarily assign or deprive us of true "worth" based on their mood or attention span that day?

If you know someone who is really great at running an RPG, you have got to hold on to them, you know?

Carpe DM, friends!

Absolute chaos in last night's game when the players enraged the philosopher construct made entirely of golden delicious. They proved that just because it thought it didn't really mean it existed. It really upset the apple Descartes.

We have stories about what families, partners should be, but no one person can fulfill all your emotional needs nor stereotype. Realizing my mom was never going to emotionally support me the way I needed was hard (she literally did not know how!). But I learned to accept what she COULD do

A light-brown and white owl, eyes shut, sits on a wooden shelf between a chicken-shaped cookie bowl and an urn.

I can't provie a full timeline cleanse, but here, courtesy of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Associated Press, is an eastern screech owl asleep in an antique store. (The owl was gently, and without incident, removed by NYSDEC and released into nearby woods.)

I’m telling you, we are the queerest city in Washington. Which surely places us high in the running for queerest worldwide.

A colorful male Wood Duck with vibrant, iridescent plumage, resting with its head tucked into its back feathers.

Male Wood Duck, Washington state

#birds #nature #ducks

Resilience is great. We want resilience. But to me trauma recovery is not about getting more "resilient." We've had enough "just getting by" by the skin of our "resilient" teeth.

To me the goal of recovery is measurably, meaningfully, REALISTICALLY improved quality of life.

Being told over & over again how admirably "resilient" you are can have the paradoxical effect of making you feel guilty for not being more "grateful" or otherwise happy you survived-- when the reality is you feel like garbage & want more & different from your life now.

Someone dying or otherwise no longer in our life doesn't mean our relationship w/ them ends. We still have to realistically acknowledge & manage our memories of them & their ongoing impact on us.

Losing someone changes our relationship-- it doesn't end it.

We face today w/ the tools & support we have, not the ones we "should" have, or we "wish" we had, or we had once upon a time. Trauma Brain's going to try to trick & distract us from realistically managing today-- but keep bringing it back.

Here, now, is where we have leverage.

The voice in your head right now, calling you "selfish" or "entitled" for acknowledging your pain or asserting your needs, has nothing to do w/ reality.

It has everything to do w/ making you feel like garbage so you'll stay small & compliant.

Remember.

More about how, despite his desperate attempts to distract himself with wine and women, he can't forget his lost love. The full text :

A male bufflehead swimming in dark green water

A female bufflehead swimming in dark colored water.

The males get all the attention with their iridescent heads but the females are lovely little ducks as well

A male and female bufflehead swimming past each other in a lake lit yellow and or she by reflected sunlight. The male has white sides and a black back, and a black and white head that shines with iridescent colors in the light. The female has beige sides and a black back and head, with a white stripe behind her eye.

A male bufflehead standing upright with its wings stretched back, flapping out its wings after cleaning itself

Easily my favorite duck, the tiny but brilliant Bufflehead
#birds #ducks