Guest Post: A Happy Home = A Safe Home

Today's post is a guest post from one my clients. Danielle is an aspiring writer and currently working on her first fiction novel. Here, Danielle talks about finding a home for her and her daughter, where they can both feel safe, a place they can finally call home.  Let me know what you think!

Home

Running, heart thumping, reverberating in my ears, hot, intense breathing, cool slickly sweat - beading on my forehead, pooling across the back of my shoulders and then dripping, slowly -down my back, my body’s way of attempting to handle this, this fear. How did I find myself here? The events leading up to this point cascading into each other, catapulting me to this pivotal point. The playing field is far from level. Its him against me, I have tried other avenues, I know the law, I believed in the force, the slogan “to serve and protect”, except that I am not protected. I don’t feel a service has been provided, I am overcome by fear, each and every time I leave my home. When you live your life in fear, never knowing when the threat will materialize, show its ugly face, turn you into someone you never thought you had the ability to become. Security, safety, are words we use, but their meaning, what they really represent are beyond reach. The past is all we know of the future, and our mistakes tend to repeat themselves, until you really learn. Until you can no longer walk down that path, until the fear becomes too much, in my case, my fear was compounded with strong feelings of hatred, hatred simmering beneath the surface, threatening to overtake me.

With the help of my real estate agent, Aleksandra, I moved here to get a fresh start, a place where my daughter and I could call our own, that wasn’t tainted with his touch, his knowledge of its existence. On moving in, it was pale and uncharacteristic, surrounded by stairs, a non-descript fortress on a hill. I claimed the top floor, became knowledgeable with the sounds the walls make, the stairs, the various creaks and groans in the floor. I began to decorate. I put up photographs – smiles frozen in time, an expression of love between a mother and a daughter, a moment, caught by a lens, forever on display, and it feels right, these small little expressions of happiness. I hung window dressings, began to make memories, to put the past behind me, to take control of my future, to really truly know what it means to feel safe. These four walls that I have slowly come to love, they are stable, safe, and strong, they provide me with a sense of security. I created a..... home.

-Danielle

Have a great weekend!