Coming and Going Kylemore Abbey Ireland

There's a little bit of a traffic jam at the entrance to Kylemore Abbey in Galway Ireland. One tour group is leaving as another enters in.

When this place was built it was known as a private castle for the family that built it. Now it is a monastery run by Benedictine Nuns who use it for education and retreat activities.

@bxlphabet toured some of the buildings and gardens while he was on a pilgrimage to Ireland with the youth group from our church. From this photo it looks like they might have been the youngest people around.

This post is a bit of a break from the ptsd and exercise posts I have been putting on my son's blog. The ptsd is very hard to work on in particular, but it is getting huge response everywhere I post and share. It's amazing to find out how many people suffer with this illness - either for themselves, or by witnessing the pain a loved one goes through.

PTSD is a traumatic brain injury, not a mental health condition. There is a lot of conflicting research out there. Can you heal from the injury or do you just have to learn to deal with the symptoms of it when they come up?

One lady posted a story of running into the person who caused her pstd. This was not planned by either one of them - it was just a random event. She said she just had time to see the person try to reach out and she thinks he might feel bad about the past events. But for her, it was a moment of stark terror when everything came back. She said,

"Two years of hard work. Completely down the drain. I was just the same old mess I was before. I did not use one strategy I learned. I just ran and cried."

Other people in the group said they had similar stories, but all they can do is keep trying and learn from each scare.

This makes me realize why it is so hard for my son to be around me. He often tells me he remembers times I was sick or injured when he looks at my face. So maybe I just trigger him and it's better for us to be apart.

My son @bxlphabet's photo inspired this text today. I'm praying he is safe and will soon be back to let me know.

~ Sharon @fitinfun