Early Memories:
- singing "Cristo Me Ama" in preschool Sunday School
- listening to records while lying on the floor in front of the record player in the great room.
- getting in trouble for having mud on my shoes in kindergarten
- riding in the big blue Oldsmobile that we named "Betsy"
- visiting with Mrs. Ruby & Mr. John next door for hours at a time. They were my pretend Grandparents.
- getting pinched by my Papa when we visited them in Vicksbury, MS. It was a love pinch.
- being afraid that big dogs would jump in my windows at night.
- sleeping with the attic fan on in the summer.
- feeling loved and secure as a child.
- playing outside.
All of these memories are happy ones, well except for the dog fear. As a School Counselor, I work with many children who do not have positive, happy memories. It is amazing how much your past (especially what you don't remember) shapes you as a person. Trauma, tragedy & lack of structure as an infant truly alters the genes. As I get older, I am more and more thankful for my stable and positive childhood.
For more information on what trauma does to the brain, read this book, Ghosts From The Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence, by Robin Karr-Morse and Meredith S. Wiley. I read this in Graduate School. It was so informative.
Summary: "Although violent behavior has typically been traced to adolescence. Ghosts from the Nursery points to the cradle years as the genesis of this problem. In dear and accessible prose, Karr-Morse and Wiley integrate real stories with compelling new research on psychological and physiological brain development to demonstrate that positive infant care stimulates the brains capacity for intelligence, trust, and empathy, while trauma, abuse, and neglect during the fine two years of life can lead to the permanent suppression of these important protective capacities."
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