Girl Called Karen by Karen McConnell, Eileen Brand Page A

have come to the shelter professing a conviction for the Wiccan principles. I can’t begin to tell you how much these declarations of personal convictions can and often do enrage the adults in the teen’s life.
    We long ago decided to respect the young person’s personal exploration of spiritual beliefs.
    Give your children and yourself the permission to explore. Watch a movie for the entertainment value, and then investigate its underbelly. Visit other religious institutions. Really read and study. Don’t just read the headlines and listen to the inane sound bites that can never accurately capture the essence of any religious ideology. Be open to nature and art. The pure joy of poetry or the sheer beauty of a watercolor can lift and delight the spirit. That is spirituality.
    My cousin, Laura Karasek, is one of those fey spirits that my pragmatic self can never quite understand. Butit doesn’t matter because she still moves me in ways that heal even when I don’t understand how.
    Georgia O’Keeffe wrote, “If you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment.” Pick a flower and enter that world for a time. Let that world help heal your soul.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Learning and Creativity
    S ome years ago, I read that doing a crossword puzzle was like taking a pill to prevent Alzheimer’s disease, and so I began working on a crossword puzzle every night. In all fairness, I have to admit that I enjoy doing the puzzles, so it is not a great chore. There is such a sense of achievement when all the little boxes are filled. Through the years, I have gotten better at filling the boxes. I learn new words, and I have to stretch to find different meanings for the clues. It is a good example of how learning and stretching your intellectual muscles can improve your confidence and faith in yourself.
    An interest in learning and a capacity for creativity are factors associated with more resilient individuals. If we know that learning and creativity are characteristics of resilient people, then it follows thatencouraging learning will make it more likely that a child or adult will become more resilient.
    From the time I learned to read, I was a dedicated reader. My foster mother said that the house could burn down around me and I wouldn’t notice until the flames licked my feet. Books have always been a refuge for me, a place to get away. They have meant enjoyment and knowledge. I learned young that knowing what you are talking about can be very powerful.
    I worked with a little boy who came from a family where the written word had no respect. He was placed in a foster family whose members valued reading. They never said that he had to read, but television viewing was limited, and everyone else was reading. The foster mother made sure that there were exciting age-appropriate books available to the youngster. Eventually, he read. In the year that he remained with the foster family, his confidence grew by leaps and bounds. His ability to assess a situation and accept consequences increased significantly.
    The pure joy of intellectual discovery is both rewarding and expanding. The capacity for, and connection to, learning is an endlessly valuable tool for building personal resiliency.
    Creative expression is another powerful means for acquiring personal resilience. When Ginny came into the therapeutic foster care program, she had been diagnosed with multiple problems. Among them was a very low intellectual functioning. She was twelve,loving and affectionate, but unable to grasp the most undemanding tasks or straight-forward concepts. We discovered that she could learn and retain more if we used music and rhythm. Just by tapping into her creative side, she could achieve a great deal more.
    One teen I worked with had a great natural talent for drawing. She used her art in her therapy to help say that which was intolerable. She used her talent to be still and hear. She gave her works to me and to others