Bring Forth What Is In You

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
May 27, 2024

Memorial Day always brings me back to why I started to do this work over 4 decades ago. Back then, the only information I could find about #PTSD focused on veterans, like my veteran. He's a Vietnam veteran. It is because of veterans like him coming home with the unseen wounds of war that we learned about what surviving does to survivors of all traumatic events.

The oldest pandemic this nation has ever seen

If you read anything about men and women being willing to die for the sake of this nation, know this, those who survived never stopped paying the price for it. No one was forced to fight back then and no one was warned about what it would do to them other than losing their lives or limbs. The wound they brought back home needed to be healed but no one knew how to treat it.

Now we know better. We know there is a price to pay for surviving. Mental Health professionals have seen it firsthand by brain scans and learning from their patients. They focused on the mind. Physical therapists learned how to help veterans control what it did to their bodies with treatments such as Yoga. They focused on the body. Sadly, the problem was that the spiritual aspect of what was also inside their patients needed to be addressed, but wasn't.

The military has relied on Chaplains to care for the spiritual needs of service members. The Veterans Administration has recently focused on the spiritual healing of veterans with PTSD. Have you ever heard about the price far too many clergy members pay for what they do? The truth is that 35% meet the criteria for PTSD. They treat civilians so it is easy to see how military chaplains can pay the price as well as them. 

The most important thing that keeps getting missed is, that everything you need to heal is within you but the chaplains don't seem to know it is also in them.

The Gnostic Gospels Frontline
Jesus said, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”

You were created for a purpose. If you decided to be willing to pay the price to serve others, everything you needed, was in you from the beginning. Courage and compassion were in you along with the ability to make peace with what you had to endure and heal from within. Otherwise what gifts you have within you will allow PTSD to destroy you.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

If you believe you are paying a price as if God judged you for whatever wrong you think you may have done, it blocks your ability to heal. If you know there is nothing you cannot be forgiven for, it frees your ability to use what He put in you.

Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? Hebrews 1:14

As for Chaplains, you were sent with everything you need to heal within you. Isn't it time to bring forth what is in you too? Once you do, you will become the healing power as a minister to their spirits.

It is time for all of you to come out of the dark and realize you are not alone. Have the courage to open up about your struggles and then use your compassion to help others heal.

Kathie Costos author of For The Love Of Jack His War My Battle, The Warrior Saw, Residual War, The Scribe Of Salem, The Visionary Of Salem and the 13th MInister Of Salem.

Day after Memorial Day regrets

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
May 31, 2022

 I wanted to know what it was like for the majority of the people in this country, so yesterday I decided to try to ignore it was Memorial Day. I went shopping and did the normal stuff I usually do as if it was just another day. Ever since I can remember, I always honored Memorial Day. I won't say I "celebrated" it because, to tell the truth, I find it repulsive to celebrate a day like this. A lot of people disagree with me, but, that's what I believe.

My Dad, uncles, and my husband, along with most of our friends, know the price paid to serve this country. The families know it too. What I didn't know was what it was like to ignore them. Today, I'm filled with regrets about doing what the majority of people do. 

What kind of people are they? What do they value? Do they know that the minority of people who have lived in this country, provided for the defense of this whole country?

To me, Memorial Day is bittersweet, because of all the suffering that goes unnoticed and unaddressed. The price of war is always carried off the field of battle, in the hearts of those who lost someone, and in the minds of those who have lost themselves.

These men and women were just like the rest of us in a lot of ways. They had their political views, liked and disliked things, and hated and loved other things. The one thing that bound them together was no matter what divided them at home, in war, they were willing to die for one another. These same simple, heroic humans were willing to do that, yet, back home, people can't bring themselves to talk to someone else they disagree with.

Anyway, this was the first and last time I'll ignore Memorial Day because ignoring them, feels like a betrayal to my family and friends. None of them were, or are, superheroes. Not one of them was perfect. They all had flaws and strengths just like the rest of us. They all had dreams and plans, just like everyone else. Unlike everyone else, they did what none of us will ever do. They gave parts of their lives so we could live ours with rights we are too afraid to stand up and stand in line for. The right to decide who and what we want to become and how we want to live, worship, or not, where we want to live, and how we want to live our life. I choose to never again live as if they never existed and Memorial Day is just the beginning of summer.

PBS Memorial Day concert

Remember the veterans who fought so you could heal #PTSD

PTSD Patrol and Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
May 30, 2021

Every Memorial Day, I cry more than most people. Almost everyone thinks about the lives lost during wars, but few think about all those who died because of the wars they fought. It also grieves me that most Americans fighting their own battles with PTSD, have no clue that the help they receive, was created because Vietnam Veterans came home and fought for all of it.

While I got involved almost forty years ago, the Afghanistan and Iraq veterans ended up getting all the attention because their generation was coming home, suffering, and committing suicide. The problem was, the majority of the veteran suicides known, were mostly over the age of fifty. In other words, pre-9 11 veterans, but few seemed to care.

In 2015 I did a video with Mike and the Mechanics song The Living Years. Vietnam Veterans Remembered was to let them know that someone was paying attention to what was still happening to them.

When I lived in Florida, I always recorded the escort of the Wall going into Wickham Park. I used that footage along with images from Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan because of the lyrics of the song. Too many forget that war they fought and too many do not know they are still fighting it.

"So we open up a quarrel Between the present and the past"

No Vietnam veteran wants to take away from the newer generations. They took a vow to fight for all generations. The thing is, they don't want to be pushed aside. It should never be one generation being helped while sacrificing the other generations.

Once in a while I go back through some old emails. This is from 2006 about the book I wrote, For The Love Of Jack. I wrote it about our generation before 2001 and then self published it to help the newer generation that would follow them, and their families. That is something I learned from them...to fight for all generations.

Thank you so much for sharing your pain and story, You have helped me with my family and you dont even know it....As I read your story I was sitting there realising that you were talking about me in so many ways...the way I had become and the way I was headed. And Yes I am a combat Vet, from a long line of vets.......if I could just find out why there is no answers...........But I wanted to say thank you.......

Let the images sink in on this video because the pictures from Afghanistan and Iraq were the only ones people seemed to care about, but the older generations waited longer, suffered longer and still fought for the newer generation so that they would not end up like them.

The thing is, my generation is still fighting so that the newer generation does not have to suffer instead of healing the wounds they carried for far too long. We are retiring and dying off but doing all we can "in the living years."

When Vietnam veterans came home and fought for all the research on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, they were concentrating on what happens to those who fight the wars for this country. They had no clue that their efforts would end up helping everyone with PTSD. If you have PTSD and are getting help to heal, and you see a Vietnam veteran, say "thank you" to them because you have the hope of healing because of them.

Remember, it is your life...get in and drive it!

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD

The Living Years

Song by Mike + The Mechanics

Every generation

Blames the one before

And all of their frustrations

Come beating on your door

I know that I'm a prisoner

To all my Father held so dear

I know that I'm a hostage

To all his hopes and fears

I just wish I could have told him in the living years

Oh, crumpled bits of paper

Filled with imperfect thought

Stilted conversations

I'm afraid that's all we've got

You say you just don't see it

He says it's perfect sense

You just can't get agreement

In this present tense

We all talk a different language

Talking in defence

Say it loud (say it loud), say it clear (oh say it clear)

You can listen as well as you hear

It's too late (it's too late) when we die (oh when we die)

To admit we don't see eye to eye

So we open up a quarrel

Between the present and the past

We only sacrifice the future

It's the bitterness that lasts

So don't yield to the fortunes

You sometimes see as fate

It may have a new perspective

On a different day

And if you don't give up, and don't give in

You may just be okay

So say it loud, say it clear (oh say it clear)

You can listen as well as you hear

Because it's too late, it's too late (it's too late) when we die (oh when we die)

To admit we don't see eye to eye

I wasn't there that morning

When my Father passed away

I didn't get to tell him

All the things I had to say

I think I caught his spirit

Later that same year

I'm sure I heard his echo

In my baby's new born tears

I just wish I could have told him in the living years

Say it loud, say it clear (oh say it clear)

You can listen as well as you hear

It's too late (it's too late) when we die (it's too late when we die)

To admit we don't see eye to eye

So say it, say it, say it loud (say it loud)

Say it clear (come on say it clear)

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: B.A. Robertson / Mike Rutherford (gb)

The Living Years lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Concord Music Publishing LLC

This is what patriots do for their county

Most of the people in the US are really patriots doing whatever they can for their country. They put others ahead of their own lives. Sure they want to be out in the sunshine and enjoying their lives, but right now the priority is saving lives.

This is the difference between what a real patriot is, and what others want to pretend to be.

Patriot

a person who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors. "a true patriot"

This is what a patriot does!

And stands up against those who pretend to be patriots!

These people wave flags and pretend to be fighting for "freedom" but they are selfish and do not care how what they are doing spreads death!

from CNN

This is what patriots did for Memorial Day Weekend

This is what selfish people did.

Wearing a mask is what patriots do!

Marine standing on a corner at attention and saluting for Memorial Day

U.S. Marine veteran stands at attention along Wendover Avenue on Memorial Day to honor combat veterans

FOX 8 News
by: Nelson Kepley
Posted: May 25, 2020

GREENSBORO, N.C. — If you were traveling down West Wendover Avenue near Interstate 40 Monday morning, you may have noticed a Marine standing on a corner at attention and saluting.

Surrounded by American flags, he was hard to miss; the honks, the waves, the stares. People stopped to take his photograph and so many said, “Thank you.”

“I did not serve during wartime. I served in peacetime, so I felt like it’s my duty to at least come out and remember those that were combat veterans, those that paid the ultimate sacrifice,” U.S. Marine veteran Skip Nix said.

Among those who stopped to take Nix’s picture was Becky Lemons, of Stoneville.

“It was an honor seeing him out there,” Lemons said.

Nix stood for two hours in a light mist flanked by two signs with a simple message.
read it here

Remembering on Memorial Day

Update Back fromNew Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery

Ceremonies for Memorial Day canceled...but honor remains

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
May 25, 2020


All across the country, Memorial Day events have been canceled because of COVID-19. While many are not even trying to honor the day, any more than they are trying to honor the rules to keep others safe, in houses all over the country, people honor this day.

Honor Flights had to be canceled. Rolling Thunder ride was canceled. The list goes on, but bargain shoppers still search for sales.

Later today I am going to a cemetery for the first time because their event has been canceled. I want to avoid crowds as much as possible. So do most of the people I know.

This is for those among us who miss the reverence of Memorial Day events.


One of the projects I did in Valencia College for Digital Media, was this video. Friends did a pretty good job even though they were not actors and the man who played Dad, had long dreadlocks, he had to stuff under his hat. I rented the uniform for him.

The thing that got me the most watching it again, was they wanted to do it because of their love for those who do serve...and the Mom was in the Army!

Dance with my father again!

When I lived in Florida this was one of my favorite events to honor the men and women on Memorial Day...they paid tribute to those who died in all wars....Glen Haven Memorial Park, Winter Park FL, Memorial Day Service 2011