A Celebration of Birth and of Life

This Friday, August 01, is the birthday for Keepers, the birthday of the little baby from where the Keepers came. A baby so unloved and disrespected by her parents that she began to split off almost right away, a baby that has grown very little over the years and a baby I am pleased to have met and held and cuddled. She is as cute as can be and I love her with all my heart. I wish I could see her more than I do but I hope she knows how much I love her and care about her and want to protect her and wish I could have protected her so many years ago. I love you baby and wish you Happy Birthday from JM.

To all the other keepers who have protected baby and the body these 58 years I also want to wish you a Happy Birthday, though your birth dates are all over the place as you all came at different times over the years I wanted to make that wish for you and to also honor all that you have accomplished.

A lot of people have milestone birthdays celebrated, you know, sweet sixteen or 21 or 30, 40, 50, etc just for reaching that milestone. I want to make this Friday a celebration of all you have accomplished, overcome, become. By working together you have all protected baby as much as you could, you overcame a life of dread and sheer violence and torture emotionally and physically to become a system that offers other systems hope and guidance and a realization that all of the abuse and neglect and such can be beaten and you can become a better person than those who molded you or attempted to. I say that because they failed in their endeavor to destroy you. Yes they shattered poor baby into so many others but they did not beat you. Over time and many years of self help thrown in with some therapeutic help Keepers can proudly say they stood up to the family that created them and still tries to have its way with its children or cover it up. Keepers bravely reported them and walked away from the family, mother, father, siblings and cousins and aunts and uncles and yes even children. Some you walked away from as they would not change their ways, some because they refused to acknowledge what happened to you, its effect on you or what was happening to others in the family who were being put through the same terrible treatment. Some rejected you, some because they could not manipulate you anymore, you had moved past that point. Some separated themselves because you reported them and they knew they were wrong but did not attempt to reconcile and in truth I doubt a reconciliation could be made at this point without assurances somehow that they had truly changed. Others, I fear, walked away because of our association with others in the family and now do not know we too are separate and not in those lives anymore.

The point is you did the right thing, you took the high road and because you did you have lost a lot, a lot of family, a lot of “friends” who were really just more users. You had a rough road to go and over the years you survived, at times just barely, you were lost in self medicating and you overcame that. You overcame alcohol and prescription drug abuse. You overcame and escaped from one abusive therapist and several who were just terrible and had no real idea what they were doing.. Do you know I watched as you took in papers to therapists because they did not know what was out there about DID/MPD? How sad is it when the patient can bring in information the therapist has not seen or even tried to find?
Over the years I watched you do everything you could to keep everyone happy. That included your family and our children. You made very attempt by many different keepers to be what every one of them wanted you to be for them whether it was your parents or your brothers and sister or your kids or grandparents or whoever, even therapists. I watched you bend over and over to make them happy, and yes even bending and doing all you could to be the wife I expected you to be. I also was able to watch as you finally overcame all of us and became you, the collective known as Keepers who were finally strong enough and knowledgeable enough about the system to realize you deserved to be treated differently, to not have to bend to everyone’s desires and whims and expectations.. I saw you stand straighter and taller and more proud of yourselves than ever before. That is truly worth celebrating.

As I look at Keepers today I see someone who manages Keepers Korner and gives 110% of themselves to it. In my opinion every Keeper in some way contributes to bits and pieces of the entire operation. Yes many are behind the scenes but all are involved, some may be just by sharing their feelings and emotions to those dealing with phone calls or emails as you try to console someone or hear and understand what they are saying, while others create the artwork or write the blogs or put the words to the paper in their poetry or talk with Pastor about how to help someone in his flock. There is an awful lot of good Keepers do, and have done. The difference now is that I think the visitors to Keepers Korner and the callers who call appreciate what you do. Your children, your family, cannot appreciate what you do because they do not have it in them to help people unselfishly as you do. They are looking at “what can you do for me” while you are looking at “what can I do for you?” This is not a new concept for Keepers who have always tried to satisfy everyone else, the difference is now Keepers make their offers to people who need what Keepers offer and are not asking for it for their own selfish needs.

I hope everyone out there will join me in celebrating who and what Keepers are, especially on their birthday this Friday. They give of themselves to help others, as you try to make others lives a little better, to make a little more sense and to know that someone out there cares.

As the commercial used to say “You’ve come a long way, baby!” Congratulations and Happy Birthday!!

Love you all

JM