Wagon Wheel

We were made for relationship and connecting. When we don’t get healthy loving input from our environment, all kinds of maladaptive ways of coping emerge that come out in poor behavior, making it difficult to live with others.  These counterfeit ways of coping become habitual and deeply ingrained.  In trauma, survival skills develop that may have served well for a time, but they are now a hindrance to living freely.

Using a wagon wheel for a visual, the spokes are pieces working together that allows the wheel to move. The role of the spokes are to carry the weight that is distributed equally as the rim comes in contact with the ground.  (The ground representing our life experiences.) If the spokes represent the various people in our community who help, such as families, teachers, doctors, pastors, grandparents working together to support healthy development, then we see a problem emerge when the rim is not connecting to the spokes.   

So if we’ve got a hurting person who defends themselves they behave in ways to operate independently to avoid pain or harm.  Yet we were really designed to be interdependent - that is - leaning into fellowship with others and learning through relationships.  The Grace Haven Care Farm’s first priority is to provide a place of refuge where felt safety can be found.  Felt safety is a crucial piece to reconnecting the spokes back onto the rim, or in some cases, connecting for the very first time.  Not only do we get excited about seeing someone find healing, it is part of our mission that we help our community members know how to help so they can be a strong “spoke.”