Melissa Barkley Wellness

Melissa Barkley Wellness We acknowledges that we live, play, and do business on the ancestral lands of the Puyallup Tribe and the Coastal Salish People.

We give thanks to those who have tended the land long before us. Visit my site at Sweetbeets.org and sign up for my newsletter

09/04/2026

Listen to survivors.
We will show you what survival looks like.
Not a text book.
Not a court handbook.
Not a judge.
Not our abusers.

PS This poem is called "How We Survive" and will be included in the zine I will be printing later this year. If you have interest in understanding the complexity of DV and how it actually shows up (not like in the movies or the stereotypes our society has latched onto) follow along. I'll be sharing more of my poems here in the coming months.

08/22/2026

Something died in me this week as my abuser used the system that is supposed to protect me and my children to further abuse us. I stand in solidarity with every woman and mother who has ever had to spend her beautiful life fighting for the bare minimum for her and her children.

07/17/2026

"His ex-wife, Ashley Brouillette, told the Portland Press Herald he called her and admitted he was the officer behind Monday’s shooting. Ashley Brouillette described abusive behavior both during and after her marriage to David Brouillette. She said she wanted to speak out publicly because she’d previously reported concerns about her husband’s mental health to his superiors in the military." Democracy Now!

07/07/2026

Stop telling survivors how to survive. Start believing us when we do report. Stop upholding systems that protect dangerous men.

06/30/2026

Why Isn't He Breathing?

Hand to my face
Heart screaming for my baby
"Mama, this is too much."

Her hand on my head.
Heart screaming for her baby
"I know and I am here."

06/29/2026

I spent so much of my adult life worrying about how someone else would react to accountability, staying silent to keep me and my family safe, swallowing abuse out of fear and guilt.

I spent years feeling inadequate and unworthy of love. Life is still hard but 1 thing I know for sure is that I am not responsible for protecting people who have harmed me.

06/26/2026

Day 3
And I feel my face relax
The deep lines
Of exhaustion
Heaviness
Fear
That typically line my
Forehead
And cheeks
The rigidity
Of a jaw that just
Can't fu***ng let go

Ease

The hyper vigilance
Of a mother
Who knows the feel of a hand
Pressed into her throat
That turns quickly at every shadow
And is flooded with cortisol
At the slightest sound

Softens

And I'm floating face down
Above a coral reef
My Love's hand always in mine
Or gently on my back
Reassuring me
I am safe in this other world
Of angelic jellies
Sea Turtles
And tropical swimmers
The song
"A Whole New World"
Running through my thoughts
As I laugh with joy
Through my snorkel.

A shark will not eat me
This man would never let me drown
My boogy man
Is across the ocean
The worst thing that could happen
Is a sunburn on my ass
And those cheeks could use
Some color anyway.

06/23/2026

The further away I get the more I speak about what happened and what continues to happen, the more I shine light onto the shadows, the more I understand that my reactions to the abuse were probably not as big as they should have been.

The more time goes by being with a man who cherishes the s**t out of me, the more I recognize that I was not the sick one.

06/21/2026

Happy Father's Day to this dreamboat.

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Tacoma, WA
98405

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+12533703431

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