Every year I purchase a Lakota calendar that has a mix of great art and great information about various aspects of Lakota life, language, spirituality, and cultural values.  When I turned the calendar to February, I discovered this month’s theme is “selflessness.”  The next paragraph is what is written on the calendar for February.

Twenty-five years ago, as a very excited new social worker, I had the opportunity to work with a collaborative program in Worthington MN, funded by the corrections program and housed within the elementary and middle schools.  We built a teen peer mentoring program based on tools from the Search institute’s Developmental Assets Survey.

A study done in the mid-1990’s assessed the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences in about 17,000 patients, and then assessed the presence of negative physical outcomes.  The research discovered “a direct link between childhood trauma and adult onset of chronic disease, incarceration, and employment challenges.”

I know, this is South Dakota, and we have generally done our best to look away from COVID and its impact.  But since it is the beginning of a new year, it is worth putting COVID in perspective, particularly from a psychological point of view.