I want to know, and because I want to know I will ask empowering questions. Ones that open up the treasure chest of the heart and mind. It felt more like an interrogation than an invitation. Questions poured out. Demanding, angry, harsh questions that sent me into a state of […]
Mental health
208 posts
I never saw it coming -the cataclysmic argument that triggered my adult son to estrange me three years ago. I might never see it end -the suffering of ambiguous loss of the relationship without closure. Coined by family therapist Pauline Boss, Ph.D., 40 years ago, ambiguous loss refers to unresolved […]
Trouble comes. It’s nothing new, but we have the assurance of others, so we hold on tight and ride our way through it. You can see it coming. You’re sailing along. Life seems to be going along ok, but out on the horizon, you can see a storm. You know […]
At times, it can seem like God isn’t with us, but God is there with, ‘and it just so happened’ moments to bring about a larger story going on. I often listen to people’s stories and wonder where God is in them. Often the stories tell of mess. There is […]
Turmoil – a state of unease, disquiet, and storm, but what if you weren’t alone in that drowning boat? We need a confidant to share the storm with. Often people say that life is like a rollercoaster ride. Ups and downs, highs and lows. But I think life is more […]
The tears start to form and flow, but who will wipe away my tears? A soft and gentle hand comes with tenderness to the pain. I could feel them start to congregate right in the corners of my eyes. They were coming together, and I had no control over them. […]
It’s a human experience to know the trauma of falling into the hands of robbers and thieves, but there is one who joins us in our ditch. I was robbed a few years ago. I had parked my truck in a parking lot and had gone into a shop to […]
Ever found yourself in a dark place? A simple state of sadness can throw you in such a place. At least l experience that often. I used to be depressed, severely depressed, the kind of state that makes it hard for facial muscles to react to other people’s joyful interaction. […]
Fear can be like a shadow creeping up and over you, but what do you fear the most? Understanding what you fear the most can bring assurance. It was a simple wire bridge on a confidence course. Not very high, the three-wire bridge was a challenge for some and not […]
Sighs and groans can come with such ease, but inhaling is also necessary. So we take note of our diet of breath. ‘That was a deep sigh,’ he said to me. I hadn’t noticed it, but he was right. I had let out a long deep sigh into the safety […]
You wake up and see a new day, but you didn’t want to wake up. So it’s a call to endure and go deep with God. They want the pain to end. The struggle of the journey has become too much. That’s the underlying theme of many of the emails […]
We pick them up. Little hurts, big hurts. But how do we learn not to keep a record of wrongs that clogs the arteries of our life? I visited a friend the other day, and they invited me into their home. As we wandered from room to room, everything was […]
We can get angry to the point where we want to curse the day we were born, but being held in our anger allows us to go through and not around the pain. It was about time they got angry. As the words vomited at me, through me, and around […]
Every Saint Has a Past. Every Sinner Has a Future. So what choices of forgiven acceptance are you making in the moment of the now? The source of the phrase ‘Every Saint Has a Past Every Sinner Has a Future’ comes from Oscar Wilde’s play A Woman of No Importance. […]
Like a steady stream, a diet of words can shape us in ways unintended, but what if we had someone feed us good words? Perhaps then the heart would find a new course to flow from. As she climbed a couple of lectern steps to read the passage, I wondered […]
God, I need a miracle, but perhaps I need something more, and that is what God offers me and you. Something of depth and hope. There are times in life when there is a cry from the heart for a miracle. It’s that diagnosis, the loss of a job, a […]
It’s a breakdown, a mental health breakdown, and it’s happened again, but there is a way to recover, and it’s something you can achieve. The end result was exhaustion. They were empty of life and totally drained. So it was no wonder they were depressed and simply wanted to die. […]
They were always wrestling with comparisonitis, but that changed when they accepted themselves and became a peacemaker to their parts. It seemed they were always striving. I was wanting this and wanting that. They couldn’t make peace with the fact they weren’t meant to be superman or wonder woman. They […]
Words tumble through our thinking to be a soliloquy, but you can change what you meditate on Day and Night when you change the song. You probably won’t hear this word spoken today, this week, or even this month. Soliloquy. But you will hear a soliloquy today, and you will […]
They were sitting with sadness, and life was fading away, but once they recognized its presence, they could accept it and learn from the shadow. Do you like shadows? When I’m working out in the sun’s heat, a shadow provides a respite. A place away from the intensity of light […]