Mental Health Archives

I Curse The Day I Was Born

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 […]

Faith & Mental Health

Every Saint Has a Past Every Sinner Has a Future

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. […]

Getting Well Staying Well Spiritual Formation

Can you Take in the Good and Let it Nourish?

So many good things go unnoticed, but when we learn to take in the good and let it nourish, then our whole direction of a life can change. My neighbors have some small children. Yesterday, while walking in the garden, one of the little boys ran up to me to […]

Getting Well Staying Well Mental health Spiritual Formation

Step Out of The Boat and Find a Stone

There is a comfort zone in the familiar, but there is a calling to step out of the boat and find a little something to stand on. There’s always a call to step out of the boat. The other day I was cleaning some items off a pinboard and came […]

Mental health Spiritual Formation

Are you Trying to Control the Uncontrollable?

We face struggles, so we try to control the uncontrollable, but this brings even more stress. Better to stay in the zone of what we can control – ourselves. It was out of my control. The decision on how they would treat me was beyond my control. Have you ever […]

Anxiety & Stress

What’s Your Ambient Stress Level?

It surrounds us all the time. Ambient stress. We probably aren’t even aware of it, but we can do something about it when we recognize it. I have one of my favorite and most cherished items on the wall above my desk. It is a barometer that measures the pressure […]

Helping Others Spiritual Formation

Sitting Shiva is to say ‘I am with you’

Grief is hard, but grieving alone can be a torment of anguish, so we sit with the broken; we are silent and Shiva to the tears. When my father cried loud and hard, I experienced a kind of solidarity in my grief. A child had died, and a funeral was […]

Getting Well Staying Well

How is it With Your Soul?

It can be so easy to lose hope. But when we ask, ‘How is it with your soul?’ an opportunity opens to journey to know wellness. ‘How are you?’ they asked. My response was polite, and I said that I was okay. They repeated the question. They wanted to know […]

Faith & Mental Health

Do you Need Space and Time to Heal?

We want change, and we want it now, but deep change requires the granting of space and time. So grant it to our self and others. It was all becoming too much. Pressure from others to ‘get over it,’ to ‘let it go,’ and ‘sort your life out’ was beginning […]

Relationships & Connection

True Repentance doesn’t Demand or Expect Forgiveness

To demand or expect forgiveness is like a chess player trying to manipulate the board, but that’s not true repentance. Instead, repentance submits itself to the poetry of waiting, praying, and hoping. They thought they could use the Bible to manipulate and control. Verses were hurled, and they were told, […]