presence Archives

Overcoming Anxiety. He Breathed on Them

If there is but one thing that I need the most when I am anxious, it is this. Presence. In depression, we need this. Having someone safe alongside me in my fear. It is the parent holding a child’s hand as they go off to surgery. The advocate who […]

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 […]

Relationships Spiritual Formation

How Did They Receive Your story?

You have a story. You are a story. To receive a story is to listen to the white space between the words. I hear stories every day. You do too. But there are some stories I hear where I sense I am on sacred ground. It’s when you feel that […]

"A conceptual image illustrating the 'inward curve' of the soul, representing the struggle of being locked within one's own thoughts and ego."

Faith & Mental Health

What to do with your Curve – Incurvatus in se

There is a self-centeredness to ourselves, a turned/curved inwardness, incurvatus in se, but there is one that shows how to break the gravity, the pull of the curve. There is a pull on me all the time. It’s in the lyrics of the eighties pop hit. What about me, it […]

Faith & Mental Health

Listen. You’re on Sacred Ground

There was a single tear, and I knew we were on sacred ground, but there was a decision to be made. I chose to linger and listen. I was talking with a man in his eighties the other day when I noticed a tear forming in his eye. I knew […]

Mental health Spiritual Formation

Am I Worthy of Love?

Life can wear us down, and we question if we are worthy of love. But we need to look to a deeper story going on than feelings of the present. It was gone. Something had gone from them. And they felt it. No longer cared about their appearance, their diet, […]

Helping Others Spiritual Formation

When You See Into Their Mist – Who They Are Becoming

There is a mask or even a mist that we can see something quite wondrous when we see behind or through, but it takes awareness to see the vision of what they are becoming. There is a drive I take every week to a farm and garden out in […]

Anxiety & Stress

Is The Load Too Heavy? Watch With Me

The load we carry can get too heavy, and we can breakdown. But we can grow through it when we have others who will watch with us. I needed help. I vividly remember the day I rang emergency services. I had come to a point where I knew I couldn’t […]

Getting Well Staying Well Helping Others

No more plans. Give me a foggy signpost

Plans and blueprints give us a sense of certainty, but it’s in the fog of relationships we need something more. Signposts offer us a direction, a relationship of trust, an ancient path. I wanted him to tell me what to do. Give me advice, a plan, a blueprint, a map […]

Getting Well Staying Well Mental health

How to Restore your Soul when Feeling Flat and Drained Out?

Feeling flat and empty can become an invite to feeling full of depth and not a step into depression. Focusing in on something and someone bigger than ourselves can revive a flagging soul. There are times when I feel flat. Life feels meaningless and like it’s one cyclical trip of […]