They were so caught up in themselves and their selfish desires that they got lost to the concerns of others. Without recognising the wealth of love around them, they were the prodigal, a child of abundance squandering it away. What drew them back was a memory of love, faint and small, […]
recovery
190 posts
There are none so blind as those that will not see. Only when we realize that we have been chasing after false promises will our sight return. We see that we have been conned and we are now in a prison of our own making. One spring afternoon, I was […]
It’s the covert way that male depression hides that makes it scary. The blind spot that men can get taken out by. Men need ‘listening’ friends where they feel safe enough to tell their stories. It was like a fog was being lifted off around my brain. I was able […]
Life would never be the same again, but whose life is after struggling with an illness. Perhaps we have to redefine recovery and discover that there is no one ‘You-er than you’. Nathan had plans of becoming a doctor. But his parents separated when he was aged 15 and his world […]
‘Am I doing ok?’ was the question I was most frequently asked when I was a pastor/chaplain. ‘Is this Church safe’ was another. Keeping pace were other limping souls … ‘Am I welcome here’ ‘Does God really love me?’ ‘I can’t seem to get it right’ ‘… keeps telling me […]
Just outside my window, I can see a beautiful yellow rose. It wasn’t there last week, well actually it was, but it was just tightly bound up under its green calyx. A lot can happen in a week, in a day, in a moment. I can see the beauty but to deeply […]
Around the hillside of the sheep farm where I was raised were grooves worn into the soil by hundreds of sheep following each other. It was the easiest route. I also have routes in my thinking patterns that have become ruts. Familiar paths that have been worn deep into my thinking. A thought gets […]
She walked into my office in a long, flowing skirt. She always had loved long, flowing skirts. But she blamed them and herself for both of her rapes. “Maybe if I hadn’t worn a skirt,” she thought. And she hated herself. The man read from his journal. Almost 20 pages […]
When I was on a 6-hour road trip back to university I picked up a hitchhiker. It was cold and wintery as I turned a corner on the Desert road and I saw a young man with his thumb stuck out. Thin, short hair and poorly clothed for the winter, […]
The shame of an attempt at suicide can cling onto you like the odor of some dirty old socks. You would do anything to get rid of that stench. Is that a good description of shame? That feeling of embarrassment at what you have done. You want to hide, run, cover it […]