What your neighbor needs now is love but they often encounter indifference. We need to find a way to listen to them and tell them they are loved. I wonder at times that under depression and anxiety, there is a deep unmet need for love. That many are love-starved and […]
relationships
88 posts
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 […]
Messages can be messy. We say one thing, they hear another, but we need to be heard so we need to learn about filters and speak with grace and compassion. The message I heard was probably not the message they wanted to send. Who got it wrong? Over the past […]
Criticism comes to us all, but we can grow through it. We need to listen, ask questions and learn how to handle it with dignity. They knew what was going to happen even before they got home. They were going to have to run through a gauntlet of criticism. Where […]
We all have a cocoon around us that may keep us safe, too safe, but there is a time for leaving the old and entering the new. Sometimes we have to walk through the crowd to get there. Something new was happening in them. They were changing, leaving. There was […]
Anxiety can make you want to control, but learning to detach can bring peace. Perhaps you care too much and it’s time to let go. She was holding on tightly. Too tightly. It was care, it was love, but in that embrace, she was suffocating the life out of the […]
‘Power over’ was normal, but ‘power with’ was what they needed. When we listen deeply, we move forward. Mental health flourishes when power is shared. She was small in stature, and I think she also saw herself as being a little person, insignificant. She was also quiet and never really […]
Life has challenges and can’t be faced alone, but with the help of faithful and loyal friends, we can make it through. We all need a Batman. In short: A batman was a soldier assigned to serve and protect an officer through the hardest campaigns. Tolkien’s Samwise Gamgee, Ruth, Jonathan, […]
The heart of a man dries up without words of encouragement. But the gift of respect can flood his life with hope. Let’s listen well. All he wanted was some whispers of thankfulness. Some acknowledgment that what he did mattered. He had worked hard all day, fought his battles, and […]
Criticism, shouting, or being ‘put down’ releases the hormone Cortisol into our blood system. It causes us discomfort. When we know this, we can take greater responsibility for our responses. Four little words will send a shot of terror into a man’s soul. ‘We need to talk.’ On a local […]