Vulnerability Archives

A Little Taste of Zimzum

Every now and then I get a taste of Zimzum. A sense of a contraction and a making of space for me and others. I’ve always been puzzled about how the voluntary creating of space for another person has a deep effect on the other, especially those who have experienced […]

Spiritual Formation Spiritual Practices

How are you? Where are you?

I want to know. How are you? Where are you? Then I can be with you where you are. God can not help a pretending or hiding heart. They were the words that I listened for over the radio in the mid-90’s. ‘How are you? Where are you?’ These […]

Relationships & Connection

Throwing Pearls to Pigs

I know some people who have a pig on their farm. They feed it food scraps and grass. They don’t throw it pearls. Some people don’t have the capacity to hold precious things. They don’t have the wisdom to hold well. I think one of the most hurtful and […]

Anxiety & Stress

Search me. Know my Anxious Thoughts.

There is a fear in all of us. It’s been there seemingly forever. The Psalmist sings ‘Search me, Know my Anxious Thoughts.’ Can God be that good? I was watching a TV program about border control in the U.S.A. The officers had a tip that someone coming through immigration was […]

Anxiety & Stress

An Empty Love Tank

You’ve got nothing left. An empty love tank, weightless and vulnerable. But you want love. Who and what will fill the need? The water tank was empty. I opened up the lid on the tank and immediately I could smell the residue of silt lying on the bottom of the […]

Anxiety & Stress

When the Stress is Too Much

The stress load was too much to handle, but they knew what to do, so they took action and calmed the stress load down. It was just getting too much, and I could feel it in my body. This was the experience from last weekend when I had a […]

Relationships & Connection

Spooning the Heart

It felt they needed to be deeply held. Spooned. Quietly and gently known into a place where soul talk would emerge. To spoon Is to make room For the other To quietly be known It doesn’t have to be physical It’s actually quite spiritual Holding the words and tears Hearing […]

Relationships & Connection

Having an Open Hand

It takes energy to hold a closed hand, but with gentle movement, we find an open hand. In openness, we both give and receive. A few years ago, I noticed that my right hand was often clenched tight into a fist. Not a fighting fist, but more a fist […]

Faith & Mental Health

I Am Loved

It can feel very lonely when we don’t experience love. A sense of abandonment. To know that ‘I am loved’ is like the permanent embrace of presence. To be loved and know it deeply is, I think, the quest of every heart. According to early Church writer Paul, it is […]

Faith & Mental Health

I am Known

In a world of loneliness, we need the reassurance that ‘I am known’. From this, intimacy grows. One of the questions many people face is ‘Do I matter?’ For many, it feels like they don’t matter to anyone at all. That they are just a blip of dust in […]