Dear Julie, It’s me; your ego. I thought it was time for me to write you because lately I am showing up in your thoughts a lot. You remember… a couple of weeks ago when you could not scale an icy boulder to get into a canyon you really wanted to hike in Canada. Or …
I have been thinking about personal growth a lot lately. Personal growth is such a double-edged sword. On the one hand there is this budding awareness about life, love, relationships, and soul that is exhilarating. I cherish all the ways this new awareness can transform my life. But on the other hand, there is this …
Hiking lately has offered me an opportunity to get outside and experience the world. Some days, the heavy clouds cover the sun and shroud the world in gray. Some days, fresh snow and frozen frost has covered our landscape in bright white and sparkles. One particularly gloomy day last week, I was hiking along when …
I have not cried today. Of course, it is only 4:10 p.m. and there is still time. I did not cry all day on Wednesday. It has been weeks of tears since test results showed my heart is not doing well. Truly, I’m so over all this crying. I asked Brandi if she was tired …
I remember the look of my mother’s knees when she was the age I am now. They were often swollen from arthritis, with wrinkles encasing them like little smiley faces of skin. Her ankles also carried the marks of the aging process with swelling that bespoke the heart disease she had. I always looked at …
You humble me. You come into my office week after week and you let your most vulnerable self be seen by me. But this last week you unsettled me. Looking inside yourself, you plucked out the most undesirable part of you and compared it to the most desirable part of me. And then, I literally felt a dark shadow …
Yesterday, I preached about human suffering and the relationship with God as we suffer. Normally, I am a listener in church. But preaching is an opportunity for me to offer testimony about how faith works for me. And I relish it. But talking about suffering! That is messy. I jumped into the muck of the …
Brokenness. I have never liked this word. I never appreciated brokenness when it is applied to my car or my computer. It creates a sizzle of fear to run down my spine. But when the word brokenness is applied to people, I really struggle inside. I struggle because the word begins to sound and feel …
If individual therapy is like a duet, then group therapy is a symphony. It carries the melodies of many voices and yet, somehow it creates a sense of rhythm and harmony that nourishes the soul. I love doing one on one therapy, with the solitary focus on one person, and being present for their process. …
Comparison. It is something I see in many aspects of our lives. I even see it in suffering. Sometimes when I am sitting with other breast cancer patients, I hear subtle comparisons between women who have different types of the cancer. One woman said to me, “Oh, I don’t have that kind. I have the …
