Tag Archives: pain
Stinking Thinking
Spirituality and Addiction Stinking Thinking Monday, November 15, 2021 I do not understand my own behavior. I fail to carry out the very things I want to do, and find myself doing the very things I hate. . . . For although the will to do what is good is in me, the performance is… Continue Reading Stinking Thinking
Everybody Grieves: Weekly Summary
Everybody Grieves Saturday, August 7, 2021 Week Thirty-One Summary and Practice Sunday, August 1—Friday, August 6, 2021 Sunday Because we’re human, we hurt. Because we’re human, we have tears to cry. Because we’re human, our hearts are broken. Because we’re human, we understand that loss is a universal language. Everybody grieves. —Rev. Jacqui Lewis Monday… Continue Reading Everybody Grieves: Weekly Summary
The Gift of Tears
Everybody Grieves The Gift of Tears Tuesday, August 3, 2021 The human instinct is to block suffering and pain. This is especially true in the West where we have been influenced by the “rationalism” of the Enlightenment. As anyone who has experienced grief can attest, it isn’t rational. We really don’t know how to hurt!… Continue Reading The Gift of Tears
The Devastation of Grief
Everybody Grieves The Devastation of Grief Monday, August 2, 2021 In the Hebrew Scriptures, we find Job moving through Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s well-known stages of grief and dying: denial, anger, bargaining, resignation, and acceptance. The first seven days of Job’s time on the “dung heap” of pain are spent in silence, the immediate response matching the… Continue Reading The Devastation of Grief
Vulnerability: A Divine Condition
Everybody Grieves Vulnerability: A Divine Condition Sunday, August 1, 2021 We live in a finite world where everything is dying, shedding its strength. This is hard to accept, and all our lives we look for exceptions to it. We look for something certain, strong, undying, and infinite. Religion tells us that the “something” for which… Continue Reading Vulnerability: A Divine Condition
Healing Generational Wounds
Crisis Contemplation Healing Generational Wounds Tuesday, July 27, 2021 The wounds that we don’t know about or don’t remember are the deepest. It is through the wormhole of those wounds that we travel to arrive at the peace that surpasses all understanding. Healing is possible because we have the ability to spiritually veer from disaster,… Continue Reading Healing Generational Wounds
The Soul Wound
Trauma and Healing The Soul Wound Wednesday, May 5, 2021 Attorney and activist Sherri Mitchell from the Penobscot Nation writes about the collective trauma and “soul wound” [1] that Native Americans have suffered: My group, Native Americans, have suffered an unrecognized holocaust in this country. The brutal genocide of Native peoples is hard to acknowledge… Continue Reading The Soul Wound
What Do We Do with This Pain?
Trauma and Healing What Do We Do with This Pain? Sunday, May 2, 2021 We have heard the word trauma a lot in the last thirty years or more. I am not sure if it is happening more, or if we finally have a word to describe what has probably always been happening. When we… Continue Reading What Do We Do with This Pain?
Breaking the Cycle of Violence
Scapegoating and the Cross Breaking the Cycle of Violence Wednesday, March 31, 2021 I doubt very much that I need to point out the many ways we practice scapegoating in our society today. We do it on both the political left and right, in our churches and community groups, by finger-pointing and punishing. We are… Continue Reading Breaking the Cycle of Violence