Pain keeps us from operating at our best, even when it’s invisible. Our own need for grace and compassion in seasons of hidden pain can remind us to offer the same to others when they’re not at their best.
Continue readingPain as a teacher of grace
grace
Practices of opening to grace
Our spiritual practices can often seem like added chores on our to-do lists, but they are actually practice in opening to grace and the voice of Spirit that can sustain in life’s ordinary times as well as in life’s most broken places.
Continue readingNavigating the fog of grief
A recent morning commute through thick fog reminded me of how similar that is to the experience of grief after a loss. It makes the regular, everyday routine that much more challenging to deal with. Navigating through this fog of grief has much in common with that recent drive to work, and today’s post highlights some of those similarities and the lessons it can teach us.
Continue readingWhat has healed in 2014?
It’s New Year’s Eve, a time that often brings a review of the last year to mind. Taking the time to look back and find those threads of healing that have appeared over the last year, even if the healing is still a work in progress, can create the space to make sure we also find the gold in that healing.
Continue readingLiberation and loss: It’s a package deal
The mix of liberation and loss all in the same package is precisely what makes the process of transformation so exciting and scary and bewildering and sad and uncertain all at once. Each step along the way is releasing what is known and comfortable to make room for what is unknown and uncertain.
Continue readingImproving choices by improving resources
If we accept the idea that we are all doing the best we can with what we have, this leads directly to the conclusion that the best response to poor choices is not punishment but development of better resources.
Continue readingA much-needed vision adjustment
If I’ve lost sight of the fact someone is so much more than their bad behavior, I’m not seeing them clearly. If I can’t see them with compassion and with a recognition of myself in them at their worst, I’m as good as blind no matter how perceptive I seem to be.
Continue readingLeaving the cult of self-improvement
We live in a culture that idolizes self-improvement, but how we go about it matters. There’s a big difference between a desire for ongoing growth from a place of self-acceptance and never-ending self-improvement efforts that are attempts to make myself “good enough.”
Continue reading