lost and found

It is Life for us to lose and find ourselves again and again.  Each time learning how to live just a little bit better... Thank God for that.

a world inside

wounded healers

When someone is hurt, they don't turn to someone who is invulnerable.  You want to talk to someone who has known suffering and can relate to what you are going through.  The most invulnerable people tend to show the least compassion.  You need someone who is strong enough to hold onto wholeness in the midst of suffering, who is willing to face pain, endures it, and tries as hard as they can to come out on the other side of it.  We seek these qualities in a friend when we need healing, and in my own experience, those are the qualities I sought in God when I needed healing.

Everything is a gift... even our own suffering.

contrast

percolating thoughts

"People see the world, not as it is, but as they are."

                      - Paulo Coelho

“Now I know the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.”

          - Walt Whitman

a new thing grows

I read this last night:

"You have given me something... But you've taken something away.  In its place a new thing has grown and I must be alone to discover what it may be."
-Keith Miller, The Book of Flying

It got me thinking-- Every experience we have has some ratio of positive and negative outcome on our lives.  Sometimes one far outweighs the other, but they are always both there.  After each experience ends, something new grows within us.  We can always direct that new growth as long as we take time to discover it.

weakness to strength

Turning weakness to strength is one of life's greatest challenges.  When we make an error, we can feel a range of things: anger, hurt, embarrassment, a drive to do better, determination, etc. When we point that energy inwards toward ourselves, we can become swallowed up by negativity.  But when we can turn it outwards, we can find grace and a hope to be better.  We have a hand in what we can learn from our mistakes.  What we learn from them must drive us forward.

i am the ocean

Source: a fine sea bird

if I should have a daughter...

Spoken word poet Sarah Kay

I love some of the wisdom in here...

creating beauty

Just as there is an ultimate Creator, I too have my own part to pay in Creation.  The choices I make everyday help to create the beauty and joy in my life.

I'm thankful for the privilege.

trusting

How does one trust their heart, really?  Your heart can take you down smooth roads and bumpy roads that end in cul-de-sacs of heartache.  I always thought that even if your heart took you down a difficult path, there would always be some deep purpose or lesson to come out of it.

Yet I've taken such a path recently.  In the immediate, I don't see a deeper purpose in the bad decision I made-- just brokenness that needs fixing.  Does a difficult road always need purpose?  I always thought it did.  I guess I don't think so anymore.  And if nothing else, I've become a richer person for my experiences.

After all when you examine the meaning of life, sometimes there's deep purpose and sometimes there's meaninglessness and pointlessness.  That doesn't make it good or bad.  It's all part of the experience.

To answer my question: How does one trust their heart?  We don't really have a choice.  If you can't trust your north star, your compass will always be broken.  We just have to... no matter where it takes us.

percolating thoughts

"A life without cause is a life without effect."

                       - Paulo Coelho

"If you want to know where your heart is, look where your mind wanders."

                      - ??