Tag: Dohle
Prayer/trust
There are as many ways to pray as there are people. While it is true that we are very much alike, yet, the life that we each have within is unique. One reason that communication is so difficult is because ‘words’ have to be interrupted, so misunderstandings are easy, common and oftentimes painful. Many as… Read More ›
Central core
Faith is useless if the central core is missing. It then becomes just another ideology; closed to change and lifeless since it is cut off from what is most essential. “To love one neighbor as oneself” is the essential core of any faith that is alive and vibrant. “To treat others as you want to be treated”, if… Read More ›
What we are not
Humility is not about self loathing, but about seeing the truth, embracing it and not sinking into self hatred and despair. Perhaps that is the greatest obstacle, for it is easy to fall into those traps. The call to dying to self is more about that, than overcoming anyone ‘thing’ in ones life. Often our… Read More ›
Fully human
The more one loves the deeper the understanding that leads to compassion and empathy. Self knowledge is the royal road leading to sympathy for self, blocking off the tendency to run from others and their pain, through hatred, contempt and the use of violence. Self righteous indignation flows from a lack of understanding of one’s… Read More ›
Get Up
There are times when the hardest thing to accomplish is to simply get up,or to keep going. To give up is easy, to move forward in faith more difficult. We are on a journey, so wrong turns will be taken, there will be failures and detours, yet, as it is learned, grace draws us back over and… Read More ›
Deepening trust
Life is about letting go, moving into another space that is more expansive and freeing than the one lived in before. It is about idols being demolished and the courage to face fear and anxious concern and moving forward in trust. So ideas about ‘god’, which are just projections of our own human limitations, are… Read More ›
Government programs/Janet/ and the KISS principle
Janet is always in financial trouble, even though she is receiving money from the government to help her to stay afloat. Three years ago she was getting $600.00 a month for disability. She is also on Medicaid, which helps with her medicines and doctor visits. Janet made the mistake of letting her case worker know… Read More ›
I don’t blame the past
. . . We simply don’t know the inner pain that others carry, or the shame, or anger, until a relationship is formed and trust built up enough, so that some kind of openness and sharing with others can be experienced. I guess that is perhaps one of the great gifts of the 12 step… Read More ›
Secrets
Fear has a way of getting its way, a dictator without mercy or compassion, surrounding the heart with nameless qualms that what felt as shame will one day be seen. Walls high protected by anger, or fear or anxious concern, often nameless but a sentinel nonetheless; assuring a life of withdrawal from intimacy that is… Read More ›
What the soul seeks
(stream of consciousness) A soul in pain seeks diversion. Or if tired, perhaps to find some rest, but where? Root-less-ness, a feeling of not belonging, can be a source of deep inner alienation, leading to isolation. Form; that which has boundaries, is not what the soul needs, at least on the level of inner thirst… Read More ›