After what we have experienced in secret the idea of being exposed is quite painful. Had we not already had our bodies exposed to lustful eyes and hands? Yes! However the illumination I speak of has an opposite and profound effect on returning to our pre-abuse identity. Leading us out of a fear filled lonely place to a place of joy filled resilience and healing.
Continue reading “EXPOSED TO LIGHT”
Find your healing space. Create your haven. When organizing a home for clients, where there was hoarding or just messy chaos, I would first carve out a place for the client. To be a refuge from their inner trauma or their addiction to hoarding. Maybe they needed a place to escape the chaos from a partner or child that was troubled with alcoholism, codependency, or other unhealthy tendencies.
Continue reading “A HAVEN FOR HEALING”
Father Richard Shares……Today I share a contemplative poem from CAC friend and writer Felicia Murrell. Felicia’s words combine a deep awareness of God’s presence while clearly naming the collective trauma of police brutality and lynchings. It is worth remembering, as Black liberation theologian James Cone (1938–2018) points out, that the lynchings of African Americans and the crucifixion of Jesus share much in common: “Both the cross and the lynching tree were symbols of terror, instruments of torture and execution, reserved primarily for slaves, criminals, and insurrectionists—the lowest of the low in society.” [1] There is something about poetry that gives us permission to sit with the paradoxes of our pain, perhaps especially when addressing traumatic suffering. I invite you to read Felicia’s challenging words slowly, allowing your heart to break open to God’s love amidst the suffering of the world.
Continue reading “Trauma and Silence”Is our inner voice original thought, or guided by someone or something else? If you found your way here, you have experienced abuse or trauma in some capacity. Your mind may be battling with you daily, obsessive thoughts try to guide you one way. Fight you when you desire to go another. It can encompass self-destructive beliefs, self-destructive behaviors, addiction, fear, chronic nightmares. Your anxious thoughts trigger your, PTSD symptoms. Your inner voice may be continually condemning you- that you are flawed, less than, or of no value to anyone including yourself. We will discover together that these are lies, we can capture these thoughts, reckon with them and finally choose to replace the lies with truth.
Mission: Impossible was a tv show of the ’60s and ’70s and each episode started the same: This is the mission if you choose to do it. Your mission, Dan/Jim, should you decide to accept it, is…
Continue reading “MISSION: POSSIBLE”
Untangling the cords of anger that ran through my days, a bulging red knot was revealed.
Tugging harder, looking for the free end that would release me, the knot became inflamed with purple hues.
Continue reading “Anger in Radiant Spectrum”
As humans, we have collectively fought the odds of survival. Whether from climate, disease, or abandonment. Surviving is something we do! Going beyond survival; thriving after is vexing; trusting our unseen Creator’s voice and guidance, after defeat or mistreatment, becomes the real test of valor.
We rely on our thoughts to be self-generated and a reliable guide. It seems as natural as breathing to believe our thoughts are safely generated by us and intended for our own good. We act off of our thoughts or when feeling inadequate, will lean towards co-dependency, attempting to draw strength from another person. believing without them survival may not be possible.
Continue reading “What hinders thriving after surviving?”Are you doubtful that true inner peace can be found?
Abuse, incest, neglect, trafficking, rape all invades us. Our minds are flooded with fear, terror, isolation, pain, and threats of death. But more than this! We ingest messages that no one cares, no one can be trusted, God has let us down. Perhaps you believe you are ugly, useless, unteachable, destined for poverty, disgrace and loneliness because you are of no value or unlovable. Our very soul, our very essence hides or feels as if it has been ripped loose from us.
STOP HERE! All LIES!
Continue reading “Seeking Inner Peace”
An account in Exodus finds Moses’ people grumbling at their accommodations in the wilderness. They are in the wilderness due to rebellion and yet Moses cries out to God, asking to supply them with food and water. He is instructed by God to strike his staff on the rock and water would flow. Did they need another intervention, another miracle? Well, the folks who drank from this streaming rock had already been rescued from slavery, through a parted sea! They continued to worship other gods-idols, and so remained dissatisfied, demanding, and disloyal to the Creator of all. Boy-oh-boy, if we saw such a miracle would we not believe in that God?
Spiritual Bondage and dissatisfaction go hand in hand. The shadow of death entices us to desire things that will lead us to dissatisfaction and death. The very things we desire; turn against us if not from God. Allow me to take you back to when I was wandering in the wilderness.
Continue reading “WATER FROM A ROCK”
I am a particular flavor of bold personality, the type that is not well-liked in some environments. Take, for example, a well-established hierarchical-based company that relies on its employees not seeing, the whole picture in order to remain in their jobs. Indeed, I am not very well-liked there because I am a Disruptor. I speak the truth no one else there dares to speak due to its disruptive nature. I can’t help it. That’s what I do. Even my mom tells me this frequently, although when she does it comes with negative connotations.
Continue reading “I’m not very well-liked. No, let me try that again.”