An errant thought passed through my oft empty mind as I was slipping into sleep and made me smile. We love and feel it fall apart; we lose loved ones and some we love, betray us. On this earth walk, we are tragically wounded and have our hearts broken. It is unavoidable. And even so, …
Category Archives: trauma
The Collapse of Soul-deep Resistance
There has been resistance deep in my soul. I, like so many, have always found it agonizing when people are hateful to one another, when we act in ways that are beyond this sensitive’s ability to comprehend. It wounds me in ways no words could ever truly express when humans act like monsters, when my …
A World Turned Inside Out
I realized something today. Well, actually I’ve been quietly ignoring it for a while now. Sometimes when I write, I hold a glimmer of hope that loved ones will read my words and awaken to the harm and suffering that their staunch support of this administration is causing. Maybe you know someone like that too. …
The Juice of Transformation
lies in the heart of chaos … Are you wondering whether you should leave your spiritual practices and spend your time resisting the harm being done? Are you trying to decide if you should quit spending so much time on your own baggage and instead, help to allay the suffering of others? Your wondering is …
Today I Grieve
Today I am grieving. Deeply. Painfully. Messily. Preciously. Not for the beloveds I’ve lost but for this world imploding about me. Maybe it’s nothing to grieve. Perhaps it was never worth the love I gave it. Maybe this country has always been the monster in the closet that everyone cowered from while smiling and pretending …
Bridging the Ever-Widening Gap
There are infinite responses available to us as we approach possibly the last (anything’s possible) peaceful handover of power on January 20th. Several come to mind: unbridled anger, deep and clawing angst, suffocating depression, willful ignorance, and feigned neutrality that would put Switzerland on notice. Oh, I forgot myself for the moment. Geez, can’t forget …
Little Girl Lost: Finding Your Way Home
I am captivated by the term ‘childhood’ traumas. It’s as if we think they are locked into a place in time and don’t infect impact encamp and inbreed with this moment, affecting the beliefs we hold, acting on the ways we respond, impeding our ability to love, increasing our willingness to hate. They are always …
Authentic Love: Lessons from Jesus’ Teachings
I recently wrote about loving as Jesus did. It sounds yummy but it has a hitch in its get-along. You see, Jesus didn’t just love the easy ones, the ones who followed him, who thought like he did. He loved the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the Samaritans, the lepers, and he even loved those who …
The Myth of a Vengeful God
This is a bit of a long, playfully snarky satirical piece. I had no idea where this one was going until I was done. If you are easily offended, happy with your Bible stories, and your version of forgiveness, you might want to skip this one. What must it be like to believe in a …
Give Up Already!
Sleep, or should I say sleeplessness, will expose the parts of us still resonating in separation, still believing in personal power to alter reality … or so it is for me. If I just roll over, maybe the change of position will allow me to relax and let go. If I meditate while laying down, …
The Truth Lies in the Fire
There are times, even now, when the fact that I did my best wasn’t good enough. I know, deep down, that my life, and those it touched, couldn’t have been otherwise and yet, I ache with the recognition honed from years of new experiences fired in the kiln of inner work, that I hurt others, …
Put Down Your Boxing Gloves
Let’s just get it over with and flat out admit that life isn’t a bowl of cherries. It is tough and cruel. It strips us of everything, leaving nothing to chance. There’s a reason we are afraid, a reason we don’t trust, a reason we feel the need to be vigilant, a reason we are …
Free to Be
There are 8 billion (and counting) paths to travel in this world. Is that delightful to your way of seeing things, slightly intimidating, or simply wrong, wrong, wrong? There was a time when I might have found myself in the last category, when my way, the way I was raised to be, the way that …
Sitting on My Tombstone
If I could see everything that is going to happen in my life, would I try to change anything? It seems like I might want to leave the good stuff alone and put some effort into changing the not so good, doesn’t it? Of course, that assumes I have the ability to do something different …
I’ll Own Crazy
I just read a headline: “We May Have Found the Part of the Brain Where Conscious Experience Lives.” This has been a focus of science for years, and as fun as the investigation is, it is misguided. Don’t get me wrong. I love science. I trust scientists, mostly. I enjoy reading about where their discoveries …
Amaya Gayle 