Stranded on the Mainland: Inner Pilgrimage and Living Alone as a Spiritual Path:

Happy New Year! Over the Christmas holidays I listened to Krista Tippett interview Roseanne Cash on YouTube. I put a link for the interview at the end of this post. I loved this interview. As it unfolded it dawned on me I was likely listening to an adult child of an alcoholic & dysfunctional family. I saw a kindred spirit writing about her own pain and loss and grief. I saw a woman whose first marriage had ended in divorce. I saw a woman who had adored her father and as a teenager travelled with him when he worked. I saw a woman who when young was deeply affected by her parent's stressful marriage. I saw a woman who had undergone a long Jungian analysis like me. I saw a sister, a mystic, a woman with an urgency to finish her work after confronting her own mortality. And I saw a woman who is happy now and that gives me hope. You know how they say... if you could sit down and have a talk with anyone in the world who would you choose?  In this new year, I think I would choose Rose...

Today I want to blog about walls.  Particularly the ones we build when we have suffered a lot of trauma.  Walls that need to come down one brick at a time.   "Everyone constructs different walls to survive their trauma.... .  The walls built to survive the trauma were genius, they were effective, they were strong. And you can't just knock them down because they are woven into who you are. This is why healing from repeated trauma is often a long term project: you need to slowly take down the bricks and let light in. But the good news is that healing is possible." (Source: Gretchen L. Schmeltzer PhD 2014) .   The good news is that this is also God's country.   As I contemplate the image I chose for my blog today the atmosphere begins to change.   What follows might sound strange.   It's like the image is editing me.  It's hard to explain. But now I'm feeling Advent!   Amen     Unsplash    

“In this season of Advent, we are called to expand the horizons of our hearts, to be amazed by the life which presents itself each day with newness. In order to do this, we must learn to not depend on our own certainties, on our own established strategies, because the Lord comes at a time that we do not imagine. God comes to bring us into a more beautiful and grand dimension."  Pope Francis, Angelus, 27th, November 2016.” Source: universeofhope.org.   Hold hurt's seashell close to your ear. Until the hidden ocean of mercy you hear. Amen unsplash Insight: The hurt IS the heart