Author: Joel

Me

July 30, 2013

I am learning that getting older means becoming more like myself than anyone else. Before, in the name of becoming a more balanced human being, I spent a lot of time trying to become more like someone else. In doing so, I did not trust my own compass to lead me to what I needed. That has caused a lot of anxiety for me. I was the most healthy when I was a kid and I didn’t know any better and I just developed my own way of coping and dealing with life out of necessity. 🙂

A New Story

July 18, 2013
A child who hates himself will act in such a way as to cause you to hate him as well. This is the only safe way he knows to find out if there is something other than hate in the world. He acts this way in order to check and see if there is love for him even when he is at his worst. One of our only jobs with children is to show them that there is something other than the choir of voices that confirm the way they already feel about themselves.

The Move

June 20, 2013

To be human is to be broken and wanting. This keeps us in a perpetual state of needing and seeking. We get hungry, we seek food. We get lonely, we seek connection. We feel empty, we seek fulfillment. We are all addicted to something, and the deficits we experience daily cause us to be seeking our drug: attention, esteem, comfort.

This move from need to fulfillment is what defines us and how it happens is very important. Most of the time, it happens quite compulsively since we seek without knowing ...  Keep reading

Growing Down

June 3, 2013

We often think that as we grow spiritually, we will leave people behind. We tend to struggle with how to approach or talk to people we see as “beneath us” because we are just so “spiritually mature.” We act like we have entered some other realm they cannot even come near.

Then I look at Jesus, who embodied perfect consciousness, all wisdom, maturity and strength and I see how he treated people who might have been seen as “beneath him.” Beggars, cripples, the ...  Keep reading