Satisfying Lie

"Sometimes a satisfying lie can do more good than the awful truth."

Jack Bristow, Alias, S4: E3

Chaplains of the USAT Dorchester

George L. Fox
Alexander D. Goode
Clark V. Poling
John P. Washington

My new heroes

Greatness in the midst of suffering and death

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Chaplains

To make peace

"If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends.  

You talk to your enemies."

- Nikita season 2, episode 12

Well said.
This is so very hard to do.
Especially when my enemy is within.

When I lose my way

It's the place that I come when I lose my way and I have to find it again.

-Sully

Recently I've been realizing that I'm asking old questions in a new way.

I used to ask: How will I find my path? 
Then I asked: How will I stay on my path?

Now I'm asking: How will I find my path again when I lose it?

I want a gentle way back onto my path when I realize I'm off. 
I want to anticipate getting lost from time to time so I can plan in lots of on-ramps for myself, easy and penalty-free.

In a scene from Dr Quinn Medicine Woman, Sully takes Dr. Mike to a beautiful mountainside at sunset and says, "It's the place that I come when I lose my way and I have to find it again."

He knows where to go when he's lost.
He knows what to do when he becomes disoriented.
He's got a plan for where to begin again.
He's found his way back before and has confidence he'll find a way this time, too.

He goes to his special place, stands quietly, and listens.

May such grace and kindness for myself rest upon me.

How trauma gets under the skin

This is a thought-provoking article about how trauma becomes physical and the link between inflammation and PTSD/anxiety.  This jives with my own experiences of healing although I see different implications based on my own experiences.

Thanks to the U of M for publishing this and thanks to Kifah for showing it to me.

http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/11299/149429/1/March2013ereview.pdf

Cupcakes and biscuits

Sometimes Our Disappointment

For you, for your sorrow

by Alice Walker

Sometimes
our disappointment
possesses
a purity:
Sometimes
we are merely
blind.

My friend-
who could be
me
or any one
of us-
tells me,
tears
streaming
through
her voice:

I thought he was a cupcake
& instead he is
a biscuit.

My friend
is known
for her
good cooking
as we might be
too.
Still
for years
those
around her
witnessed
the unhoneyed
bitterness
kneaded
into
the flour
of this biscuit;
the greased
lightning
rage
and
unseasoned
scorn
pounded
into
the
dough.

Until,
finally,
all sweetness
beaten away,
this biscuit,
much like biscuits
you and I have known
was baked
in
nobody's
oven
but
her own.

The Joy Diet

Two friends recently recommended the same book- The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life by Martha Beck.

Excellent book.  Very thought-provoking.

One of my favorite parts starts on page 75, "Creativity Step 2: Perseverate on Your Enemies." Perseverate means to obsess or brood.  She recommends naming The Enemy and writing a list of their worst traits, the stuff that really gets under one's skin.  The she suggests "that the traits and behaviors you just listed may be exactly the things you should incorporate into your own behavior, in order to fulfill your heart's desires." (p 78)

This concept of applying to ourselves what we fixate on in others has proven extremely interesting and assumption-challenging.

I encourage you to take a look for yourself!