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The Problem with Pathologizing
All of the structures are breaking down for me. And by ‘all of the structures’ I mean ALL of them: religion, politics, education, agriculture, healthcare, even the agreed-upon, well established norms of society-at-large. I don’t know how or why (well maybe I kinda know why), but all of the ways I used to make sense of the world no longer makes sense. Life is rearranging in ways big and small. I often stop myself from writing because I can’t completely make sense of what I’m feeling. But whenever I write, things do become more clear, so it seems important to at least try to describe the ways I’ve been feeling. So today, instead of focusing on ALL of the structures, I’d like to hone in on one aspect of one structure: pathologizing in healthcare. For a long time now, I’ve seen ‘healthcare’ in America…
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Life Lately, Birthday Edition
Life lately. Birthday edition. Last night, after all of the day’s celebrations, J and I danced to ‘I Hope You Dance’ by the pool … and then I had a deep cathartic cry right before bed. It seemed to come out of nowhere, and then it suddenly all made sense. Both and. I am a highly sensitive, empathic, introverted human. I love people, but I also feel everything very deeply. Unless you have these tendencies, it is hard to explain, and can be overwhelming. For a long time I overindulged to deal with and manage these feelings, but now I know how to honor them. It’s such a paradigm shift to go from a list of things that need to be fixed to making space for what’s showing up. Everything belongs. Good and bad. Both and. I cried last night, witnessing all of the…
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Sitting with the Questions
I am a firm believer in spiritual practice. My spirituality isn’t dependent on a strict set of beliefs or a weekly service. And while what I believe guides my life and spirituality, if all I have are beliefs without practice, it feels inadequate. Over the years, I’ve had many practices within my spiritual life: reading sacred texts, meditation, spending time in nature, writing and creating to name a few. I still use many of these practices and others, and allowing them to ebb and flow feels most right for me and my life. A few years ago, as I began a serious contemplative practice, sitting with the questions began to fuel my life with a palpable fervor. It’s a practice of deepening in the mystery of life. As an analytical, left brained individual, it’s honestly not the easiest practice. Sometimes it feels like I’m…
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Reflections: Spiritual Traditions of the World
As part of my Interfaith Spiritual Guidance training, we were asked to write a Reflective Expression on four of the world’s spiritual traditions, followed by an integration narrative. Below are the conclusions I’ve drawn about sitting with people from various traditions: The voices we’ve heard in these modules intensifies my belief that we are a lot more alike than different. I believe any truly spiritual person with a heart for God can see this. I believe the biggest detriments to peace among religions/traditions are ‘othering’ others not like us, extremist beliefs within particular traditions and rigidity/dogma of a particular belief system. Our capitalist society plays into, and in many ways, guides all of this. We all live with bias and judgement daily; its how we work with them that matters most. I don’t know if its this SGTI study, the pandemic we just…
