Posts

Amid the Cold of Winter

A friend sent me a recording of the medieval German hymn, Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (“Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” by British ensemble Voces8. It evoked deep emotion in me, for while in Europe on Christmas and New Year’s in 2018, my twin daughters and our friend and I visited my uncle in Köln, Germany, where this hymn was written in 1599.

My uncle and I attended midnight Mass on Christmas Eve in the very church in Köln where this hymn was first sung, for it is the church where he and my late aunt were married. The a cappella voices of the church ensemble echoing off medieval stones was a transcendent and unifying experience, as was seeing and touching the baptismal font that had been used since 800-900 A.D. My aunt and cousins and many of their ancestors had been baptised there.

Recovery

Amid the Cold of Winter

Thoughts on the gifts of cold, darkness, and suffering.

Deep Work

How the Light Gets In

“Start again,” I heard them say, “Don’t dwell on what has passed away or what is yet to be.” — Leonard Cohen

Deep Work

The Beginning of Wisdom

The longer you lived in a toxic, shame-based, hurtful environment, the longer your healing will take.

Deep Work

Good Help is Hard to Find

The entire goal of being helped is robustly healthy, balanced, and honest relationship to others. It is also to gain an awareness of when others unconsciously manipulate or use contempt or shame to try to control you or get their own needs met. If you can do that after receiving help, you have arrived.

Reflections

Where is My Home?

“Where is my home?” poet Rainer Maria Rilke asks.

Culture & Lifestyle

In Search of Salted Shrimp

I’m glad I can have an experience of being an outsider, because it’s humbling and hilarious, and one has to be bold to find what one needs in the place where one’s own culture is not king.

Recovery

If People Were Stray Animals

If people were stray animals, we would all be worth rescuing. Groups of rescuers would band together, forming networks whose only purpose is to give care and comfort to the abandoned. […] How lovely, if each traumatized person were valued as much as a stray animal.