The purpose of the #AmericaIsKind Challenge is simple: We want to spread kindness, gratitude and acts of good while highlighting the work of great charities. We want to start a wildfire of kindness and positivity online and in everyday life. So if you are tired of negativity, strife & division—especially on social media—There are two ways to take the #AmericaIs Kind Challenge: #1: On social media, SHARE an ACT OF KINDNESS you have witnessed with the tag #AmericaIsKind, then PAY... Read more
When I wrote “Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome: One Woman’s Desperate, Funny, Healing Journey To Explore 30 Religions By Her 30th Birthday“, I never expected the #1 question to be: “So, what religion did you pick?”… because I was never trying to find a religion. (I’d already been there, done that, burned the t-shirt). I was trying to find myself–and Something much Bigger than myself. Something Big Enough to believe in. I did find myself, and I did find Something Big Enough... Read more
I just left my weekly therapy appointment. It feels like someone has reached through my skin and twisted my insides. Sitting in my car, I take deep breaths and try to calm myself enough to drive, enough to go back to work. I tell myself An hour of digging the scariest, darkest closets of my psyche should not ruin the rest of my day. I tell myself Ugliness I didn’t know existed inside me coming up and out is no... Read more
Drizella Tremaine is Cinderella’s ugly stepsister on the right. When Cinderella manages to make a bow out of scraps, Drizella rips it off her head. When Cinderella and her magical mice piece together a gown from cast-offs, Drizella shreds it.When Cinderella finds and dusts off the one precious item she owns–her departed mother’s pearl necklace–Drizella tears it from Cinderella’s neck. Drizella tells Cinderella: “How dare you think YOU can go to the ball? All you’re fit for is sweeping ashes... Read more
If your sanity is suffering as Election Day approaches, I suggest a Negativity Fast–which is similar to a fast from food except far more pleasant because you give up toxic mental sludge instead of delicious pizza and ice cream. The basic idea of fasting is to abstain from worldly pleasures for spiritual purposes. With this particular Negativity Fast, we are giving up all things mentally icky to keep all our marbles between now and November 9th. (While this goal doesn’t... Read more
Are you angry about Election 2016? Have all the debates–between the candidates on TV, coworkers at the water cooler, your family members & friends at dinner, and social media contacts/celebrities—made you want to throw the nearest potted plant at the television/ overturn the water cooler/ stick a fork in someone’s eye/ permanently disconnect your Internet service? Are you sick of all the online and real-life arguing, complaining anger, angst, division, strife, contention?(I could go on. Here is the Thesaurus entry for “disturbing”.... Read more
It hurts in your center today. It hurts so much that you have to bend over when you sit, cross your arms when you walk–like you’re trying to protect yourself from someone– but you can’t, because that someone is you. “It hurts too much,” the pain says. “There is no hope,” the depression shouts. “Life is not worth living,” the grief tells. Lies, your head knows. Truth, your center screams. Lies, you think. Truth, you feel. Perhaps you have lived... Read more
By Guest Contributor extrodinaire Alece Ronzino, a great idea as we enter the New Year! I’ve been should-ing on myself most of my life. Growing up, I was the all-American good girl. I did well in school. I went on mission trips. I moved to Africa as a missionary when I was 19. I did everything “right”. By the book. The way I was supposed to, expected to, told to. The way I should. But I quickly discovered that the treadmill of... Read more
When I say they should sell Kathy Escobar’s Faith Shift with PTCS as a boxed set, I’m not even kidding. It is the first resource I send people to when they ask me, “What now?” So I am delighted that on this week’s #PodcastSunday Mark catches up with Kathy to talk about spiritual injuries and the transition and expansion of beliefs that often follow. Kathy provides a fresh, empathetic voice about interacting with loved ones who believe differently, and as she... Read more
In this installment of Podcast Sunday, Mark talks with Wm. Paul Young, author of The Shack, about his latest work Eve. Paul has navigated and overcome deep pain and trauma in his own life, so he brings wisdom to the question: “What does it mean to be a person of faith in the midst of loss?” He shares a few stories of incredible (and sometimes controversial) reactions to The Shack, and discusses his new book, Eve, which challenges traditional beliefs about who we are and how we’re... Read more
Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome
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