Excerpt from the book Campfires in the Desert: A Deconstruction Travel Guide Copyright © 2025 by Karl Forehand Learning to Celebrate Yourself “I celebrate myself, and sing myself.” – Walt Whitman Celebrating my accomplishments is something that I look forward to during every project, but it’s hard for me to do. Several guides in my life, including my current therapist, have reminded me of this fact. This issue is a sticky situation I find myself in because I... Read more
Excerpt from the book Campfires in the Desert: A Deconstruction Travel Guide Copyright © 2025 by Karl Forehand Learn to Trust Yourself “When you reach the end of what you should know, you will be at the beginning of what you should sense.” – Kahlil Gibrán Organized religion and many other institutions operate under the mistaken belief that we cannot trust ourselves due to our inherent flaws. We often think leaders possess a unique ability that distinguishes them from... Read more
Excerpt from the book Campfires in the Desert: A Deconstruction Travel Guide Copyright © 2025 by Karl Forehand Learn From Survivor Stories “Just listening is what turns a victim into a survivor.” – Christine Ristaino When we ask women who have survived abuse and narcissistic relationships within organized religion what men can do to help the situation, they almost always express a desire for men to listen to their survivor stories. Religion encourages us to study theology, leadership,... Read more
Excerpt from the book Campfires in the Desert: A Deconstruction Travel Guide Copyright © 2025 by Karl Forehand Is God a Good Father? “A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.” – Francis Bacon The Scriptures (particularly those in the New Testament) were written by people who often portrayed God as a parent using the term Father. If God is Father and if He is love, then His love for His children must at least be better than the love... Read more
Excerpt from the book Campfires in the Desert: A Deconstruction Travel Guide Copyright © 2025 by Karl Forehand Finding Regulating and Somatic Healing “The body always leads us home . . . if we can simply learn to trust sensation and stay with it long enough for it to reveal appropriate action, movement, insight, or feeling.” – Pat Ogden Before I learned about deconstruction, I viewed regulation only as the rules that governments enforce to manage the... Read more
Excerpt from the book Campfires in the Desert: A Deconstruction Travel Guide Copyright © 2025 by Karl Forehand Learn to be Who You Are (Authenticity) “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” –Oscar Wilde If you are walking away from religion or a high-control family, you will experience PTSD because, for most of your life, someone has told you who you should be, what you should do, or how you should believe. Now that you have separated and started... Read more
Excerpt from the book Campfires in the Desert: A Deconstruction Travel Guide (Copyright © 2025 by Karl Forehand) Get Into Your Body “Your real self may be hiding somewhere, look for it within, when you find yourself, you can freely be what you want to be.” – Michael Bassey Johnson Many religions suggest that our bodies are inherently flawed, leading to suspicion of their signals. This perspective is both misguided and harmful. Embracing a trauma-informed approach allows us to... Read more
Excerpt from the book Campfires in the Desert: A Deconstruction Travel Guide Copyright © 2025 by Karl Forehand Get Some New Friends “Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend – or a meaningful day.” – Dalai Lama I vaguely remember my grade school friends. In second grade, my two friends were a freckle-faced, short person... Read more
Excerpt from the book Campfires in the Desert: A Deconstruction Travel Guide Copyright © 2025 by Karl Forehand Learn to be Where You Are (Presence) “The quality of your consciousness at this moment is what shapes the future.” – Eckhart Tolle Ms. Beaty was one of my favorite teachers. Back then, teachers took attendance by calling each student’s name and asking them to respond with “here” or “present.” Although both responses indicated the same thing, we now recognize that they... Read more
Excerpt from the book Campfires in the Desert: A Deconstruction Travel Guide Copyright © 2025 by Karl Forehand Get Away from Your Trauma “Trauma is a fact of life. It does not, however, have to be a life sentence.” – Peter A. Levine When I first stepped away from the pulpit and my role as a pastor, my immediate reaction was to seek solace in a larger church. I soon began searching for ways to reconnect with ministry experiences. Yet,... Read more
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