communication
Reunited With Crochet Friend In Spirit
I like to frequent a well-known, local bookstore. It is my way of having peaceful fellowship indirectly with others. I don’t have to talk to anyone, but the feeling of others around while I’m reading is a pleasant feeling. I always sit on the same chair, which is almost like a comfy love seat with others sitting nearby.
One day, while sitting there and reading, I noticed in my peripheral vision a lady to my left. She sat down on the sofa next to me.
She then looked at me and said, “I’m so sorry I didn’t want to disturb you, but I think you may have known my grandmother. She attended the same church you went to.”
I asked her which church she was speaking of and then confirmed that I had indeed gone there for a few years, but no longer attend. Continue reading
Learning To Deal With Toxic Individuals
If, as many teachings suggest, there is spiritual growth in every experience, and in particular the more difficult times, then being strongly affected by another person’s negative behavior must also be one of life’s lessons.
I have been pondering this because of the increase in psychic reading calls I have been getting related to this very topic. Some of my clients have been profoundly upset lately by the negative outbursts of people in their lives, including family, friends, partners, work colleagues, or even random altercations in public places.
I love these words from the poem Desiderata: “Avoid the loud and the aggressive – they are vexations to the spirit.” How very true. However, more often than not, we are not in the position to avoid those individuals altogether, in order to escape their toxic influence. Even in a friendship turned sour, we often want to give the toxic friend the benefit of the doubt, knowing that they don’t always behave that way. We might even be in love with a negative person, hoping we can change them one day. Continue reading
When Your Child Is Your Spiritual Coach
Coming from a family who never communicated their personal feelings, I learned a lot about the importance of communication between age groups in my early teens, when I was sent to live with a Dutch family with three children for several months.
I always admired their closeness, but it wasn’t until I actually moved in with them, that I realized just how far their caring and sharing went towards feeling part of such a close knit family. They prayed together too, and included me, always asking for healing for my mother who was having treatment at the time for her ‘nervous condition.’
In later years, as a recovering alcoholic in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), I would often hear the expression, “A family that prays together, stays together.” I am sure this family has stayed close all these years, even though we have lost touch. Continue reading