blog ~ faith ~ family ~ heartlife
Some years ago – about 20 – my sister came to speak with me about a particular teaching she could see me disappearing down the trail of – and she was concerned. I was ironing and she was making cuppas I think, when she began the topic she wanted to discuss.
Continue reading “Going Wonky”
A very angry friend once said to me “Is the word ‘encouragement’ even in your vocabulary?”
I was floored.
Continue reading “Hurt but Helped”
Mozzies love me. They land so lightly I mostly don’t know they’re beginning to sting until it’s too late but you can be sure that as un-co and reflex slow as I am, if I see it – I’m going to squish it or at least swat it away.
A couple of weeks ago I said the most awful thing I’ve ever said to anyone in my entire life. I sat, actually stunned, by the foulness of and contempt within my very own words. More about that later.
Continue reading “Squish ’em”
I’ve avoided getting counselling several times throughout my life when I think it could have helped, for a few reasons.
1. Expense.
2. Believing an undercurrent that I should be able to ‘handle it’, figure it out by myself.
Continue reading “Need Some Help?”
Forgiveness – The ideas attributed to forgiveness are often pre-packaged with a whole host of assumptions, a tonne of pain, a few shovelfuls of offence, confusion about moving forward etc etc etc and when you’re in the middle of a knot it can be pretty tricky to figure out which is what. It’s also pretty often that the knot itself is what gets in the way of being able to forgive when we assume more is meant by it than is so.
Continue reading “Unpacking forgiveness”
I had a very stark experience a number of years ago where I rang a particular centre for help with a confidential issue and found this marvellous woman on the other end of the line who spoke LIFE for the first time into the setting I described to her. Others had stood beside, but were all pretty much as lost in it as I, but THIS woman – THIS woman had understanding, experience and light to share which breathed hope and an aliveness I didn’t know was possible in the circumstances until that moment. From that point on I could move with hope and expectation though nothing about the setting changed. She showed me the difference between words without and words WITH – life.
Continue reading “What About the Tree of Death?”
I grew up in a generation that used “Der Fred” when something seemed really dumb or obvious – but I don’t think it’s allowed to say “der Fred” to Jesus.
Continue reading “Do you Want to be Well?”
Leaving the home of your childhood on good terms has a sweetness and a piquancy to it and has been an illustration to me of how it has felt to move on from the church community I spent about 40 years of my life in… but just like parents don’t stop being parents, church family doesn’t stop being family regardless of the meeting place.
VSP 🙂
Once upon a time, about 15 years ago, lived a tribe of small children in a rambling home on a hill where the summers scorched and the winters wore but come sunshine or sleet, grey days or golden, the children would play.
Continue reading “An Unconventional Story”
In the last few days I’ve been thinking rather a lot on WHY I was such a snot to my parents at around age 16. I’d have thought that by the 6th kid in our family to be almost 16 – that I’d have thought through all my own teenage ‘stuff’ by now but it’s not so.
Continue reading “On Growing Up”