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the invitation of our overwhelm: empathetic witnessing
a reflection, a poem, and a practice “Trauma is not what happens to us, but what we hold inside in the absence of an empathetic witness.” ―Peter A. Levine Content warning: depression, pregnancy loss, anxiety, grief For much of my life, my sensitivity has felt like moving through an ultra-bright, sunlit world without sunglasses. When…
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autumn sage in spring
I needed to give my body some time to be with beauty amidst the horrors, so I stepped out into my backyard to feel my feet on the ground and to see what I could see. autumn sage in springby Lindsay L. O’ConnorThe autumn sage is blooming in spring, which leads me to believe she’s…
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beauty as sustenance
“When you encounter beauty in the world, you drop out of goal-consciousness and into witness-consciousness. Instead of being driven by the mindset of productivity, you shift into a mindset of beholding the moment. To behold is to stand with openness and awe before what is happening, rather than trying to figure out what to do…
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unsayable: a lament for our neighbors
“…we have to learn how to say what is unsayable. We tell a story about violence to make sense of it, and the story returns to the public realm where grieving is possible. …naming the violence and grieving loss in community is how the hole turns into a wound that can heal.”—See No Stranger by…
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portable silence: tethering to goodness
“…silence is above all a quality of the heart that can stay with us even in our conversations with others. It is a portable cell that we carry with us wherever we go. From it we speak to those in need and to it we return after our words have borne fruit.”—The Way of the…
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the wisdom of midlife fatigue
“Lindsay, when you run, you FLY!” The memory of my father’s words to me, 35 years ago or more, makes me smile. It also seems a little laughable now to think that my young, fit dad would have complimented the athletic prowess of his least athletic child. Even now, while he is in his 70s,…
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this is why it hurts
on belonging, fragmentation, and integration: a pondering, a poem, & a practice “If contemplation is about penetrating illusion and touching reality, why do we commiserate with others when they tell us about an experience that’s ‘disillusioned’ them? ‘Oh, I’m so sorry,’ we’ll say. ‘Please, let me comfort you.’ Surely it would be better to say,…
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living the questions
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot now be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the…
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mallard in the middle [depression in the group chat]
/ mallard in the middle [depression in the group chat] The mallard in the middlegets all the good sleep.Seven ducks slept in a rowa few yards from the creek near our house,conspicuous as a red balloonfloating in a blue sky.They looked so vulnerableuntil I learnedthey can allow half their brain to sleepwhile the other half…
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for the women
Happy Women’s History Month and happy International Women’s Day! This is a poem I wrote a few years ago. Ladies, this is for you, for me, for us: for the womenA social media post that went viralasked women what they would doif there were no men on the planetfor 24 hours.The answers would make you…
Lindsay L. O'Connor
Spiritual Director | Enneagram Professional | Writer | Speaker
Lindsay L. O'Connor 