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2021 in Books!
Happy New Year! 2021 was a doozy, but it was a fantastic year in books. I read more books this year than in any previous year! These were my favorites: 1. God Speaks Through Wombs by Drew Jackson 2. The Color Purple by Alice Walker 3. The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune 4.…
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power trip
Power Trip Signs, wonders, and miracles are the shiny packages that tell us of God’s might but oh, how we have despised God’s weakness! And in so doing, perhaps we have learned to despise our own. But Jesus submitted to the vulnerability of birth and death and all the joy and pain and every-day-ness in…
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listen to your rage
Listen to your rage and hear the ache underneath— the excruciating gap between “should be” and “is actually.” Sometimes we call it grief. Feel it in your body— a burning, consuming flood of adrenaline priming you for action because “is actually” is actually unbearable. When your rage collapses, listen for its wisdom. Let it tell…
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this is why it hurts
this is why it hurts Did it hurt, the first time you gave yourself away? Did it sting, when the little pieces splintered into fragments that you wished you could take back, offered up like candy on the altar of broken relationships? Unaware, perhaps, of the crime you were committing, you were focused on perfecting…
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Welcome to the In-Between
Welcome to the In-Between Welcome to the in-between. I’d tell you to pull up a chair, but the furniture here never seems to quite fit. I’d say, “Make yourself comfortable,” but we’d only laugh— as though comfort were not the one most pressing desire at the forefront of your mind. God is here; this I…
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invitation to the unburdening
Image text: Enneagram work reveals how the weight of our armor has become more crushing than the things from which it was protecting us. Increased awareness is the beginning of the unburdening. Our personality is a gift that has allowed us to protect ourselves, but as we mature, we may begin to see that it…
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Holy Drudgery
“Anything can become a spiritual practice once you are willing to approach it that way—once you let it bring you to your knees and show you what is real…” -Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World When I’m anxious, I make my way to the laundry area before I even realize it. I watch…
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breath prayer for anxious souls
Breath Prayer for Anxious Souls Inhale: O Holy One, come swiftly. Exhale: Return me to myself. Breath Prayer for Authenticity Inhale: Emmanuel, God with us, Exhale: Help me stay with myself. God gave each of us the gift of a Self. During panic attacks, high anxiety or high emotion moments, or just regular old stress…
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…even then, you were loved.
Even then, you were loved. When you did something great, something terrible, or nothing at all… When you felt the pressure of praise for performance and when you felt completely and utterly unseen… When God’s voice was loud and clear, and when God was eerily silent… When your pain was unbearable, and when your joy…
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all bodies are good bodies
Maybe instead of lamenting weight changes during traumatic seasons, we could practice saying, “This is the body that carried me through such a difficult time. Thank you.” Self-love and self-compassion can extend to these miraculous bodies we inhabit. Our bodies carry the joys, trauma, and scars of surviving in a beautiful, painful world. When we…
Lindsay L. O'Connor
Spiritual Director | Enneagram Professional | Writer | Speaker
Lindsay L. O'Connor 