Rabbit Trails and Spiderwebs

House of Cards There is a part in the book “A grief observed”, by C.S. Lewis, where he talks about the way mankind creates a structural representation of God that is a house of cards.  God, not being pleased by the misrepresentation of this house, blows a bit of breath on it and it collapses easily.  We respond in horror that our representation is collapsed and are confronted with the knowledge that we have made some error, but then we start again.  The interesting part comes when we realize that we do this with many aspects of our lives.  That we build a structure of expectations for friends, relatives and business actions that conform to that internal sense of things being “right”.  This is then divided into two parts.  The first is the sense of violation when the expectation is not met or worse when it is trampled on purpose and we have been made the one that the joke was played upon.  The second part is when we realize we made the assumptions ourse...

Severe Mercy This is a piece that is about your personal journey and the process from the shaping event to helper for others.  It is about the permission to be in the stage that you are while knowing that it will come to the point of transition into the next. I thought more people have heard the phrase but in conversations this is not common.  Severe is that part of the pain that is searing, and mercy is that part that turns into help for others.  Hope you like this. Severe Mercy It never is the color you are expecting.   The corner you turn appears common and the result is nothing that was expected.   The sight and the sound and the impact that penetrates to your core will leave you changed in a manner that you could not have planned and would not have hoped for.   The term PTSD is often connected to the military experience, but it is just as real for the one that has the miscarriage or the divorce or the loss of a parent that was ...

This is a companion piece for the previous one "Are You".  I wrote this first and was told it is more cerebral and I should try the same topic  with emotion first.  This is a real thing, being at ease, and some understand more than others.  Some yearn for it more than others, never quite filled up.  I hope you like it, and to the ones from a military background I would ask a bit of indulgence to a layman not steeped in the details. At Ease At once both a command and a description.   Spoken by the Drill Instructor, it conveys the next action.   A volitional and deliberate step on the path of the day. Spoken, and carried out, as a necessary function for the next period of time, it is done with permission and with a timeframe. At Ease, can be a marching band posture or a soldier posture, but it is an action that is the result of the leader directing. And with some training and discipline, you will actually force the relaxation t...