Many of the frustrations we face in life result from denying, rejecting, and/or ignoring our personal calling. As we do this, we become split off from ourselves and the ONE to which we are a part and belong. Few people pursue, discover, and fulfill a calling because...
“You have to carry the fire.” “I don’t know how to.” “Yes, you do.” “Is the fire real?” “The fire? Yes it is.” “Where is it? I don’t know where it is.” “Yes you do. It’s inside you. It always was there. I can see it.” The Road, Cormac McCarthy The novel The Road by...
“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being...
Calling is where the inside drive meets the outside need. “Vocation does not come from a voice out there calling me to be something I am not. It comes from a voice in here calling me to be the person I was born to be.” Thomas Merton The aerodynamics of an airplane...
“Trust that which gives you meaning and accept it as your guide.” C.G. Jung Calling is the path to meaning, purpose, and significance. The iconic 1985 movie The Goonies tells the story of Mickey, Chunk, Data, and Mouth (the Goonies); a group of young misfits who...
It takes time, effort, and attention to develop clarity on your calling. Rarely if ever do the heavens part and a voice bursts forth telling us what to do when. What’s the fun in that anyway? And if it did, would we really listen? Would we even believe or trust it?...
Each of us has been launched into being by the cosmic slingshot of Providence. We are authored by forces outside of us and cast into an amazing ancient story. We are constrained by our limited awareness of the past, present, or future. We did not pick the time and...
My daughter recently had her braces taken off. After two years of nightly headgear and metal on her mouth, she was finally free. Since she had them put on, she would talk about how much she missed her “freedom”. Yes, the freedom of eating sticky candy, whole apples,...
“When I refer to ‘Creative living,’ I am speaking more broadly. I am talking about a life that is driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.” – Liz Gilbert (Big Magic) When you think of the word CREATE do you judge yourself? Maybe thinking about how you aren’t a...
“It seems we have this inborn need to love and to create. At their deepest, these drives of spirit appear to be the same. For through her love, wasn’t Grandma creating me? Don’t we help birth another the instant we encourage them to see with their heart? Don’t we help...
The Enneagram was mentioned in grad school, but I never looked much into it. When I started interviewing for positions in Nashville, I had several interviewers talk about how Enneagram being a language for many Nashville clients and had a friend from here recommend I...
I learned about the Enneagram while in graduate school. A professor brought in an “Enneagram specialist” that reviewed the model and processed the myths around what it is and isn’t. From there, reading from various books and articles mixed with bringing it into my own...
I first learned about the Enneagram by going to my church’s small group. One of the leaders was studying and we often discussed it and took the test together. Since then I have read several books, follow several Instagram pages, and enjoy listening to podcasts. I am...
I learned about the Enneagram when I was studying in seminary. Although I had heard of many different personality inventories and tests when studying psychology in college, I had never truly understood its power until graduate school. After taking a great deal of time...
When a crisis hits, it is inherently disorienting. That’s what makes it a crisis. The disorientation of the chaos is what makes us start asking “What do I do?”, “Where do I go?”, and we feel like we have lost all control. The truth is, we never had much control in the...
My friend Kenny first introduced me to the concept of “liminal space”. It is taken from the Latin word limen, which means “threshold”. Liminal space is the place of waiting, the place of not knowing, the in-between space where we are not where we used to be, but we...
If you stroll down the streets of your neighborhood right now, it’s likely you’ll see a lot of parked cars lining the curbs and driveways. Walk a little further and you’ll pass cafes, restaurants and shops with their lights off and doors locked....
Watching TV tonight I couldn’t help but notice that every commercial contained some reminder of how life used to be. Remember when we used to give each other high fives? Remember when there used to be sports on TV every night? Remember when we used to eat out and go...
Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life’s account every day. -Seneca What a beautiful sentiment. Postpone nothing. Balance life’s account. Daily. Just breaking it down like this makes me breathe slower…more mindfully. What does it even mean to...
We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. – Joseph Campbell How often do our best-laid plans go awry? Once in a lifetime? Twice? Too many to count? We begin each year with resolutions. We turn over...
Painful truth is better than a pleasant lie. – Bryant McGill Almost two years ago now, my family received some unexpected news. A painful truth, if you will. And it felt how I imagine a tsunami would feel. Frightening. Suffocating. Powerful. Inescapable. And for...
My husband, Steve, is a master gardener. He has created wonderful beauty in our gardens in every house in which we have lived. Most of our marriage, I did not contribute anything to the gardens. My shame would not allow me to even participate because I had no...
For the majority of my life, I’ve felt drawn to change. Not the dye-my-hair-every-season type of change, but a voracious hunger for new surroundings, new roles to explore, new relationships to replace old. I moved across the city, the country, the world; I changed...
As an external description, maturity is the evidence of reaching full natural growth or development. As an internal description, maturity is the emotional and relational capability of living fully and loving deeply while experiencing life on life’s terms. By being...
