Sometimes fully being oneself in plain sight can be viewed as rather weird or downright odd. Sometimes our uniqueness is labeled as strange, bizarre, quirky or slightly peculiar. ‘Different’ in a culture of uniformity is too frequently labeled as eccentric, curious, “out there,” slightly unconventional, eerie, a tad bit unorthodox, or being … [Read more...]
The Bottom Line – What Drives Our Decisions
We make decisions all day, every day. Whether those decisions are the redundant routine things that fill up most of our days, or those decisions are the seminal moments that alter our lives for the rest of our lives. Some of the decisions that we make are conscious; choices that are the product of much time, rigorous thought, the balancing out of … [Read more...]
Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep – Mom and Dad’s Bedtime Prayer
It goes something like this, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. God bless Mommy, Daddy, Mark, Brett and Granny. Amen.” Simple. I recited that prayer thousands of times as kid. It comes to my memory today as clearly as it did those many thousands of … [Read more...]
The End – A Contradictory Idea
“The End.” There’s something definitively final about those two simple words. Those two, three letter words appear on the screen when the last words of the actors have fallen into an irretrievable silence and the screen has been swept barren of images. They pen an irrefutable and final ‘period’ on the last page of novels beyond which sentences … [Read more...]
To Decide or Not Decide – The Impact
Decisions. Life is quite literally jam-packed with them. We make them all of the time; literally one after another after another. Hardly a single minute passes where we’re not thinking through and making some sort of decision. Some decisions are huge and sweeping, amply possessing both the power and scope to impact our lives for the rest of our … [Read more...]
Life – What’s the End Game?
Sooner or later our lives will be over. The day will come when we will reach the last minute of the last day on the last page of the calendar of our lives. Sooner or later we will all have that single day when ‘tomorrow’ won’t be standing at the ready to become the next ‘today.’ Our days have always been marked by the promise of another day to … [Read more...]
Endings – Am I Living for Them? – II
Our Beliefs We all have a host of core beliefs, cherished perspectives, and chiseled morals that guide us through the decisions of each hour and steer us through the demands of our days. Yet, too often these compasses and assorted maps are less the product of deep contemplation, and more the manifestation of what we’ve simply picked up along … [Read more...]
Endings – Do I Live for Them?
What is the nature of our mentality anyway? We are a complex collection of experiences, wounds, failures, successes, relationships, genetics and a wholly innumerable array of other things that press together and then settle into some sort of uniquely amalgamated compilation that makes us, us. The nature of these things and the manner in which … [Read more...]
The End – A Contradictory Idea
“The End.” There’s something definitively final about those two simple words. Those two, three letter words appear on the screen when the last words of the actors have fallen into an irretrievable silence and the screen has been swept barren of images. They pen an irrefutable and final ‘period’ on the last page of novels beyond which sentences … [Read more...]
Battles – Fear and Avoidance
Battles come every day. In whatever form they come, they come. They come with relentless pressure, incessantly assailing the battlements of our lives and our culture. Battles come in our marriages, in our families, in our jobs, in our communities and in our friendships. Enemies violently storm our lives, startlingly surging out of places and … [Read more...]
Craig Lounsbrough
M. Div., LPC