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What Our Childhood Memories Reveal
Memories act as markers for our lives, and our first ones often reveal a lot about how we see the world. What you make of your childhood makes you, I believe. One of my first vivid memories involves a small house I lived in at the age of three or four. We lived in Colorado at the time and were quite poor as my parents attended graduate school. I would walk up and down the block and once knocked on a neighbor’s door to see if she had any children. I remember her house as pink and her hair as brown laced with silver. She had no children and clearly…
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Imagination and Prayer: How to Encounter Jesus
I still remember the river we saw while on vacation in Yosemite my junior year of high school. The river’s perfectly clear waters shot past in a narrow channel, about hip deep. The icy cold chilled my parent’s feet as well as my brother’s, and mine as we sat on the edge. My mother, brother, and I decided to jump in. The cold rushed over me and after a few minutes, I got out shivering, but with the endorphin rush that comes from a dunk in freezing water. The memory of that state of well-being has stayed with me my whole life. I felt fully alive at that moment and…
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When Positive Thinking Doesn’t Work
I hate positive thinking emergencies. They creep up on me at my worst moments. I stand at cliff’s edge, vicious barbarian armies closing in on me. In front of me lies the ocean. Even if I were to survive the sharp rocks that stud the cliffside, there is a sea monster waiting below, his gaping maw revealing rows upon rows of pointy teeth. I feel panic grip my chest, my throat. My hands shake. Then out of nowhere, I feel the hand of my co-worker gently squeeze my shoulder. “Try to think positive thinking,” he says, meaningfully and with sincere sympathy. “That’s it!” I think and begin to hum The…
Healing Through Art & Words
