Relationships
“Is it really possible to tell someone else what one feels?” -Leo Tolstoy This week, a friend relayed to me some frustrations about being vulnerable. After sharing her thoughts and feelings authentically, she was caught off guard by the somewhat negative reaction of her peers. This is the funny thing about vulnerability: it doesn’t always…
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By Ryan C. Bailey Jack and Jill have been married for years. Jack runs his own company and Jill keeps more than busy taking care of the house and shuttling the kids to all their church activities, sport trainings, music lessons, play dates, etc. They are both exhausted and are trying to keep their heads…
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“Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” Søren Kierkegaard There’s a fantastic series on PBS called “This Emotional Life” that explores the nature of our emotions and how the brain reacts in all sorts of funny ways. When describing fear, this series talks about the function of our amygdala and its relationship with the prefrontal cortex.…
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“Pain in this life is not avoidable, but the pain we create avoiding pain is avoidable.” -R.D. Laing But I hate that I do it…I don’t want to do it anymore…Nothing in me wants it. It’s the one thing you can’t stop doing. That action you return to in times of stress, sadness, or frustration.…
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“The limits of my language means the limits of my world.” -Ludwig Wittgenstein “Have you said these things to her?” my friend asked me with some leading. I had just finished enthusiastically praising my wife to this friend, telling him how incredible she had been during the week, how much I appreciated her hard work and…
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“We must know before we can love. In order to know God, we must often think of Him; and when we come to love Him, we shall then also think of Him often, for our heart will be with our treasure.” -Brother Lawrence I am constantly reminded of how much of a gift my community…
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“Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides.” -André Malraux I talk a lot about ‘being real.’ Part of this focus is because of how much I see individuals struggling to really tap into the parts of their hearts that they believe versus what they feel they should believe. In a conversation with…
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“It is dangerous to know, but it is more dangerous not to know.” -Rollo May Over the last week, I’ve been reading a very compelling book on addictions for a class I’m taking this summer. What has struck me about this book is a simple truth about how we live our lives and the choices we…
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“Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.” -Mark Twain Do you remember that first moment someone you thought so highly of did something awful? The shock of your idol/sibling/parent/best friend doing something you know in your heart to be wrong? For me, one of the earliest instances…
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Every year, a few of the guys I went to college with take a backpacking trip. It’s a chance for us to stretch our legs, reminisce, and be reminded of how cushy our lives are now that we’re all working and raising families. I missed one of the trips early on when an incredible thing…
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