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Crushing Resolutions

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I don’t set resolutions. I tune out self-improvement lists and posts. I reject positive-word-infused, thinly-veiled puritanical, personal development invitations. I started to say that it is not personal, but it is. It very much is! When I was younger, I went after everything HARD. Exercise – if you don’t hurt, it won’t work. School – straight As or bust. Massage – deep tissue, and the deeper, the better. Scared of something – face it head-on, jump in, push ahead. Result – an aching body (still), overhyped nerves (literally although born with those, so it’s a toss-up on nature versus self-nurtured), and exhaustive burnout. Somewhere along the way, I quit. It is really challenging to find a new way of being and truly practice it. It actually takes lots and lots of practice, which requires commitment, which can stir up the very beast you are trying to kill, so I just quit for a time. That is not as unhealthy as it sounds. (Quitting actually took its own effort and time!) Sometimes ...

Being WISE: Mental Health and the Church

 I have been meaning to get back to this blog for a year now. I guess a sermon is as good of a place to start as any. Sermon, testimony, confession, call to hope. It begins with John Roedel's poem that caught my attention a few weeks ago and is fed by my work with the UCC Mental Health Network's initiative fostering welcoming, inclusive, supportive, and engaged (WISE) concern for mental health within the church.  Being WISE: Mental Health and the Church August 18, 2024 – Community Church of Durham   “Patchwork Heart” Vulnerability doesn’t mean telling others what happened to us from across a cafe table or from behind a microphone      and then going home from the experience feeling just as alone as you did before vulnerability means allowing your human heart blanket to get sewn to other heart blankets it’s about connection we don’t share for status we do it for synergy we don’t confess for clout we do it to build comm...