In the New Testament (Mark 5:21-43 & Luke 8:40-56), there's a seemingly simple story concerning a girl who has died and a woman who touched Jesus' robe for healing. On the surface, it's about receiving miraculous healing by having faith in Jesus. But, as I was reading this passage today, I realized some details in it that offer a more profound deliverance, for me at least.  The woman has been afflicted with an unending menstruation for twelve years at this point. Twelve years of being a woman of child-bearing age yet without the ability to conceive due to this abhorrence. On the other hand, we have a girl dying in the intro and dead upon arrival that happens to be twelve years of age. Dead when the woman's menses stopped.  What I realized about this story is that it's not just about two females but one. The fact that the story has been told as one, linked through Christ's actions, reveals the integrity of the two females' indivisibility. As Mark 4:12 sta...

  Did you ever think about who the storyteller of your life is? Like most, if not all, of you, I have only ever thought about one narrator for my life, which is me (my egoic "I"), but what if we're not the actual storytellers? In one of the first season episodes of Candace Cameron Bure's podcast , the guest host, Tara-Leigh Cobble, stated that the Bible was God trying to tell us who He is. So, when we read the Bible, we shouldn't look for the "me" in it or the stories or inspiration for solving our dilemmas in life, but instead, look to see how God is the story. We are his story to tell. Imagine changing our script from "How do I...?" to "Let God do..."  This morning, I had a dream. As the observer, I watched a man shift from one life to another. In the first life, he wasn't a good man. He had no consciousness of morality or discernment of reaction versus thoughtful response. In the second life, he was struggling to do everything ...

  The evolution of the mind/body/heart complex is about finding alignment. But, what is alignment? To begin, let's say the soul is your foundation point which the rest of you radiates. The soul stands within what's called the zero point, a place of existence where silence can be found. It is the God factor of universal love. The soul only knows love and hence it is only love. From that zero point comes the existence of a plan or blueprint, coding of the soul's existence within the physical plane such as major learning events to experience, along with special gifts and abilities (which we all have.) Upon entering this physical world, you begin your life from a standpoint of pure love, joy, and light. But, then life happens. You watch others to understand what is expected of you. You hear the words that others tell you about the evils of the world or even about the evils of your own self. You feel the pain, sometimes physically but usually emotionally, of loneliness, despair,...

Do you ever feel like you're just going in circles? Those cycles of the same kinds of people or the same kinds of situations that keep coming over and over and though we finally take note and start dealing with them in different ways, they still keep coming into our lives over and over and over. It's like the movie Groundhog's Day . Different day, but the same situation. I've had the same character come into my life over and over. No matter how I attempted to change the situation with the repeat selfish, callous character by trying to understand and learn compassion for them or attempting to avoid them like the plague, it always ended the same way - being run roughshod over. They say that we humans are caught on the karmic wheel - constantly being reborn into a new life until we FINALLY understand the lesson that we are meant to learn. This concept seems to also occur on a smaller scale, within the life we currently live, in cycles of situations and/or characters that...

 [caption id="attachment_1018" align="alignnone" width="640"   I bet there have been times in your life you just wanted to yell out to the universe "re-do!" And technically, we do get our "re-do" moments throughout life. We all have those scenarios and characters that appear to be on repeat in our life: that guy that we give our love to but treats us like shit, the job where you have that one coworker who merely talks and talks and you end up getting more and more work because s/he doesn't do anything, or perhaps your constant running from good relationships when they get too close for comfort. Sometimes, it's the good scenarios that play out too. It depends on what you've come to expect. What expectations have you been programmed to accept in your life? Perhaps, like me, you've had those moments of epiphany when you realize this and try to change the oft-repeated negator in your life. And, what inevitably happens aga...

  I'm going to tell you a little story about me. About eight years ago, I fell in love. Seven years ago, we parted ways and I ended up with a man whom I really didn't love but moved in with anyway, knowing I was settling. As could be foreseen, it ended fairly quickly. When it ended, I had few choices ahead of me as I was financially strapped and fairly isolated, so I did the only thing I could do... I went hiking. What?! Yeah, I borrowed a vehicle to move my things temporarily into a friend's garage, had my mom drive 500 miles to pick me up, and a week later I was driven to the nearest trailhead on the Appalachian Trail. Since I had really no money anyhow, I decided to spend what little I had on a month and a half's hike heading South, which is how I ended up in Virginia. I accomplished roughly 340 miles from Duncannon, PA to Buena Vista, VA with no maps and, for the most part, no companionship. Though unprepared mentally and physically, I say with complete confidence i...