by Kate | Sep 11, 2020 | Advocacy, kind promises, Surrender
This month I am considering two kind promises: “I will surrender patiently” and “I will advocate courageously.” They work together to help me discern a middle way. Once again, I return to the serenity prayer: “grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot...
by Kate | May 5, 2020 | kind promises, Surrender, Weakness
The kind promise that I am considering this month is “I will be tender with weaknesses.” What weakness shall we consider in this time of pandemic? I see a weakness creeping up on all people right now. There is the tendency to want to go back to normal, even though the...
by Kate | Dec 5, 2017 | Chronic healing, chronic illness, kind promises, Surrender
Living with an illness, there may be times when the ice cracks and you fall through. Plans need to be released. What worked before no longer works. For a while, you may flounder. Be there, in the depths. Know that you will probably resurface. If you don’t, you get to...
by Kate | Feb 21, 2017 | Chronic healing, Surrender
I painted this morning. My aide, Jenny, set out the paints and the paper and sprayed water on the paint tray to awaken the watercolors. My wooden-handled brushes sat beside the paints. I have had them for 30 years; they are old friends. I lifted a rectangular brush...
by Kate | Feb 14, 2017 | kind promises, Surrender
Surrender is not a popular notion in our hard-charging, get-it-done culture. It came into my vocabulary when I began practicing the 12 steps. Step three is traditionally written “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood...
by Kate | Mar 1, 2016 | Chronic healing, chronic illness, Surrender
This morning I asked my 18-year-old daughter to turn on some lights as she was leaving the apartment. She turned on my desk lamp and a hallway light near my desk and stopped with her hand on the door. “Do you need me to turn on the other light?” she asked, looking...