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...
by Kate | Feb 23, 2016 | Surrender
When I was 20 years old and first claiming my identity as a contemplative mystic, I read “The Practice of the Presence of God,” a little book that describes the practice of Brother Lawrence, a 17th century Carmelite monk. I returned to the book recently, its text now...
by Kate | Feb 16, 2016 | chronic illness, Disability, kind promises, Surrender
I’ve been reading what Pema Chödrön has to say about patience. Lately, I’ve been struggling with physical pain and a dark mood. I want them both to go away right now. How quickly I move from discomfort to aggression! What if, instead, I bring curiosity to my...
by Kate | Feb 10, 2016 | Surrender
It’s pretty simple: I think that the cure for discomfort is control. I am wrong. While other cave people were fighting or fleeing, my ancestors were making Gantt charts. If we could just get an intellectual handle on the situation, understand the variables and get...
by Kate | May 6, 2014 | chronic illness, Disability, kind promises, Surrender, Uncategorized
Kind Promise: I will be tender with weaknesses. Last Easter Sunday I witnessed a miracle: Two pews ahead of me, a 10-month-old girl was interacting with the 83-year-old woman sitting in the pew behind her. The baby, held in her mother’s arms, reached over mom’s...
