Where did your name come from? Names. What do they say about a person? What story do they tell? Are they pointers to identify the one about whom or to whom we are talking or something more? Birth Names. My given name, James Edward, came from my mother’s step-father (James) and her dad who died … Continue reading Names, Stories, and Meaning
Author: James
I am a seeker, a contemplative, a husband, a father, a son, and a friend. I have found that everyone and everything is infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift they already are.
Living My Mission
What motivates you? I suppose there are any number of ways to answer this question. As a younger person, I was motivated by fear: of failure, of being unloved and unappreciated, of not-fitting-in, of mediocrity, of dying unknown. It is amazing what an unrelenting motivator fear was; it never let up and created stress, anxiety, … Continue reading Living My Mission
Entertaining Diversions and Connecting Points
What are your top ten favorite movies? I enjoy a “good” movie while at the same time recognizing movies for what I experience them to be: diversions and entertainment. There is nothing particularly wrong about being diverted and/or entertained as long as I recognize it. I do practice “being there” as I watch a movie, … Continue reading Entertaining Diversions and Connecting Points
Expression and Discovery
What do you enjoy most about writing? Writing for me is a way of bringing to form concepts that are bouncing around unnamed in my thoughts. As the words flow, sometimes I am surprised by what I discover and the old/new patterns that are arising unbidden. Other times I am startled to see a cohesion … Continue reading Expression and Discovery
Four Seasons
What do you love about where you live? Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn. I love the feel of experiencing all four seasons as each of them has a beauty and allure all its own. As I am writing, I find myself in the Northern Hemisphere in summer. Culturally, summer has become a time of vacations and … Continue reading Four Seasons
Unrestricted Positive Regard
What positive emotion do you feel most often? Love. I most often feel a spaciousness, a deeply open space, a positive energetic flow that emerges from somewhere beyond and within me. I have come to see that Love is an energy, perhaps such a subtle one we cannot yet measure it. Perhaps we never will. … Continue reading Unrestricted Positive Regard
Helping Me Be the Best Me
Daily writing promptWhat makes a teacher great?View all responses The best teachers I have had listened to me and addressed the needs I had. These teachers helped me discover myself- what excites me, what inspires me, how I learn- and then those teachers set me free to be me. That is an underrated gift teachers … Continue reading Helping Me Be the Best Me
For Everything A Time
My wife recently bought local peaches from the Farmer’s Market. Yesterday, I decided to have one as a morning snack; nothing was particularly unusual about a morning snack nor my eating fruit she brought home. The peach I chose from the bowl cut easily and was ripe. The first bite was a heavenly experience and … Continue reading For Everything A Time
Being Undivided
What brings you peace? Peace has become for me a sense of wholeness, completeness, and relationality. Rather than understanding peace as the absence of something- for instance, distraction or pain -I understand peace as the inclusion of these as part of my whole daily path. One of my teachers taught that human beings tend to … Continue reading Being Undivided
Therapy Is a Good Beginning
What profession do you admire most and why? I admire the work of psychotherapists in helping people find ways to cope with their trauma and life challenges. I benefitted greatly from the therapeutic process in dealing with life events from my past in ways that helped me live daily less like I was on a … Continue reading Therapy Is a Good Beginning
Infinitely Precious 