A Ugandan Tale Retold by Sophia Lyon Fahs Once upon a time, there lived a boy named Kumba who did not know he was good enough. [1] He was small and couldn’t keep up with the other boys. They beat him in games and teased him. Feeling humiliated and frightened, Kumba took to playing by himself. This only made things worse, though, because he was still afraid, and now he was also lonely. It got so he didn’t dare try to do anything because he feared people would laugh at him. He couldn’t bring himself to try shaping clay vases and bowls like his father, because he knew his pottery…
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Emotions, Healing, and Gun Violence
Understanding Emotions This column is about emotions. It’s about the importance of feeling and of knowing what we feel. When we don’t recognize our emotions, we become vulnerable to the manipulation of tyrants. When we refuse to look within ourselves at our own emotional storm, we project our evil onto women, men, and binary individuals; onto people of color, immigrants, the poor; and onto the vulnerable and the broken in general. A few days ago, seventeen more children died from gunfire, this time in a Florida high school on Valentine’s Day. So much hatred spilling out on a day of love. Such violence occurs, in part, because we refuse to…
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How We Heal
Healing in the Gospel of Mark The Gospel of Mark is full of miraculous healings. According to Tony Cauchi in “Healing in the Gospels,” [1] forty-one separate healing stories are scattered throughout the four gospels, and Mark tells eighteen of them. In each story, Jesus uses a touch or a word or even a bit of saliva to transform the broken and injured, the possessed and the infirm, even the very dead, into whole, vibrant, alive, and faithful individuals. The complete faith that fills those whose bodies and minds have been healed of disease is perhaps the most important part of each tale. Mark contrasts that faith with the ignorance…
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Coping with Craving and Desire
The Desires of Andvari The Norse myth about the dwarf Andvari tells of craving, lust, foolishness, and death. As retold by Liz Greene and Juliet Sharman-Burke, [1] Andvari is walking along the river one day when he sees the reflection of gold among the rocky riverbed and falls in love with the glittering metal. But the gold is guarded by the daughters of the river god, Father Rhein. Like the Sirens of Greek mythology, these young nymphs lure men with their unattainable beauty. Seeing them, Andvari longs for them with a deep and relentless longing. He calls to them desperately, rushing toward them with open arms. Laughing, the maidens drift…
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Love and Our Neighbor
Loving Our Neighbor We humans are relational creatures. In the normal course of things, we develop bonds of caring and support that, when they grow strong enough, we call love. This love can be reflected in action, such as when we tend to wounds, offer gifts, hug and hold, when we visit another, smile at him, cook and clean for her, read to him, give her money or clothes, smile, or pray. We can also show love by sacrificing ourselves for our beloved. It is said we know how much God loves us because he gave his first born son to save us. To be like Jesus, then, must we…
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Life Out of Death
The Cycle of Life In the children’s book, Fletcher and the Falling Leaves, Julie Rawlinson tells the story of Fletcher, a young fox living through his first autumn. When the leaves of his favorite tree start to lose their green sheen, Fletcher thinks the tree is sick and tries watering and feeding it. Still the leaves wither and turn brown. When they drop, Fletcher tries to reattach them to their stems. Nothing works. Finally, all the branches are bare. Despondently, Fletcher goes home. At his young age, he doesn’t understand the cycle of life and death and life. All he can see is that his beloved tree is dying, and he…
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Healing from Historical Trauma
The Pain of Racism While working as a chaplain on a residential drug treatment unit, I had the opportunity to sit with a young man with white skin who had been given a roommate whose skin was dark. Having been raised to blame and reject dark-skinned people, he felt uncomfortable being close to this other man and wanted a different roommate. However, he didn’t feel he could just march up to nursing staff and make such a demand. He had at least that much understanding of social propriety. Instead, he came to me to try and process his feelings and behavior. As I invited him to focus on his emotions…
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Shame, Mass Murder, and Healing
Reeling from Another Mass Murder Again, sorrow grips our country as another gunman kills and wounds. His senseless violence leads to terror, deaths, broken bodies, broken hearts. This kind of aggression has existed from the time when Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal co-existed, and then didn’t, because our species drove to extinction a people so like us. Now we seem to be trying to extinguish one another. Have there not been enough shootings? No place is safe, anymore: not schools, shopping malls, churches, bars, or outdoor concerts. We are so violent, and so vulnerable. How do we make sense of our rage and pain? Why Do We Kill? Tonight the moon…
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Feeling Guilt; Receiving Forgiveness
A Forest on Fire As I write this, the Columbia Gorge is burning. Like many people, my heart is heavy at the loss of so much life and beauty. Raging flames engulf trees, moss, flowers, animals, trails, and buildings. So much is already gone. Somehow the tragedy seems worse because the fire was started by a few teenagers who, even though they were warned, tossed fireworks into the dry brush. How many of us have done stupid things that might have led to destruction and even death, yet because of some twist of fate, did not? The window didn’t break, for instance, the house didn’t burn, our friend didn’t die, we didn’t…
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The Power of Play in Recovery
Learning to Play My mother, though kind, generous, and loving, never learned to play childhood games. Born an only child to two earnest and serious parents who believed they should treat her like a little adult, the fun my mother enjoyed was mature and staid. Thus, I tried to be a little adult, as well. To please my mother, I learned at an early age to play bridge and enjoy symphonies. Therefore, I am grateful for my father, for although he sometimes embarrassed me with his silly antics and corny jokes, at least he taught me not to take myself too seriously. He taught me how to play. Not that…