Embodied Awareness

Workshops that I recommend. 

This sort of practice has been part of my healing journey.

Still Thinking about Angels in the Alley - the Alley of Depression

The Alley can be Very Dark

With the death of Robin Williams yesterday, I'm thinking about how dark the alley of depression can be. I'm sure angels were there for Robin and for all who have died as a result of the struggles with mental illness. The angels were there, and God shed tears as God embraced him and took him home. Robin's death reminds us that the alley of depression can be very dark - no amount of money or fame provides a way out of the darkness. Even laughter is not enough - sometimes; even faith is not enough - sometimes. In our dark alleys, may we find the angels among us - to be our light - to show us the way. They are there: doctors, therapists, friends, spiritual directors, clergy...who have been yours? Sharing the darkness with even one other person can make some space for light to enter. Sometimes that light takes the form of medication, sometimes on-going therapy, sometimes rehab when self-medication practices become part of the struggle.

The story I've started to tell on this blog, about my childhood, which I described recently in a sermon as featuring divorce, alcoholism, and chaos (and I can add here deep loneliness and fear), it is a story of knowing  God in that alley--some sort of spiritual awareness that gave me strength and hope at the time. I've learned over the years that for me and for many people, when one goes through a dark alley as a child, there is often, perhaps always, work to be done, healing to experience. I'm so thankful for the people who have been my angels, messengers of grace, midwives to grace in my life...grace always there, God's gift to all, but needing an angel to point the way or witness the way forward out of the alley and into the open space.

Three prayers from the healing service offered at my church, Holy Comforter, Richmond, every Wednesday at 12:15pm:

Grant to all who seek your guidance, and to all who are lonely, anxious, or despondent, a knowledge of your will and an awareness of your presence;
Hear us, O Lord of life.

Mend broken relationships, and restore those in emotional distress to soundness of mind and serenity of spirit;
Hear us, O Lord of life. 

Hear us, O Lord of life;
Heal us, and make us whole.