Turning the Page

Unburdened From What Has Been

We carry so much load, but what if we were unburdened? Perhaps the donkey might learn to dance light and free.
 
It's an image that tells a story.
The story of a heavy laden down camel carrying a load of straw and the little proverb 'the final straw that broke the camel's back'
It's the load. The burden. It's the feather.
The weight, awkwardness, and struggle that eventually takes one out.
What are you carrying?
What weighs upon your thinking and bends upon your back?
 
Read this post https://turningthepage.co.nz/unburdened-from-what-has-been/
👁️‍🗨️ About Barry Pearman https://turningthepage.co.nz/about-barry-pearman/
 
Posts about Forgiveness https://turningthepage.co.nz/forgiveness-and-mental-health/
✉️ Contact Barry Direct https://turningthepage.co.nz/contact-us/
👉Donate to Turning the Page https://turningthepage.co.nz/give/
 

The Problem is The Problem - Not the Person

We all have problems, but we can over-personalise them. But the problem is the problem. The problem is not the person.
 
Read this post https://turningthepage.co.nz/the-problem-is-the-problem-not-the-person/
👁️‍🗨️ About Barry Pearman https://turningthepage.co.nz/about-barry-pearman/
 
👉Donate to Turning the Page https://turningthepage.co.nz/give/
 

To Forgive Is to Remember… Differently

Do you find it easier to slide in your thinking to the negative than to the good?
I need help and I think you do too.
Not so much to keep focusing on the positive, but to keep focused on truth – God’s truth, how God sees everything.
How you talk about God is how you talk about everything.
I need help to balance my brain with a kind of grounded God reality that keeps me running true and straight.
Not too much negative that might drag me away and under waves of despair.
 

The Real Problem

We have obvious problems, but real problems, the ones that drive us to unwell ness, can only be resolved by deep soul work. What's going on underneath?
We have problems. Every one reading this will have multiple problems.
I just got news from a family member that the biopsies came back negative for cancer. A huge problem has been resolved. Relief floods my soul.
Some problems are obvious. I need food for dinner, a home to live in, a job. I need a friend who won't use and abuse me. I need security.
They are very real problems.
 
👉 Find out more here https://turningthepage.co.nz/the-real-problem-under-the-problem/
👉 Email me here barry@turningthepage.co.nz
👉 Give a little https://turningthepage.co.nz/give/
 

An Empty Love Tank

You’ve got nothing left. An empty love tank, weightless and vulnerable. But you want love. Who and what will fill the need?
The water tank was empty. I opened up the lid on the tank and immediately I could smell the residue of silt lying on the bottom of the tank.
No rain had entered the tank for weeks and slowly the water had drained out until now it was empty. Any water in the tank was dirty, putrid, and vile.
I have talked with people who are like this water tank. They have drained their life, emptied their love tank out for the sake of others’ needs, and now there is an emptiness. Often there is a bitterness, resentment and a feeling of being used.
 
👉 Read the post here https://turningthepage.co.nz/an-empty-love-tank/
👉 Email me here barry@turningthepage.co.nz
👉 Keep me creating by giving a little https://turningthepage.co.nz/give/
 

I Need a Rescue Plan

We like to be self-reliant, but at times we need help, so we need a rescue plan.
 
 
I got stuck in the mud a few days ago.
I had been driving my small truck in the countryside and decided to do a u-turn. I crossed over the road and on to the soil and I got stuck in the mud. I hadn’t realised that it was so wet and mucky.
I instantly stopped, as I knew that if I kept trying to get out, I would just dig myself in further.
 
Read further here
 
Support Turning the Page. Give

My Sin is Ever Before Me

Our brains can keep reminding us. ‘My Sin is Ever Before Me’ writes the poet, but what if we had a purifier?
 
Read more here 

Keep my life simple

I’ve got too much going on in my life, but I want to keep my life simple, so I discard the complex.
 
He’s a fictional character and I like the freedom he has.
His name is Jack reacher and is the creation of Lee Child.
Jack Reacher has the life of a nomad. He wanders from town to town and solves problems, generally with a lot of violence. That part is not what I’m keen on, but there is something unique about his life.
It’s extremely simple.
He travels mostly by hitchhiking, and all he carries is an ATM Card and a toothbrush.
That’s all.
If he needs new clothes, he buys them. He doesn’t carry a bag or even a cell phone.
He is free from all the possessions that we would normally call essential. His possessions don’t own him.
Sounds good doesn’t it? Maybe, but he doesn’t have a spouse, girlfriend, kids or relational commitments.
It’s a simple life, which has an appeal, but it’s a life of a loner.
Does this appeal to something in you? 
Is there something within you that would love to walk away from the complexity of stuff?
I’ve shifted house three times in the last three years and I have got rid of a lot of things. Trailer loads.
It’s freeing. It’s liberating to cut your life down to the minimum.
I don’t think I will ever get to the ‘Jack Reacher’ phase, although I wouldn’t mind trying it for a few weeks to see what it would be like.
 
https://turningthepage.co.nz/keep-my-life-simple/
 
https://turningthepage.co.nz/writing-that-connects/
 
https://turningthepage.co.nz/give/
 

The Snares of Death Encompassed Me

Being caught in a trap was felt by the poet who wrote ‘The Snares of Death Encompassed Me’, but they had a way out. 
 
I was recently watching one of those ‘survival’ reality T.V. shows where people are thrown into the wilderness and they have to survive.
The show was called ‘Alone’ and was in Tasmania, Australia.
To survive, they had to catch their own food and build their own shelter, etc.
One contestant decided to try to catch a Pademelon which is like a tiny kangaroo.
So he made a snare trap 
A snare trap is basically a rope noose that, when an animal passes through, it triggers the rope to tighten quickly around the animal and it is caught and can’t escape.
The hunter can then come and kill the animal.
But imagine the sense of being trapped by a rope. A rope that has grabbed you and you can’t get free. The more you struggle, the tighter it gets.
It might even be a net, and you are knotted into the mesh of the net.
Your heart is thumping. You’ve lost control and freedom.
Enter a poet who has been in that place.
 
read more here
Give a donation here 

Wisdom Ointment is Free

I need wisdom ointment, but so much ointment contains flies. Wisdom that comes from above, wisdom that is pure and holy.
 
I was visiting a friend the other day, and she noticed I had some eczema on my hand. It had been there a few days and was slightly irritated and red. She offered to rub some ointment into the skin. I gladly accepted.
Touch is a wonderful thing, especially when it regards a skin disease. She gently worked in the ointment and I could feel the pain ease away. I almost teared up because someone had noticed, cared and offered ointment and love.
I checked out the tube of ointment she had taken a small dab of ointment from. Looking over the ingredients, I noticed that there were no dead flies in the mix.
There were no ‘flies in the ointment’ as such.
It’s a funny litt
 
le saying, but I think it comes from the wisdom writings of Ecclesiastes.
Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a foul odour;so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honour. Ecclesiastes 10:1
The eczema is no longer there, but maybe the touch and the offering of wisdom to pain remains.
So I wrote a poem!
 
Read more here