Turning the Page

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.
 
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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.
 
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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.
 
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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?
 
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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.
 
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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.
 
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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!
 
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Redeemed pain is more impressive than removed pain

We all have painful experiences in life, but redeemed pain is more impressive than removed pain. What good can be found within in our pain?
 
Sometimes I am given a gift voucher.
It has no value tangibly in itself. It is but a piece of plastic the size of a credit card.
The value lies within what has been loaded onto it. Some kind person has placed a dollar value into its electronic magnetic memory (don’t ask me how this works).
Then, if I remember that I have this card and the money on it, I can go to a store and ‘redeem’ the value of what has been placed on this card.
I can exchange the card and receive back something good. 
We don’t use the word ‘redeem’ very much but it comes from the two words re- ‘back’ + emere ‘buy’.
Redeem means to ‘buy back’. 
I present the card and the shop owner buys it back to the value placed on the card.
I would like to suggest you have a card in our purse or wallet and on it contains all the painful experiences you have had.
Ouch, for some this card would have a lot of weight to it. A lot of energy, grief, pain, loss, anger, resentment, bitterness, etc is locked up in that card.
That card is heavy and you carry it around with you everywhere you go.
It eats away at us. It changes us. The thinking patterns in our brain are trained by this burden.
What can be done with the energy of this pain?
 
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I Simply Want the Pain to Stop

We all have pain and we want the pain to stop, but the pain is telling us something. What if we could identify the pain and stop the suicide slide? 
 
It’s pain and we want it to stop.
It could be physical pain from body ailments, but it could also be pain coming from traumas past and present. Grief, loss, anger, loneliness, the daily stress load of life that causes us to slump. It’s pain.
Recently I learned something about pain.
For the past year, I’ve had a sore back. I would take panadol at night to help me sleep. I also went to a physiotherapist and did exercises. All of which helped a little, but not completely.
I was living was in a rented cottage on a farm. I had been living and working there for quite a while. But then I got the news in April 2023 that it would be sold.
So many unknowns.
 
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The Five Best Practices to Restore the Soul

The practices of your week and day may drain your life, but what practices restore your soul?
‘Oh, that’s so good for the soul’
Sometimes I hear people say that. Sometimes I say it myself.
It’s that moment when you feel a restoring of something drained out of you. You feel like your energy tank has been topped up.
Often, this comes as a result of a practice or an activity that you do.
Practice – something you regularly do. An activity, habit, or custom.
What are some practices that restore the soul?
What do you do that helps restore your inner life?
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