"I picked up a pencil and started writing notes on a page" Howard Shore replied when asked how he got his start as a composer. That simple statement struck as profound. Since then, I have been trying to figure out what my "pencil" has to write.
I am not a musician so I do not have a score to compose. I tend toward the spoken word with a desire to reflect hope to the world around me. Trained as a counselor, I observe, I listen. As a believer, I pray. I read. I seek truth that leads to understanding. I desire to walk alongside others seeking to be transformed; to be released from real and perceived prisons. It is my core belief that we are created to live life to the fullest. It is my core belief that each person is designed with an intended wholeness. A most right-rightness from which to live and to love and to walk and to relate and to work and to care and to breathe.
I am also convinced we are created for community and that no one should walk alone. Since burdens tend to isolate, I desire to provide a life-on-life platform for people to unpack their story. At this point in my own journey I see patterns in behavior and relationships. Over time I have discovered frameworks that help me think about the struggle. These frameworks help me sort the information into visible patterns that allow me to anticipate future behaviors to new situations. As my training in counseling, life experiences, and these thinking frameworks unfold, over the years people have entered into my life seeking a safe place to share; to tell their story; to relate; to have someone join them on their journey.
You know...
where people begin to experience real relationship...
where that authentic relationship...
sometimes even has the privilege of crossing into true friendship...
where that true friendship grows strong enough to become part of the fabric...
where that fabric blankets over life deep enough to become part of a real community...
the kind of real community...
where you actually get to be you...
not the always picture perfect side...
and yet, the still sometimes radiant side...
the not always stellar side...
but often times the most brilliant side...
either way, it is where it is safe to unpack the whole beautiful swirly messy fullness of you, you, you.
Because somehow...
knowing...
and being known...
being REALLY known...
helps us to...
BEGIN.
Begin again.
Begin again in this moment...
Begin again at this time...
Begin again to imagine...
what my intended wholeness might be...
