The 60-Second Sabbath

pain

  • Self-Compassion

    I recommenda lot less self-critiqueand much more self-compassion. We're far too quick to bash ourselves–or feel like crap when others bash us–but seldom respondby honestly acknowledgingthat these things hurt,and what we really needis understanding and comfort. "Yes, that hurt.What she… Continue reading

  • Pain

    Pain takes my hand."Come," she whispers."Let me lead you somewhere new.If you let me,I will teach you." Text and image © 2013 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading

  • The Path

    So you,too,tread the pathto the sacred?Share with me your observations. I feel like a memberof a secret society,where identifying fellow-travelerstakes great sensitivityand the practical skillsof silence and patience,until the light of another–unexpectedly–touches me. And…? I anticipate (and find) joywhile being… Continue reading

  • Rheumatoid Arthritis

    On a scale of 0ne to ten,his pain hovers at eight. "Why complain." It's not a question;it's a statement. Even his partner can forgethis love's daily struggle for normalcy. The only logical option?Carry on.  Self-pity denies life,and life is what… Continue reading

  • Light

    Light suffuses him.It squeezes from his poreslike toothpaste from a million, microscopic tubes.It hurts, like reverse injections.He suffers light. Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading

  • To Change the World

    To acknowledge life's sadness    is not to be conquered by it.One can nod one's head    to the inevitability of loss,but turn and embrace grace, compassion, hope, joy… This is the course of those who change the world–and the world yet to come. Text… Continue reading

  • Job II

    And what would you have said?"Life sucks"?"There is no answer"?"God is capricious and uncaring"?"God? What God?""Try meth instead"? I would have sat beside himand wept. Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.        Continue reading

  • Job I

    So Job asked(quite reasonably),"What the hell?" And God answered(equally reasonably),"Who the hell are you to ask?" And in the impasseboth realizedthe equal needone of the other.  So go ahead and ask,"What the hell?" And don't be surprisedwhen God responds,"I don't… Continue reading

  • On a Snowy Night

    I walk through my neighborhood on a snowy night a few days before Christmas, mulling over life and just wondering (as in, feeling wonder-struck) at the decorations and lights. Every now and then something I see triggers specific memories from my childhood, like the… Continue reading

  • The Garden of Pain

    Poet and author John O'Donahue describes our suffering as time in the "garden of pain," a place in which our time is "not wasted or for naught." This interior space of pain is not the wasteland we typically imagine, not… Continue reading