Welcome. I am thrilled that you are here. On page 132 of David Whyte’s amazing book, “Crossing the Unknown Sea”, he writes, “the antidote to exhaustion is not necessarily rest … but wholeheartedness.” We don’t live our lives “whole-heartedly” or “wholly” or “truth-fully” and it is … exhausting. One of our greatest fears is that in telling the truth we will be consumed and overwhelmed when in fact the very opposite is indeed accurate. The truth is in fact what sets our hearts free. So we exhaust our energies hiding – even (perhaps mostly) somewhere outside of our own awareness. Like trying to hold a beach ball under water, we fight truth rather than embrace it by letting it float and move atop the water. This doesn’t mean that any of this is initially easy to hear or name. Mal Pancoas said, “the truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.”
Psycho-therapy means “the healing of the soul”. Deep healing starts the moment we begin to tell the truth about who we are, who we are not, and who we are meant to become. Entering this space can feel like coming face to face with death. And that’s because it IS death. It’s the death of many masks, false ways of relating and of searching for life that keeps the true vulnerable self hidden. So most avoid ever entering in the first place. And in their avoidance they live and die a very slow and tedious story. They merely move from day to day searching for whatever menial pleasures will help them to pass the time. In other words most people live without hope. Their life is a closed book … a boarded up window. What if that could be different? What if we could describe what the boards are all about and begin to let them come off, start to look through the window and perhaps even crack it open a bit – that’s it. A “mustard seed” of faith and thereby hope. Well, to most people this idea is terrifying and exhilarating all at once. Ultimately it is a reality that invites us to frightening levels of freedom. And this freedom comes at a great cost – one doesn’t feel less, but indeed more. Greater joy as well as deeper sorrow. But more full. More whole. More whole-hearted.
The only way in some sense to live a life well is to imagine what it is that you wish to have become … in hindsight. We live in a culture that bows to the gods of consumption. The consumption of objects, people, knowledge, technology, power, fame, money … stuff. In the end though, what will any of this matter if your soul is dead? You are not merely made to consume nor produce. You are made to create. No matter what your profession or calling, you are by nature an artist. Dr. Abraham Joshua Heshel said, “your life is a work of art…never stop working on this work of art that is your life.” And if I may add … you are never too old to start. But it does take courage. Will you sacrifice money, time, and energy to invest in your one true self … your one soul? “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” – Mary Oliver
I love to work with folks who want to dig deep and get to the core of their hearts and “issues”. Men, women, married or single. People who want to learn to read the narrative of their lives – the heartache and pain but ultimately for the discovery of what they are called to spend their days quite willing to die for. These are the rare souls who are desperate to live and untangle webs of addiction, their broken sexuality, dis-ordered moods, past trauma, stories that haunt them or why their relationships are so dead. I approach my work with a highly relational bent. If you come we will examine our relationship…how you affect me, how you relate, how you hide, and where your strength and true glory lie beneath.
If you call, I will look forward to meeting you soon.
jonathan