The Dictator and The Anarchist (The Journey to Not Blogging)

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Two weeks ago, I visited The Sophianic Healing Blog out of curiosity to check exactly when I had last published a post. I knew that it had been some time since my last post given that during the prior few weeks I had been engrossed in a variety of other work-related projects. But when I finally looked at the date, I was not prepared for what I saw. There it was -- April 7, 2010. My heart sank. At that point, it was June 29, which meant that exactly 83 days had elapsed since my last posting.

I asked myself how that could have happened, as if I were just a casual, third-party observer rubber-necking as he passed by the scene of an accident. Had I really let so much time go by without realizing it? It seemed almost surreal. And yet the incontrovertible proof of a date that was 83 days in the past was staring back at me telling me otherwise.

So, what exactly did happen? This is the question that I sat down to reflect on. And reflect I did. In the process, I gleaned a few insights that I think have helped me come to a better understanding of myself. I also realized that if my intention for the blog was for it to be a more personal way of sharing and connecting with others, then my experience of what happened after launching the blog needed to be what I would write about next. If “The Journey To Blogging” was my first blog post, then “The Journey To Not Blogging” would be my latest.

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Why We Need Privacy In The Internet Age

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Introduction

Facebook - the ubiquitous social networking website - has been causing quite a stir lately with an on-going series of changes to its default privacy settings that make certain of its users' information more public.


As an occasional and somewhat reluctant user of Facebook, my reaction to these changes has been decidedly negative - I do not like them. Sensing that my reaction was more than just a basic desire for privacy, I wondered if there was more to the issue of privacy than mere personal preference. Curious, I began reflecting  more deeply into the fundamental nature of privacy and its role in our lives.

What I came to see is that privacy is about much more than just the satisfaction of a personal preference or desire. Privacy is ultimately a basic human need. Through the relationship between privacy and vulnerability, privacy plays an important role not only in creating intimacy in relationship but in the discovery and realization of our true self.

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The Magnificent Beauty of Mars

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Sometimes you just have to go the extra mile to find beauty in unexpected places. So imagine what you might find if you go the extra 100,000,000 miles!

The following enhanced images of Mars were captured by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (or HRISE), which is currently the most powerful camera aboard a NASA spacecraft. They are all from the HiRISE website (www.uahirise.org) created by the University of Arizona (in conjunction with NASA).

Amazing what some minerals, a little wind and a $40,000,000 piece of technological wonder can create!

Moments of Recognition

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There are many blessings that my healing work brings to me. And one of the most unexpectedly moving of these is the experience of seeing myself reflected in the stories shared by my clients.

Whether the story takes the form of an actual account told in words or an honest emotion conveyed wordlessly through the eyes, something deeply touching happens when I, as listener, recognize something of my own story -- the hopes, the yearnings, the struggles, the fears -- expressed through the essence of the other’s story. In that moment, a boundary that seemed to separate me from the other dissolves and I can’t help but feel a sense of oneness and connectedness.

These moments of recognition - of seeing ourselves reflected in the other - have a powerful ability to transform and heal us. By reminding us of our shared humanity, they draw us out of the isolation and alienation of our ego’s self-centeredness and into the richness of relatedness and of knowing that we are not alone. In the process, something in us is healed.

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The Journey To Blogging

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The Journey To Blogging

As this is my first official blog post, I thought I would share a bit about how I came to create The Sophianic Healing Blog.

The creation of this blog took a very convoluted and circuitous path. It was a decidedly “two steps forward, one step back” affair with lots of side steps thrown in for the sake of procrastination and good measure.

You see, for me, just the idea of starting a blog pushed a lot of my buttons (for better and worse) and that made the process alternately exciting, frustrating, joyful and scary. In its own small way, the journey to blogging was a lot like life.

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