A Pilgrim’s Progress

This one is inspired by Hidden Waters' model of moving from harm to healing. It's been such a helpful thing in my own life. Leave a comment! I'd love to hear from you. How is it all going for you?

I'd love to hear from you! Hows it all going for you? This one is about the third of my "Three Pearls of Healing" - Zen practice and healing circles are the other two.

Leave a comment! I'd love to hear from you! This video is about gratitude when you hit rock bottom, because you've finally got your feet on something solid.

The last few videos have been about Zen, the first of three Pearls I carry in my pocket on the Trail to the Western Lands. This one is about Healing Circles. I'm a volunteer circle keeper with Hidden Water, an organization that facilitates healing circles run by and for those effected by Child Sex Abuse: https://www.hiddenwatercircle.org/

Roman diplomats carried bread and sword - peace and war - in their togas when they met with their enemies. You can have either one, they would say. Choose wisely. We all carry war and peace with us, every moment. We are the ones who must choose wisely. Do we greet ourselves and the world around us in a stance of peace or in a stance of war?

Zen is something you do, not something you think, they say. It's a practice, they say. What does that mean exactly? This video is about what that means to this here Zen practitioner.

This piece is about an image from Dogen which stuck in my mind. Young Hunter - that's me when I'm impatient to get results, and get them NOW! Healing, happiness, enlightenment, the final books in the Song of Ice & Fire, whatever it is. Old Woodcutter - That's me when I live in the past, trying to carve and whittle the past into something that's more to my liking. In between those two figures i...

Here are some Moonlight Miles musings on the idea of imagining one's self as an animal. Is it good or bad to be a Bear? How about an Octopus?

The greatest distance in the cosmos is the one inch that separates the inside of your eyeballs from the outside.

This is a bit more on the classic zen story about heaven and hell. I'd love to hear from you! 

This is another of my tellings of classic zen stories. This one is about the difference between heaven and Hell, told with some Oklahoma flavor to it. It's from the moonlight miles part of the path - easy miles where we Pilgrims can pass the time in pleasant conversation. 

Moonlight Miles is the first part of the trail to the western lands. It's where you're at when you realize that your life is changing, and you want something better. I'd love to hear from you! My email is suchaone@proton.me. I'd love to hear from you!

When any of us starts on the path toward healing and wholeness, we might meet up with the force inside that wants to keep you where you are -- The Imp of the Perverse!

This piece is about my own map of the trail to the western lands. I've just finished draft one of a book called "A Pilgrim's Progress: Letters from the Trail to the Western Lands." The idea is that the inner journey becomes an external pilgrimage where the pilgrims encounter obstacles that reflect the obstacles I've encountered. I'd love to hear from you! I'm at suchaone@proton.me My website is at...

This episode introduces the idea of the Trail to the Western Lands and the title of the podcast, "A Pilgrim's Progress." it's taken from a book I'm currently pitching. The inward journey toward healing becomes an external pilgrimage, and the challenges we face in our own healing become literal obstacles on the path. 

I'm a volunteer circle keeper with Hidden Water, a group that facilitates healing circles by and for those effected by child sex abuse. This experience forms one of my "Three Pearls of Healing" - the others are Jungian analysis and Zen practice.  This episode is about my experience sitting in circles with my fellow warzone kids. Hidden water can be found at https://www.hiddenwatercircle.org/

Intergenerational Trauma. That's what the mental health folks call it. We pass down parts of our psyches from one generation to the next, for good and for bad. If you're a warzone kid like me, and you're listening to this, you probably shiver at the thought that you'd pass the damage down to your kids, too. 

Here's another metaphor for the place of peace and wholeness: When life hands you a lemon, tear it down to the nuts and bolts and make a hotrod out of it! 

378 pounds is the most I know that I have ever weighed. Today I'm at 197 and planning to run a half-marathon this spring. This episode is about a series of numbers and how they relate to my own healing psyche. Let's go!

Imagine the psyche as a Jenga Tower made of wooden blocks. Warzone Kids have childhoods that took their Jenga towers apart and stacked them into rickety structures which tend to fall down in adulthood. That's our task as Warzone Kids, to put our Jenga towers back together, to live our lives now. 

Here's my take on Robin Williams's classic monologue from "Good Morning Vietnam!" it's my way of capturing all the themes of the podcast. Plus ot was fun to do!

I'm a child sex abuse survivor living as an adult with CPTSD, Borderline, I'm a recovering addict, bulimic, and binge eater. Those are just some words from the mental health world.  I'm a human being with a soul. This podcast is about my journey to learn and become what I am. The three cornerstones of my life are Healing Circles, Jungian Analysis, and Zen practice.  I'm a warzone kid - that's my t...