Me Thinks

This was an assigned book for my chaplain class and I thought it was helpful and informative.  Ms. Allen reminds us to name our emotions and let them surface instead of burying them and trying to suppress them.  The biggest take away from the book is to begin sentences with "I feel________," or invite others to begin their sentences with that line. Here are a few other good points:

You don’t have to tell everyone; you have to tell someone (pg. 62).

Listen intently.  Listen fully (pg. 81).

The hard gets lighter as we carry it together (pg. 106).

Any doctor or counselor will tell you it’s not enough to take medicine.  It’s not enough to treat the chemical problem.  You have to learn to name the pain, share the pain, and heal from the pain. That can take a long time because we spent decades learning how to control, cope, or conceal (pg. 121). 

This is the only human who has ever walked the face of the earth who actually had the power to solve the problem of death, both in the moment and for eternity.  And yet Fix-It Jesus does not show up here.  Feel-It Jesus shows up and weeps with His friend who is weeping (pg. 150).