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I am

A copy of a post to my fellow gay fathers who journey with me. -------------------- Hello all. I'm doing pretty well. My partner is facing a concerning cancer diagnosis, and I keep doing my own internal work. I like to do exercises that spur my internal growth. Here is one that I found challenging and perhaps even helpful after taking some defenses down. I'd put the book down for a good while, and perhaps Blackwolf & Gina Jones' ideas on internal growth are not for all, but I felt a sense of triumph this morning, as I did some re-framing. In-spite of wading through considerable non-sense, I did tap into something that is real for me. (I tend not to read in this specific spiritual pop psychology genre. Far too often, for me, it has side-tracked me from facing reality as it is, and perhaps old mis-guided attempts at self-improvement did have a net benefit of helping me figure some things out. For my own reasons, harder sciences, better researched ideas, satisfy

1-28 of 104 Rational Maxims to Control Anxious Thinking

Dr. Albert Ellis: 104 Rational Maxims to Control My anxiousThinking .  Copied from How To Control Your Anxiety Before It Controls You (pages 190-205) Minimizing my absolutistic   musts, shoulds, aughts, and demands and the irrational beliefs that go with them   1.       I will  watch my unconditional, absolutistic musts and change them into strong preferences, such as "I would very much like to do well and be approved by others, but I don't have to do so and my worth as a person doesn't depend on doing anything!" 2.       I will watch my overgeneralizations and make them more concrete: "If I fail at something important, I won't always fail and may frequently succeed." 3.       I will watch my awfulizing.  "It's bad to lose out on something I really want, but it's not awful or horrible.  There's a good chance I'll get it later, but if I never do, it is just very depriving.  The earth will keep spinning! Life will go

What is prayer? and... is God going green!

I know, I know, but hear me out. I have still, a book in my library (for occasional reference to remember what I came from).  The title is telling:  "The Complete works of E.M. Bounds on Prayer".  How far I have come/fallen from grace depending on the view. The American, gay poet Walt Whiteman defines prayer and "god" for that matter somewhat better:   “Why should I wish to see God better than this day?  I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then,  In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass;  I find letters from God dropped in the street, and every one is signed by God's name,  And I leave them where they are,  for I know that others will punctually come forever and ever.” Then this morning, Katie's "God Poem" really resonates deeply with me.  And Sylvia Plath does a smashing job of depicting life's fig tree.  For context: see https://thursdaypoetry.com/ 2017/04/23/gods-poem/ And if y