Understanding my grief is understanding me. I have a peculiar job: I’m a therapist to men in level two and level five prisons. The level two prisoners are the safer or high-functioning prisoners who can be trusted to make food, care for the grounds, and act as porters (cleaners) for the rest of the […]
In some ways, life is about finding relief from stress. How you find relief defines you. Investing hours of your time every night into playing video and streaming games will likely impact your ability to handle stress directly. When you put hours of energy into a world that doesn’t exist, you’ll have very
My parents gave me the name Andy C. Walker. Most people call me Andy. However, I’ve been given other names. To the prisoners, I go by “Mr. Walker” or just “Walker.” Those who forget my name just call me “Doc.” To a very select few, I go by “Crowbar,” a name I created for
I was at work Thursday, doing my job, when I began to have a bad feeling. I wasn’t feverish, and my body wasn’t ackey; I just felt terrible. It was sort of undefinable. I couldn’t put my finger on it. My stomach was unsettled, so I only ate a granola bar. After lunch,
Some have suggested I see a therapist. As a therapist, my immediate response is, “I don’t need a therapist,” almost like a knee jerk reaction. But I knew I did. And I didn’t want pride to stand in the way of my healing. So, I began seeing a therapist. Last night, my therapist
One of the things God has shown me is that he loves me through others. I have become a “Yes man” when dinner invitations are offered. When some wonderful lady at church says, “We should have you over some time,” in the Church lobby, where all conversations are held to less than 40 seconds,
Loving is “being still” while the person is talking. Our biggest hindrance to listening is ourselves. We are our own most significant problem in our attempt to love others. When person number one tries to love person number two, he will ask a question and then wait for person number two to answer. The
I Corinthians 13 (MSG) “If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.” Wow, what a metaphor. If you try to help someone but aren’t kind toward them, you are a “creaking of a rusty gate.” I would not want that to be
Perhaps it is my fear of the black hole that causes me to hesitate. The fear is powerful. It follows me everywhere I go, never far from my awareness. But when I’m home alone, it makes its presence known. The problem is, I need to be alone. I need silence to heal. I
Mindfulness can be divided into three practices. Though they are simple, they must be done purposefully to allow change to occur. First, mindfulness is focusing on one thing. You can think about anything, but we typically go down the same neurological pathway we have already created, the path of “the worst-case scenarios”
