Diana Reader

I can't even begin to describe it. Have you ever felt so in love, that you can't help but smile?  It's a warmth that starts in your chest and flows through your body.  It's like having the sun in your heart; you're unable to contain the light, so it flows, emanating out of your body, uncontainable. I am so in love. I can't imagine the kind of love God has for me, if I feel this wonderful love for Him.  How much greater is His love.  I so wish we could all see ourselves, see each other, see the world through His eyes.  How different  our understanding of reality would be.  How much more beautiful our lives would be.  How much more light we would emanate. I was driving to southern Wisconsin this weekend, thinking about life, about myself, things I wish were different, things I need to work on, and right before I entered Appleton I saw the highway lined with lavender.  Not just a patch, but FILLED the roads.  Lavender highlighted t...

Pain is inexplicable. Pain is immobilizing. Pain is ineluctable. When I think of pain, I picture total darkness.  Solid, complete, terrifying darkness.  Within that darkness, I see a shooting light.  Not the light of relief, of compassion, of tenderness that is normally associated with light.  I picture a piercing light, that of a knife stabbing, full of hate and anger. I will do anything to avoid pain. Whether it's physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, we all want to avoid pain.  If it's pain from eating: I. Will. Not. Eat.  If it's pain from a relationship: I. Will. Build. Walls.  If it's pain from something else, I will do whatever it takes to avoid, ignore, brush off, numb that pain.  I hate pain. Who doesn't? Seriously, we all do this.  We all try to do whatever it takes to minimize the pain we feel.  That's why there's so many medications, meditations, religions, broken relationships, miss communicat...

So I can tell it's going to be another late night, something I ate, or something I didn't, not sure which, but either way my stomach is deciding tonight will be rather long.  But I'm learning that's okay.  I'm discovering that accepting what you're feeling in your body instead of ignoring it, or forcing it away, or fearing it, is the only way to move on from it.  I'm watching Chronicles of Narnia right now, another great series.  I haven't read the books, but the movies are great and the symbolism is fantastic.  What drew me into this movie was the boy Eustice, a self centered, rather obnoxious boy that gets turned into a dragon after a series of events.  In western culture, the dragon represents "greed, isolation, and spiritual desolation of a life devoid of relationships."  Fast-forward through the scenes and experiences Eustice has as a dragon, and you watch his transformation into a more selfless and caring being, eventually come to the p...