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I am a pastor and a clinical psychotherapist. My life's passion is defining healthiness from a human perspective and paralleling it to the holiness of God, divine perspective. Shifting perspectives creates a paradigm that is alongside of rather than over and against. The parakalein of God and the paradoxes of humanity are redefined. Humanity is all about winning and yet we are losing ground everywhere. Divinity is all about letting go of the desire to win and the fear of loss. The Divine embraces the world with loving care regardless of anything.

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Grief and Grace, Peace and Love

Posted by Don Paine

I visited a good friend and found that her husband had died.  Our paths crossed in church life but our hearts were wormed not by the crossing of the paths at church but the intersection of the open heart and open mind of Bill.  He was a very strong and opinionated man but as strong as his opinion was also the strength of his heart of compassion and care.  He sang from his heart and lived from his heart and that is the heart of the matter.

As I left a time of sharing grief together with his wife who had recently been through a triple bypass of her heart, perhaps anticipating that her heart need to be strengthened for the loss of her life companion.
They as a couple and he as an individual gave from their heart in everything they did: from committee member to choir member and just being present. His seat in the chair in the corner of the coffee hour will never look the same.  I noticed their neighbor across the hall had a saying on her wall by her door, it read:

Peace 
It does not mean to be in a place
Where there is no noise, trouble or hard work   It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart
Author Unknown


I mused as Bill and I had often mused together so here is my musing in honor of and in memory of Bill:
Peace does not mean being in a certain place during a swirling storm or a surging tsunami where there is no noise, no trouble, or no hard work of cleaning up after the storm

Peace means having a certain calmness that keeps the heart calm in the presence of the storm, the noise, the trouble or hard work of grief. 

The perfect storm of grief that swirls around us and threatens to engulf us is always met by the perfect calm of grace that sits in the center of the swirl with the certainty and courage of a calm and compassionate heart.





That was and is Bill!


Thank you for touching my life and so many other lives in your living!

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