Proud Vulnerability

Roth Poetry

Proud Vulnerability

Yellow seems to me to be the most vulnerable color

as seen in the Japanese Iris blooming in the spring

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Like an exotic dancer she rises gently from the floor

into the spotlight of sunshine glowing brightly

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Totally hidden behind the green veil, she shyly peeks out

leaving her warm shroud of protection for the fragile life

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Edges of lemon yellow slowly begin to unfurl revealing

silken fans displayed in magnificent array around her

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Basking in the sunlight she seems unconcerned about

her fragile petals nor about her ‘fifteen minutes of fame’

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Instead, she proudly displays her royal beauty

fully exposed and vulnerable

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for all the world to see

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Click to enlarge Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Posting for Sarah’s Yellow prompt at d’Verse Poets Pub

Join us at: https://dversepoets.com

 

 

 

 

 

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All Children Deserve Far Better Than What This World Frequently Throws At Them

“The way a society functions is a reflection of the childrearing practices of that society. Today we reap what we have sown. Despite the well-documented critical nature of early life experiences, we dedicate few resources to this time of life. We do not educate our children about child development, parenting, or the impact of neglect and trauma on children.”

—Dr. Bruce D. Perry, Ph.D. & Dr. John Marcellus

“This is the most important job we have to do as humans and as citizens … If we offer classes in auto mechanics and civics, why not parenting? A lot of what happens to children that’s bad derives from ignorance … Parents go by folklore, or by what they’ve heard, or by their instincts, all of which can be very wrong.”

—Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint, Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

“It’s only after children have been discovered to be severely battered that their parents are forced to take a childrearing course as a condition of regaining custody. That’s much like requiring no license or driver’s ed[ucation] to drive a car, then waiting until drivers injure or kill someone before demanding that they learn how to drive.”

—Myriam Miedzian, Ph.D.

All Children Deserve Far Better Than What This World Frequently Throws At Them

To remember:

• The author of Childhood Disrupted says: “[Even] well-meaning and loving parents can unintentionally do harm to a child if they are not well informed about human development” (pg.24).
• stress over having their parents angry at them for prolonged periods of time
• the health of all children needs to be of real importance to everyone
• along with the K-12 Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity curriculum already taught (at least in Canadian public schools), cerebral diversity curriculum could also be implemented.
• ASD people, including higher functioning autistics, are often deemed willfully ‘difficult’ and socially incongruent > y feel compelled to “camouflage” or “mask => disproportionately high rate of suicide among ASD people
• a physically and mentally sound future should be every child’s fundamental right

Courage, Fear, and our vulnerability

My Diary Pages

Photo by Man Dy on Pexels.com

Without courage, we can not practice any virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous or honest.

Maya Angelou

Life is a strange, yet beautiful composition of laughter and tears, joy and sorrows, love and loss, struggle and stumble, success and failure, expectations and disappointments and a lot more.. It is completely perfect with all its ingredients and flavours, nothing is out of context.

We are living in a time of “disconnection” — more importantly, a disconnection with our authentic selves and emotions. We don’t embrace any emotion as is, and identify it as either “good” or “bad”. Therefore, we know none at its core level. We usually mask our genuine emotion just to fit-in the society we live in. For example, it can be embarrassing for us to talk about our fears, while being “fearless” is the ideal term to be…

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What ethical principles do we need in the Covid-19 pandemic?

Back in February the World Health Organisation held a meeting in Geneva about the gathering coronavirus epidemic. Several bioethicists have summarised the discussions about ethical principles in an article in the journal Public Health Ethics. Amongst the five authors is Ezekiel Emanuel, a former Obama adviser whom President-elect Joe Biden has named to his Covid-19 task force.

The principles are not the four familiar ones taught in medical schools: respect for autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice. Here are the main concerns which emerged from the meeting:

Solidarity, “the practice of standing up together and acting in common”. “Just as infection spreads through connection, our ethical response requires us to act together to ensure recognition of our common nature, needs and value.”

Equal Moral Respect. “There can be no room for disagreement regarding the equal moral respect that is owed to every individual. In short, equal moral respect serves as a fundamental precondition for fair and equitable treatment.”

Equity. “Treating people equitably means treating like cases alike, e.g. treating people in accordance with their unique needs.”

Autonomy. “An autonomous individual is able to control what happens to their bodies and lives. Autonomous people may also forego making choices.”

Vulnerability. “Its core ethical function is to mark out the need for additional ethical consideration—or, heightened ethical scrutiny in the context of research—towards the risks and threats faced by a person or group regarded as potentially vulnerable.”

Trust. “During public health emergencies, such as COVID-19, action is required to ensure the maintenance of trustworthiness in those given responsibility for the response.”

Interestingly, solidarity is the first cab off the rank, not autonomy, which has been the default principle in most contemporary ethical discourse. Does this reflect a growing feeling that – in the words of Craig Klugman — that

“Bioethics has pushed too far in the direction of the individual and needs to have a turn toward the importance of the community and the common good”?

Michael Cook – editor of BioEdge

Love the single most powerful and necessary component in life

Love is the single most powerful and necessary component in life.
It is both giving and receiving.
Love allows us to reach above and beyond ourselves,
to experience another person and to allow that person to experience us.
It is the tool by which we learn to experience the highest reality – God.

Examine the love aspect of your love.
Ask yourself: What is my capacity to love another person?
Do I have problems with giving?
Am I stingy or selfish?
Is it difficult for me to let someone else into my life?
Am I afraid of my vulnerability, of opening up and getting hurt

Dutch version / Nederelandse versie: Liefde meest krachtige en noodzakelijke component in het leven

Old world falling apart

“The old world falls apart but the new has not yet emerged.

Everything that once seemed permanent and real is revealed as a kind of hallucination.

You don’t know what to think, what to do; you don’t know what anything means anymore.

The life trajectory you had plotted out seems absurd, and you can’t imagine another one.

Everything is uncertain.

Your time frame shrinks from years to this month, this week, today, maybe even this present moment.

Without the mirage of order that once seemed to protect you and filter reality,

you feel naked and vulnerable, but also a kind of freedom.”

– Charles Epstein

°°°

Water near the bottom of Rainbow Falls, British Columbia. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It´s not how you fall, but how you standup

There is a beautiful text by Peter Handke in which he says ‘Fail calmly’. Fail, yes. Calmly, no. We did not learn that it is o.k. to fail. Let alone that we stay calm while failing. To fail calmly is an art of living, a constant balancing between trying, exercising, and daring to stumble.

Daring to stumble is showing your vulnerability.
To show that you don’t know either.
Socrates already said : ‘I know that I don’t know’.
That wisdom is centuries old .
Why is it so difficult to take away the layer of veneer?
To show who you really are, hesitating and stumbling?

Maybe it helps when we choose.
To choose to dare.
To choose to love stumbling people.
To choose to surround yourself with warm people who do not reject you when you stumble, but who on the contrary reach out.
And to offer your own hand or shoulder when someone nearly falls.

To get up and continue.
It sounds simple, but you never do it alone.
On top of your restored self confidence  you need others.
Warm, encouraging others who also believe in your ability, your resilience and your talents.

To believe in yourself is to allow yourself to stumble.
Stumble calmly, struggle to get up and accept those hands, smooth your hairs and try again.
Not how you fall, but how you get up.

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Original Dutch version / Originele Nederlandstalige versie: Niet hoe je valt, wel hoe je opstaat

Preceding article:

Searching for fulfillment and meaning through own efforts, facing unsatisfaction and depression

Using failure

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Further reading

1. The Fallacy of Failure
2. failing 1
3. Failing 2
4. Failing 3
5. Failing 4
6. day 122 . failing
7. Fail Like a Scientist
8. Failing at life
9. Failing to Grace
10. Failing and Flailing
11. Fear of Failure, Failure to Risk
12. Can I take my time?
13. What have we done?
14. Still not perfect
15. 5 Ways to Fail a Class
16. Average???
17. Acceptance: I’m A Failure!!! But I’m Working at it!
18. Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
19. Failing Fast
20. Failing IS Part of Our Process
21. Throwing out the cheese
22. Two-Facedbook
23. Is it bed-time yet?
24. Making it to Xmas
25. Smart Goals
26. Mastering the art of quitting
27. And Endless Downward Sloping Set of Stairs
28. 7 Things People Don’t Realize You’re Doing Because You’re Afraid Of Failure
29. “Negative Vibes”
30. Why?!
31. Why I Love Failing Just As Much As Succeeding
32. I’ve got spirit, yes I do!
33. what should you be?
34. Reality Check
35. One thing about Mark Zuckerberg you never knew
36. Designed To Fail (& Grow)
37. Fear Of Not Flying
38. Once bitten
39. The Countercultural Icon, #2
40. Motivation Monday – Fear Edition!
41. Life is hard. Send help
42. The sun still rises even with the pain
43. Learn To Strike Out
44. One year older, one year…wiser?
45. What’s At Risk When We Choose Not To Take A Risk?
46. 365 Days Later
47. 5 Lessons I’ve learned from 2016
48. It wasn’t about me.

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• Using Failure

Searching for fulfillment and meaning through own efforts, facing unsatisfaction and depression

Dark season to cope with

On “Voice, the Christian E-book blog” in Winning the War against Depression and Anxiety: An Interview with Perry Noble is given an interview about Depression and Anxiety is with Perry Noble, founder and senior pastor of NewSpring Church, a multicampus church whose mission is to reach 100,000 people in South Carolina with the gospel.

Mostly the Winter season is marked with people having a lot of difficulty to cope with depression. Spring brings more anxiety to people feeling sometimes pressed in a corner or not able to develop their own talent. Seeing everything coming up  in the parks and fields they become frustrated that nature looked death, but every year can recover so much and bring every time such new beautiful things, whilst they can not.

Today people are not concerned about God and His Creation, but they always will be confronted by that creation. In a way this may become a little bit frustrating for them and for the believers who would like to bring the unbelievers closer to the Creator. By those believers there also may rise a lot more questions when everything comes to live again, and they do not see Spring coming into their life, but see them getting older and less vibrant.

Spring-cleaning

Spring brings also the Spring-cleaning and making us to confront the old things, deciding what to throw away and what to keep but brings also questions, how to continue, and what to do this year. More than the 1st of January people now get wondering what to do and how to succeed in this New Year.

For many, like us it might be the start of trying to meet more  people and getting them to see where they and we are and bringing them to where they and we need to be in a relationship with Jesus and his Father, which should be also Our Father, the Most High God.

People will always get offended—it’s inevitable. The question we have to ask is: would we rather offend religious people or lost people? When Jesus healed on the Sabbath, he offended the religious people at the same time he healed a lost person.  {Perry Noble}

Searching for fulfilment and meaning

Perry Noble thinks people are searching for fulfilment and meaning through their own efforts — jobs, money, cars, kids, hobbies— whatever the next big thing might be. The reality, though, is we’ll only be truly fulfilled when we have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Today we find a lot of people who become frustrated because they can not reach the goals they had set in front of them. Everywhere they seem to see negative elements, blocking their advancement. Lots of people do not feel they get recognition for what they do and having their work not being appreciated they start doubting in the quality of their work or in their ability to bring something others can appreciate.

Man who do not seem to get out of the darkness become struggling with depression. They do not dare to come to others with their problems and do not want to see they are depressed and perhaps need help from specialised people. They need to ask for help immediately.

Elements that can help

Noble who’s first book, Unleash! Breaking Free from Normalcy was a New York Times bestseller, also has struggled with depression. He says:

I was overwhelmed (in an awesome way) with an amazing amount of encouragement and support by my church when I shared my struggle with depression.

For so long, I thought I should be able to pray away how I was feeling or snap out of it and if I did tell anyone what was going on, they would think I was a bad Christian or didn’t really love Jesus. That’s just not true and only by speaking up and asking for help was I able to see this. I don’t think anything is wrong with medication if it’s something a doctor recommends. If you needed medicine to fix your heart you would take that, so why wouldn’t you take medicine to help fix your brain?

Our relationship with our brain and moods

Complete neuron cell diagram. Neurons (also known as neurones and nerve cells) are electrically excitable cells in the nervous system that process and transmit information. In vertebrate animals, neurons are the core components of the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerves. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It looks like many people are afraid for their own brain. Certainly when their brain does things they themselves do not like it to do.

It’s often said that depression results from a chemical imbalance, but that figure of speech doesn’t capture how complex the disease is. Research suggests that depression doesn’t spring from simply having too much or too little of certain brain chemicals. Rather, depression has many possible causes, including faulty mood regulation by the brain, genetic vulnerability, stressful life events, medications, and medical problems. It’s believed that several of these forces interact to bring on depression. {What causes depression? first printed in Understanding Depression, a Special Health Report from Harvard Medical Schooll}

We got to know that the brain, and not the heart is the centre of our life and the place for all our emotions. We would love to control those areas of the brain which help to regulate mood, but we do not seem to be always in control of them.

Researchers believe that — more important than levels of specific brain chemicals — nerve cell connections, nerve cell growth, and the functioning of nerve circuits have a major impact on depression. Still, their understanding of the neurological underpinnings of mood is incomplete.

Experts have long wondered why, if depression were primarily the result of low levels of neurotransmitters, people don’t feel better as soon as levels of neurotransmitters increase.

The answer may be that mood only improves as nerves grow and form new connections, a process that takes weeks. In fact, animal studies have shown that antidepressants do spur the growth and enhanced branching of nerve cells in the hippocampus. So, the theory holds, the real value of these medications may be in generating new neurons (a process called neurogenesis), strengthening nerve cell connections, and improving the exchange of information between nerve circuits. If that’s the case, medications could be developed that specifically promote neurogenesis, with the hope that patients would see quicker results than with current treatments.

Depression connections in the brain 5 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Regulating mood

Many of our brothers in our community believe that the ultimate goal in treating the biology of depression is to improve the brain’s ability to regulate mood.

We now know that neurotransmitters are not the only important part of the machinery. But let’s not diminish their importance either. They are deeply involved in how nerve cells communicate with one another. And they are a component of brain function that we can often influence to good ends.

Every part of your body, including your brain, is controlled by genes. Genes make proteins that are involved in biological processes. Throughout life, different genes turn on and off, so that — in the best case — they make the right proteins at the right time. But if the genes get it wrong, they can alter your biology in a way that results in your mood becoming unstable. In a genetically vulnerable person, any stress (a missed deadline at work or a medical illness, for example) can then push this system off balance.

Mood is affected by dozens of genes, and as our genetic endowments differ, so do our depressions. The hope is that as researchers pinpoint the genes involved in mood disorders and better understand their functions, treatment can become more individualized and more successful. Patients would receive the best medication for their type of depression.

But mood is also a lot influenced from outside, the people we meet, the activities we see developing around us, how people interact, etc..

View of the world and influential factors

sympathy|for|the|anxiety|explosion (Photo credit: massimo ankor)

Cognitive psychologists point out that your view of the world and, in particular, your unacknowledged assumptions about how the world works also influence how you feel. You develop your viewpoint early on and learn to automatically fall back on it when loss, disappointment, or rejection occurs. For example, you may come to see yourself as unworthy of love, so you avoid getting involved with people rather than risk losing a relationship. Or you may be so self-critical that you can’t bear the slightest criticism from others, which can slow or block your career progress.

How we look at the world can be influenced by many factors, but for sure the media are not helping to have a positive look on it. Therefore we on this site world love to have an other look at the world and see the positive aspects of the world. Therefore we would like to put some photographs , like the previous one published, more in the picture. When you see all those little flowers coming up and giving colour unto our world, we should also like to give colour to our world we are living in.

Many affected by stressful experiences

In the United States of America nearly 19 million adults each year are affected by depression and worldwide we may find more than 35 million people having problems with it. Many of them do not see any more the beauty of nature and do not see any more what marvellous things this world has to offer.

The depression they got in often followed stressful experiences. The brain interprets events and decides if they are threatening, then controls the behavioural and physiological responses to those events. The brain’s reaction to stress is useful in that it supplies extra energy to help a person act on or flee from dangerous situations. Sometimes, however, brain chemical levels that increase during stressful situations stay at high levels and cause problems such as depression.

Would it not better to avoid such route where we went to far on the wrong (site) track? And can we not see by people around us when they are floating away?

Some may think

This world is becoming More Wicked by the moment: and If We; the older men and women, do not speak up: Then How Will the Young Folks learn anything about history?

Knowing history, knowing how people reacted in the past, will avoid that people go again in the same wrong direction.

Depression is a very real issue and it has impacted everyone—either it’s happened to us or someone we know. I think the church needs to talk about this issue and help people understand what the Bible says about overcoming fear, anxiety, and stress. The church should be a place where people meet Jesus, find hope, and have the courage to ask for help! {Winning the War against Depression and Anxiety: An Interview with Perry Noble}

Having eyes for the other and helping each-other

Each of us can help a person not getting so far that he or she gets into a depression. We should see when people around us get more into a deep well or in a bottomless pit. By being positive ourselves we can radiate ourselves positiveness that can infect others, making them to see the bright site of life.

Depression is dark and lonely, and there is a misconception that Christians shouldn’t struggle with depression; if you love Jesus, you should just be able to pray it away. But that’s just not true!

Many times, if things are messy, the church doesn’t want to talk about it. {Winning the War against Depression and Anxiety: An Interview with Perry Noble}

Churches should also talk about this and other matters people do have to struggle with, also when they are Christian. It is not because we have accepted Jesus in our life that we are free of pain and struggle. Do not believe that. But be sure in our faith we can find guidance and lots of help to be able to cope better with those struggles.

In most cases, people will identify with your pain more than they will your success. Sharing stories of your past and where God has brought you from could help someone take the next step with Jesus. If God can use my pain for someone else’s progress, then I want him to use it! {Winning the War against Depression and Anxiety: An Interview with Perry Noble}

Believers and non-believers, people adhering a religion or not, have to see that depression, anxiety, and fear are very real struggles. They should know that they can help each other to overcome it. Every person in the community should take care he or she is no cause that an other shall come in problems or would feel bad.

To endure

Those who are Christian should remember the pains Jesus and his family had to endure. They should remember how Jesus his mother continued her life and how the brothers and sisters went on after Jesus was killed. One of his brothers got the strength to to continue the preaching of his brother, telling not about the negative point that he had lost his brother Jesus, but telling about the positive news his resurrection for us was.

In Christianity we can see how many overcome the many struggles they had to face. Also today we still can find many living proofs that it is possible to overcome being overwhelmed.

We should stop being held back by life’s everyday struggles, and learn to overcome stress and anxiety. And we should concentrate ourselves on the nice things this world may offer to all living people, religious and non-religious. Those who have faith in the Only One True God, should show others how they are and can be further blessed by the Magical Hand of the Divine Creator. So that others may see the marvellous things this world has to offer and how we may enjoy it all.

We all can do much more than we think. Because all people are created in the image of God theyall have received inner forces from the Creator. When we are willing to look in ourselves for those inner forces, we shall be able to use them. Even when you do not believe in God, you would be better to start looking for those inner forces which are implanted in your being. By opening your mind for the search of those inner forces you might well be able to find that what gets you stronger and shall enable you to recover much faster than synthetic medical drugs can do. Animals in the wild do not have the doctor and medicines with them, but they can help themselves by what nature is providing for them. Start seeing what is in nature to help you live a better and easier life.

 

Robert Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

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Find additional reading:

1. Meaning of life
2. Feed Your Faith Daily
3. My Christadelphian Faith

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• Subjects in Distress

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• An Honest Christian Look At Depression: Perry Noble’s Book, “Overwhelmed” (johnweirick.com)
  “I wanted to kill myself.”Few people want to admit that, and even fewer pastors would.
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  “Overwhelmed” is not for people who have it all together. It’s not for those among us who seem to glide through life, unaffected by tragedy or discomfort. This book won’t help someone who lives a conflict-free life. Anyone who’s got a perfect family, a perfect past, and no fears or doubts — just skip this book. And for those who expect to get everything they want out of life and never suffer resistance of any kind, this book will be completely useless.
• My Opinion on Overwhelmed book by Perry Noble (chunton.wordpress.com)
  The book taught me that if you are in Christ Jesus He’s for you and if He’s for you He loves you and with all of things on your side nothing can hold you back and keep you down! No matter what you’re facing Jesus is greater and He wants you to overcome not be overwhelmed!
• Blog on Perry Noble quote (chunton.wordpress.com)
  The church today needs to focus more on pointing people to Jesus and the fact that He’s alive! The fact that the resurrection happened should be a weekly topic on our church’s because that’s just not something one can simply get over if they truly love Jesus.
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  Perry provides honest scenarios and practical solutions on how to win the war against worry.This is a book that can help you learn more about the character of God and His ability to help you through these difficult times in your life. You CAN overcome being overwhelmed!”
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  Pastor Perry Noble challenges all followers of Christ to make a bold move by fully embracing the exciting adventure God has called us to. Are you ready to unleash all the life he has created you to live?
• What Is Depression? Examining the Link Between The Physical and The Emotional (Part 1) (megsanity.com)
  People around you owe you more than, “It’s all in your head.” Because that simply isn’t true.
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  Kramer notes that depressives may actually have more realistic views of the world, for example understanding that they aren’t likely to win the lottery or a poker game. However, they are actually less likely to listen to those instincts which leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy of doom and reinforcement.
• Is Depression Just Bad Chemistry? (scientificamerican.com)
  The general idea is that a deficiency of certain neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) at synapses, or tiny gaps, between neurons interferes with the transmission of nerve impulses, causing or contributing to depression. One of these neurotransmitters, serotonin, has attracted the most attention, but many others, including norepinephrine and dopamine, have also been granted supporting roles in the story.
• Unraveling the Mystery of How Antidepression Drugs Work (scientificamerican.com)
  Depression strikes some 35 million people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, contributing to lowered quality of life as well as an increased risk of heart disease and suicide. Treatments typically include psychotherapy, support groups and education as well as psychiatric medications. SSRIs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, currently are the most commonly prescribed category of antidepressant drugs in the U.S., and have become a household name in treating depression.
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  Everyone could use a little confession every now and again to get out what’s been eating them inside. The philosophical “black bile” seems like recalled memories that trigger episodes, and an inability to control the reaction. Who doesn’t engage in percussive maintenance when they encounter an embarrassing thought? Pills aren’t going to fix that unless they make you numb, which also means prevented growth.
• 4 Quick Tips for Helping Someone With Depression (thereseborchardblog.com)
  Education is always the starting point because until a spouse or daughter or friend of a depressed person understands the illness, it is impossible to say or do the right thing to be supportive. Do your own research by going online to NAMI.org (National Alliance of Mental Illness) or dbsalliance.org (Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance), by doing your own Google search, or by reading some of the articles about depression on this site.
• Pastor Perry Noble Taking 2 Month Leave from Megachurch (blackchristiannews.com)
  The extended leave is not due to a marriage, family or church problem, he has clarified. Instead, Noble said he realized he needed to do “what sets me up for long-term success and sets this church up for the same way.”
  With 90 percent of people entering into ministry and not finishing and some pastors being worked too hard by their church, he noted, he decided to take a sabbatical.
  Noble made the announcement to his congregation, which draws around 16,000 people every weekend, last week. Attendees expressed their support of his decision.
• Perry Noble on Modern Day Phariseeism (blackchristiannews.com)
  I became obsessed with religious rules and legalism and forgot all about the grace that God had poured out on me through Jesus. As I look back on that time in my life there are eight things that really defined me…
  #1 – I was way more obsessed with the sins and shortcomings of others and made it my obsession to point out their faults so that I did not have to deal with my own. (Matthew 23:27-28)