The Golden Love-Light of Healing There are experiences that do more than hurt us. They can alter our relationship with ourselves, with other people, with the Sacred, and with life itself. Trauma, violence, betrayal, abandonment, oppression, grief, and other forms of suffering can leave us feeling profoundly alone, even when we are surrounded by people who love us. We may feel disconnected from ourselves, unable to trust what we once trusted, or spiritually disconnected from a

Discovering Your True Self Who are you? Most of us answer that question, at least initially, with the facts and stories of a particular human life. We are our names, families, relationships, professions, identities, accomplishments, failures, and the places and cultures that have shaped us. We are also shaped by what has happened to us: the people who have loved us well or failed to love us, the opportunities we have been given or denied, the losses we have endured, and the c

There are experiences in life after which we may say, “I have never been quite the same.” Sometimes the change follows an obvious trauma: violence, abuse, the death of someone we love, war, betrayal, abandonment, or another experience that overwhelms our capacity to absorb what has happened. At other times, the loss is quieter. A child learns that a particular gift is unacceptable. Someone repeatedly suppresses an essential part of themselves to remain connected to a family o