Patrik Olterman Rodhe's Blog, page 13
July 19, 2015
Permission to feel…
It is funny this facebook thing. Not to long ago I posted an update on facebook that indicated I was dealing with some stuff. Anyone keeping up with my blog knows that I have done some real emotional heavy lifting the past weeks so one would think it would not be that surprising.
Still when I posted:
I’ll be alright, just not tonight!
I got the expected hearts and hugs as comments. What I did not expect was the many people contacting me trying to “fix” my problem. Apparantly facebook is the...
July 16, 2015
Affirming love
I have spent the last week in paradise, surrounded by nature and open loving hearts. Every morning as a collective we would make the following affirmation:
Today on this beautiful unique day,
I decide to choose love.
I choose love by forgiving those I did not forgive yet.
I choose love today by paying attention to the needs of others before my own needs.
I choose love today by sacrificing any fears and other limitations.
Today is the day, in which I will overcome my resentment to love.
Today on...
July 11, 2015
Opening up
If you, like me sometimes close down your heart. Either knowingly or unknowingly. You also need to open back up. Personally I think this becomes a daily spiritual practice of opening up and staying open.
This can feel scary if you close down your heart because of heartbreak or other emotional trauma. Many people once hurt become not only closed down but also guard their hearts so closely. Staying closed becaue it can hurt so much staying open Here’s the catch though, once you close your heart...
July 10, 2015
Non attachment
In eastern traditions detachment or non attachment is an important part of the spiritual practice. The idea is that you should not become atatched to things or persons so that these will not control you.
“Things arise and she lets them come, things disappear and she lets them go. She has, but doesn’t possess, acts but doesn’t expect” – Lao Tzu
This is all well and good. It is good not to let things or people control you. It is good to remain free from external control and manipulation. If you...
July 9, 2015
Do you dare to live?
So in the aftermath of my recent emotional awakening experience I am left with this question. Do I really dare to live? Not just to be alive but to live fully, filled with life and experience to the brim, each day?
Most of us, myself included, opt out. We siphon life into small and manageable streams. Only taking in as much as we think is manageable, and so we censor life itself, we censor our life experience and put on blinkers not seeing, or feeling what we have decided would be “too much”....
July 7, 2015
I don’t know how it happened
It just did, one day I had stopped feeling. I was thinking a lot, thinking I was sad, happy or angry. But I wasn’t rally feeling it. My feelings dialed down to a low hum or buzzing at the bottom of my heart to low to even register.
It must have happened gradually, little by little I chose not to feel. Not to get hurt, not to get sad, not to feel anything really. THinking I was content, thinking I was ok but really I was dead or a living dead. Zombiefied, shambling through life, keeping up the...
July 1, 2015
Into the blue
As summer has actually arrived here in Sweden I have taken some time of work to start a writing project. I am taking all the ideas and thoughts from the last six years of sermon writing, blogging and theological reflection and boil it down to a little book describing my own “pirate theology”.
The book will be called “Into the blue” and is divided up in four main parts: kosmos, hagios, ecclesia and basileia. Starting with the creation song and then talking about holiness, the church and the ki...
June 20, 2015
So long and thanks for all the fish
Every Journey must come to an end and this is the end of our journey in the Salvation Army. It has been a great journey of trials and growth personally and professionally. So what does one say at the end of a journey?
We are taking a step out into the unknown. A jumping of point of sorts, not unlike hopping of the board when flying on a trapeze.
I stood on the tiny plattform to high up for any logical sense to be ok with. Looking down, I realise it is a long, long way d...
June 19, 2015
Oh no, religion!
As I was browsing the interwebs I came upon this cartoon depicting how the secular society looks at christianity. It is true to a large degree. In todays society it is ok to quote Buddha, the Dalai Lama or Ghandi but to quote Jesus or the bible is somehow offensive.
Of course the reverse is also true in the church. Where you can quote the bible or Jesus any day but if you quote Buddha, Ghandi, the Dalai Lama, Rumi or any other wisdom teacher/mystic, even if they say exactly the same thing as...
June 3, 2015
Death as a gift
When you read fantasy (as I do) there are many different races. In classical fantasy the elves are gracefull and artistic, the dwarves are tough and inventive and all the races live long. But what about humans, humans are mortal. In the fantasy setting the great advantage of being human is our mortality. That hardly seems fair, with all the gifts given to the other races, we get death.
This comes through in religions with mythical immortal beings, there is an envy of our mortality and in many...
