Author Archives: watchwordsblog

Love yourself enough to set boundaries. Your time and energy are precious. You get to choose how you use it. You teach people how to treat you by deciding what you will and won’t accept. Anna Taylor Meditation: When we grow up in families or environments that do not teach us how to set boundaries,Continue reading ““Setting Boundaries”…”

Prayer does not change God, but it changes me who prays. Soren Kierkegaard Meditation: God is always the One who moves towards life, always the One who wants healing, and always the One moving towards justice and reconciliation. Often we forget that. We feel like we have to pray hard as to convince God or to changeContinue reading ““Prayer Changes Us”…”

Discipline means to prevent everything in your life from being filled up. Discipline means that somewhere you’re not occupied, and certainly not preoccupied. In the spiritual life, discipline means to create that space in which something can happen that you hadn’t planned or counted on. Henri Nouwen Meditation: To a native German, born in the “land ofContinue reading ““Discipline as Freedom”…”

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough. Meister Eckhart Meditation: The opposite of gratitude expresses itself in a habit of complaining. Sometimes this happens when people grow up with opposite experiences: either with being neglected or with being spoiled. Both experiences can easily createContinue reading “The Power of Two Words: “Thank You”…”

How many lessons of faith and beauty we should lose, if there were no winter in our year! Thomas Wentworth Higginson Meditation: Sometimes loving partners go through different seasons in their lives at different times. While one might experience spring and summer excitements of new beginnings and fruitful happenings, the other might experience fall andContinue reading ““The Seasons of Love”…”

We may not be able to stop evil in the world, but how we treat one another is entirely up to us.”  Barack Obama Meditation: The past months have been very stressful for many people around the country and around the world. We feel helpless as we watch major changes being made that we experienceContinue reading ““Evil in the World”…”

I know that when I pray, something wonderful happens. Not just to the person or persons for whom I’m praying, but also something wonderful happens to me. I’m grateful that I’m heard. Maya Angelou Meditation: When we pray we do not “influence God”, as if we had power over God. We do not “make GodContinue reading ““Something Wonderful Happens”…”

Cancer affects all of us, whether you’re a daughter, mother, sister, friend, coworker, doctor, or patient. –Jennifer Aniston Meditation: Last week I heard that one of my colleagues and one of my friends have a new cancer diagnosis. One has cancer for the first time, for the other it is the second occurrence. Both timesContinue reading ““Cancer affects all of us”…”

When my body joins my heart and mind when I pray, I feel alive and deeply connected with myself and with God. Dorothea Lotze-Kola Meditation: There was a time in my life when I was completely disconnected from my body. This can happen to anyone who goes through depression, an eating disorder or through traumatic events.Continue reading ““Body Prayer”…”

Prayer is the most concrete way to make our home in God. Henri Nouwen Meditation: I remember praying a lot in my early thirties when I made the decision to leave my home country and immigrate to the US for good. I had nearly three years to make this life changing decision. I found courage, as IContinue reading ““Home in God”…”