Dr. Howell’s Reflections
Everyday, Dr. Howell writes a reflection, inquiry prompt, and a prayer.
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Adaptation Part 9
June 7, 2025
When the GPS says, "Recalculating," it's in the process of adapting to our having deviated from the route it calculated. It guides us to where we want to go, but when we veer off course, it is programmed to recalculate a new way to our destination.
Adaptation Part 8
June 6, 2025
When we adapt to circumstances or relationships, we find that our ability to adapt to new things was always in us but we were unaware of it. Just as necessity is the mother of invention, it is also the mother of transformation.
Adaptation Part 7
June 5, 2025
Living in the now, impressions steer us in another direction from the one we had initially calculated. So, the spiritual ability to be flexible and to adapt in the now is essential. Lucia, a ten-year-old peasant girl in Portugal in the early 1900s, witnessed an apparition of the Virgin Mary each month for six months. No one, not even her family, believed in her stories of Mary appearing in the wheat fields. People, including her family, thought her to be an attention seeker.
Adaptation Part 6
June 4, 2025
To be granted a Ph.D. degree, the student must complete a dissertation. It was 1977, and I faced that daunting task which included writing a rationale for a research study, conducting the research, writing it all in a book form and presenting the results to a committee of professors in what is called “the defense.” They would grill me with questions about my research, and I would have to defend it.
Adaptation Part 5
June 3, 2025
Self-affirmation is a beautiful way to adapt to circumstances that challenge our self-worth. We may lose an election, a job, or a relationship; we may fall short of our aims. We may do something that shames ourselves or hurts others. Despite the many ways we can lose our self-esteem, instead of letting circumstances define us, we can adapt to reality through self-affirmation.
Adaptation Part 4
June 2, 2025
Joyce Landorf's book Irregular People (1982 and 2018) describe those who seem to purposely antagonize, abuse, misuse, and anger us. Landorf described, in layman’s terms, what psychologists refer to as personality disorders. These are hard-wired maladaptive patterns of thinking and behavior originating in one’s biology and early life experiences.
Adaptation Part 3
June 1, 2025
The ego has a bad rap. We typically see it as something that trips us up, leads to narcissism and is hell-bent on getting its way. The ego is even known as our false self.
Adaptation Part 2
May 31, 2025
One of the most challenging things to adapt to is loss. A significant loss is devastating, regardless of how much we struggle to limit our egos. Why is this so? Shouldn't spiritual seekers be immune to the effects of loss? Aren't they so connected to the Divine that they are above grieving? Not so. When we go through loss and adapt to our new reality, we must go through the grieving process, regardless of our spiritual insights.
Adaptation Part 1
May 30, 2025
From time to time, we find ourselves in changing circumstances that can completely throw us off. But in the spiritual life, we make changes so that we learn and even benefit from these situations. The changes we make are forms of adaptation to the emotional and/or physical environment. And as we know, adaptation is a vital tool for survival.