Dr. Howell’s Reflections
Everyday, Dr. Howell writes a reflection, inquiry prompt, and a prayer.
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The Nodes of Life Part 7
May 22, 2025
A juncture is when two or more things come together. The word is frequently used to describe a critical point when a decision must be made. This is a type of node.
The Nodes of Life Part 6
May 21, 2025
From childhood, I recall the Christmas story in the Bible as it was read in church, school, and home. It was usually read from the King James Version, and a line stood out to me. It was the passage in Luke 2:6 about Mary’s giving birth to Jesus— the words that caught my attention were, “And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.”
The Nodes of Life Part 5
May 20, 2025
In the spiritual life, we sometimes reach points of confusion and cannot determine our next step. The Chinese book I Ching, a 2000-year-old “book of changes,” is used for spiritual discernment. Psychologist and philosopher Carl Jung consulted the I Ching at times of uncertainty and wrote the foreword to one of its Western publications.
The Nodes of Life Part 4
May 19, 2025
Life’s nodes are frequently turning points. We all have them, and they come in different forms. We may reach an awareness that we can never “unknow” and that changes everything. Perhaps our thoughts and ideas mature about something and we must take a different approach. Possibly, reality dawns on us unexpectedly, and we change our life direction. Maybe we reach a point of exasperation and stop pursuing something we thought we’d never give up. Perhaps we come to terms with a relationship and are now hopeful when, before, we felt hopeless.
The Nodes of Life Part 3
May 18, 2025
One of the first nodes we come upon in our spiritual development is in late childhood. We are four, five, or six, realizing we can no longer be our innocent selves. We are chided for being too honest or shut down for being ourselves. Maybe we were not ashamed of our bodies and ran around unclothed. Then our caretakers may have rushed us into our bedrooms and made us get dressed. Perhaps we told the truth and said, “The emperor has no clothes!” But we were out of line for saying that and reprimanded. In any event, our secure holding environment no longer held us. We learned we could no longer trust our natural selves, and to be wary of the world we thought would uphold us.
The Nodes of Life Part 2
May 17, 2025
When you reach adolescence, you come to a biological and psychological milestone, or node. Adolescence is a time of storm and stress when we must find our identity apart from the rest of our family. We might not yet know who we are, but we know we are different from our brothers, sisters, and family. Our task in adolescence is to determine the way we will move in the world.
The Nodes of Life Part 1
May 16, 2025
Some of us spent a lot of years checking off the boxes. We let obligations dictate what we did. But now we want our values to dictate what we look forward to. We want our lives to be made of experiences we cherish. And we hope that our life purpose is interwoven with everything we do.