Dr. Howell’s Reflections
Everyday, Dr. Howell writes a reflection, inquiry prompt, and a prayer.
To receive Dr. Howell’s reflections everyday in your inbox, please sign up for our mailing list using the form at the bottom of the page, and begin your journey into who God has made you to be.
Make peace with your ego and discover your true path today. The path to wholeness starts now!
Control Part 5
October 3, 2025
Jeremy was involved in a large organization whose leader was engaging and charismatic. He believed in the well-respected leader. But Jeremy sold his soul for the approval of that leader by making himself available to him around the clock. Next, Jeremy quit his day job to be the leader’s personal right-hand man. Living at the beck and call of the leader, Jeremy had little time for his personal life. But he had one small side business, which demanded his time every Tuesday evening. One day, the leader asked him to give up his side interest to be at his disposal on Tuesday evenings. This left him with only Sunday afternoons off to be with his parents, who also needed him.
Control Part 4
October 2, 2025
My 103-year-old mother-in-law is a survivor. She lives in the same home where she has lived for 75 years. She manages her checkbook, cares for herself, and only receives help from a caretaker for four hours daily. Yet, growing older has been a strain, because she can no longer do all she once did. Only a few years ago, she was always helping others, always reaching out with energy and love to be of service.
Control Part 3
October 1, 2025
There is temporal power, and there is divine power. Heads of state and their armies are examples of temporal power, while leadership of spiritual movements and religions has long been associated with divine power. Kings, queens, emperors, empresses, and pharaohs, even the Pope, held both kinds of power, since they ruled as heads of state and were also considered divine beings—or ruled by divine right.
Control Part 2
September 30, 2025
With desire comes the need for control. Control gives us the power to make things happen. If we desire something, we also desire the control and the power to obtain it.
Control Part 1
September 29, 2025
This morning, there is a break in the hot temperatures. Cool air is creeping in and slowly replacing the summer heat. I do not want the summer to end. How dare time and seasons move on without my approval! The cool air reminds me that I am not the decider, I am just a guest on this planet, only for a brief ride. Time moves on and seasons change, even when I do not want them to.
Self-Understanding Part 7
September 28, 2025
We all have wounds from childhood. This is normal and, for some, the wounds are deep. As innocent young children, we did not arrive here knowing the rules of our family, the neighborhood, school, or community. As very small and defenseless children, we did not know what to do when the voices told us that we were not “OK" the way we were and that we had to conform to expectations that ran counter to our natural self. We were not born knowing how to handle rejection and conflict with parents, siblings, or friends. We simply did what came naturally to us. Our unashamed soul had to learn to negotiate the world that inflicted shame. The overpowering pain of shame and rejection is why our soul child allowed our ego to cover it, protect it, and to strategize a way forward. The ego gave of the semblance feeling OK once again.
Self-Understanding Part 6
September 27, 2025
Mythologist and writer Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) wrote the now famous words, “Follow your bliss,” published in the classic volume, The Power of Myth. Campbell goes on to say, “Our life has become so economic and practical in its orientation that, as you get older, the claims of the moment on you are so great you hardly know where the hell you are or what it is you intended. You are always doing something that is required of you. Where is our bliss station? You have to try to find it.”
Self-Understanding Part 5
September 26, 2025
We understand ourselves when we know that we have two different levels of moving in the world. We live from the level of our ego mind or from the level of our soul. At their most intense state, our egos protect our interests above those of others and essentially set ourselves apart from the common good. The unhealthy ego obstructs our having true empathy for others outside our clan. Our egos cope with a tricky and demanding world by presenting an outward face that fits the situation and by strategizing ways to protect ourselves from harm even if we have to strike preemptively.
Self-Understanding Part 4
September 25, 2025
Enneagram-ers can do a simple thing that gives them a reading on how they are doing and, at the same time, receive a glimpse into self-understanding.
Self-Understanding Part 3
September 24, 2025
Human beings need to be held. We were held in our mother’s womb and then in our parents’ arms. In the years to follow, we are held in the arms of friends, loved ones, and of our beloved. Yet there is another type of holding that humans need. It is the sense of being secure in our home, our community, our nation, and our world. The arms of this holding provide assurance that all is well.
Self-Understanding Part 2
September 23, 2025
When remorse and guilt threaten to get the best of us, we can move through that rough spot more healthily if we are compassionate toward ourselves. Knowing our soul enables us to forgive ourselves, have mercy on ourselves, and care for our wounds.
Self-Understanding Part 1
September 22, 2025
We are complex creatures, so to understand ourselves in depth may be daunting. Not only are we continually changing, but we also have multiple aspects and layers within ourselves. Many of us know our outer self, yet do not explore our depths. But amazingly, in our depths are wondrous aspects we hardly know and therefore never enjoy or express.
Gratefulness Part 6
September 22, 2025
We are complex creatures, so to understand ourselves in depth may be daunting. Not only are we continually changing, but we also have multiple aspects and layers within ourselves. Many of us know our outer self, yet do not explore our depths. But amazingly, in our depths are wondrous aspects we hardly know and therefore never enjoy or express.
Gratefulness Part 5
September 20, 2025
In Christianity, the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Reformed and Eastern Orthodox churches all use a variation of the phrase "it is right to give him thanks and praise" during the opening dialogue of the Eucharistic prayer. This dialogue between the priest and the congregation, is known as the Sursum Corda, an ancient part of the Christian liturgy.
Gratefulness Part 4
September 19, 2025
The gardenia bushes beside our back porch didn’t bloom in June, as always. I believe we trimmed them too much and too late. One of the large gardenia bushes comes from my home place in Mobile, where I grew up. I recall smelling the gardenia blossoms from that very bush as a little boy. Gardenias have a one-of-a-kind fragrance. It’s sweet, deep, mildly exotic yet earthy, creamy, and with a subtle layer of spice as you continue taking it in. In its own way, it is intoxicating. The scent becomes stronger in the evening.
Gratefulness Part 3
September 18, 2025
In Cherokee, the word for expressing gratitude is Otsaliheliga (pronounced oh-jah-LEE-hay-lee-gah), which means "we are grateful." The concept of thankfulness is deeply woven into Cherokee culture, particularly in ceremonies that honor the Earth and the Creator. All Native American tribes include gratefulness in their ceremonies and daily rituals. Not only native Americans but indigenous cultures around the world, from the aborigines in Australia, to tribes in Africa to the indigenous people in South America, all honor the quality of gratefulness, especially gratefulness to nature.
Gratefulness Part 2
September 17, 2025
Have you ever given a gift, but your gift was never acknowledged? Though you did not give it to be thanked, without the acknowledgment from the person who received the gift, the circle of giving is incomplete. Completing the circle of giving includes gratefulness. I believe this may be why in most religious traditions, thanksgiving to God is an important dynamic. It completes the cycle of giving. It is acknowledgment of receipt of a blessing.
Gratefulness Part 1
September 16, 2025
Like most of us, I tend to think of many things as “givens,” such as our body, family, and all people. Then, of course, there are the trees, skies, mountains, oceans, learning, and emotion, all of which have been there from the beginning. All this was here when I arrived, so why express gratefulness for it? The givens of our life can be compared to our table at a restaurant. We never question if there will be a table in the establishment, and we don’t express thanks for it; it is already there when we arrive, and it is part and parcel of being in a restaurant.