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!
Memory Part 1
February 11, 2025
Just think about what life would be like if we did not recognize anyone or know where we live. Without memory, we would have no concept of relationships or understandings of consequences. Essentially, we would have no identity, history, or the ability to reason. The memory is exceedingly powerful because it is a library of all we know and believe. Our ego uses our memory to support its agenda, however, our soul views our memories as opportunities for healing and wholeness.
Relevance Part 7
February 10, 2025
I have a chair whose leg is broken. You can't tell that the leg has been cracked in two pieces and glued back together. The chair has been very sturdy ever since it was repaired. It's never faltered in the 42 years since its "accident" and repair. Every time I sit in it or look at it, I recall a story held deep in my heart.
Relevance Part 6
February 9, 2025
Walking from my car to the recreational center, four thirteen-ish boys were standing by the bike racks, near the front door. They were talking animatedly. Amid their muffled conversation were spontaneous bursts of laughter. I told myself, "I remember those conversations when I was about thirteen or so — we were learning about ourselves, others, and life. We asked each other questions that we could not ask of our parents or adults. In those conversations, we ‘tried on’ different aspects of ourselves to see what would fly and what wouldn't. We listened to our friends’ stories, learned who they were and how we could relate to them, and we told stories of our own. And we laughed! Oh, how I remember those conversations.”
Relevance Part 5
February 8, 2025
What do we find to be relevant to us? The short answer is anything that helps us is relevant. This would be a straightforward statement to live by, but the clincher is how we interpret the words "we" and "us." Do those words refer to our ego, soul, or both?
Relevance Part 4
February 7, 2025
Some of us are stretched with too many commitments, but we maintain them even if we lack time. We hang in there because they are relevant to us. When we do as many relevant things as possible, it may feel good that we can keep all the balls in the air. But there is a price to pay. And that price can be our sense of happiness and calm — our physical health and well-being. Even our spiritual growth can suffer. Being stretched spreads us too thinly, and we are not present for any of it. We wonder why our lives are so unsatisfying and exhausting even while we do so many wonderful things.
Relevance Part 3
February 6, 2025
At ICB, we receive many responses to online evaluations from people attending our many events. They are thoughtful enough to take their time to evaluate our conferences, workshops, intensives, programs within intensives, online offerings, and our spiritual pilgrimages, to mention a few. When we ask for opinions and ratings for any given program, we usually receive as many types of views as there are respondents.
Relevance Part 2
February 5, 2025
Are you perhaps interested in rock collecting, jewelry, Pomeranians, Brazilian postage stamps, heavy metal music, the BBC news, action figures, or satellites that monitor cloud movements? If not, chances are that these topics are irrelevant to you. But some of them may very well be interesting and, therefore, relevant. It just depends on the things that make up our personal worlds.
Relevance Part 1
February 4, 2025
The word “relevance“ has a curious etymology. Its original Latin root is “relevare,” which means “to lift up again” or “to lighten.” The notion of lifting up or lightening connotes the idea of support. So, if something has relevance, it essentially means it supports something.
The Living Document 7
February 3, 2025
As living documents, we constantly declare in thought, word, and deed our outward identity and our inner soul. Of course, how much of each we express depends on our connection to the ego and its healthy amalgamation with the soul. And this connection is composed of a different algorithm for each of us.
The Living Document 6
February 2, 2025
Every one of us carries some form of documentation that confirms our identity. In movies, TV, and books, some well-known lines are: "Show me your ID," "Get out your papers," and "Have your passport ready." For many of us, our driver's license is our most ready form of ID; for others, it is our social security number or birth certificate.
The Living Document 5
February 1, 2025
An authentic proclamation is a serious and formal announcement. It is a no-nonsense expression. My grandmother, who was born in 1892, used a colloquial expression of her day that I will never forget: It was, “Well, I declare.” She and others said this when they heard something surprising or unbelievable. When they said, “I declare,” it meant they declared what they heard as believable, valid or true.
The Living Document 4
January 31, 2025
A proclamation is a type of document. The first proclamations affecting our country were by King George of England. After our independence, proclamations were made by George Washington and every American president since. President Eisenhower wrote a proclamation admitting Alaska to the United States. And possibly the most famous proclamation in American history was issued by Abraham Lincoln — "The Emancipation Proclamation."
The Living Document 3
January 30, 2025
Most documents hold true through different eventualities and scenarios. Their intentions and purposes stand throughout many seasons, generations, and eras. Our lives as living documents contain the repertoire of our possible responses to all of life’s eventualities. No one can change a legal document unless authorized. As living documents, we must approve any changes in our responses or deletions of responses.
The Living Document 2
January 29, 2025
A document is a communication which has a specific purpose. Its purpose is to make statements about a particular body of knowledge. It is official. For example, an insurance policy, last will and testament, governmental document, or any legal document communicates something important and carries some sort of weight or implies a type of agreement or covenant. Books, scrolls, films, videos, and recordings can be considered types of documents. Documents usually connote some action. They can uphold, announce, or sometimes infer specific consequences.
The Living Document 1
January 28, 2025
A document is information that serves as a record, authority, or reference. Documents can be written, printed, electronic, or in any form that facilitates their purpose. A "living document" is one that is meant to be changed or amended as circumstances change and can be interpreted and applied differently under different conditions. For those reasons, it is sometimes called an evergreen or dynamic document. The United States Constitution, with its amendments, is an example. The constitutional amendments add to the document, and all three branches of the government can and have interpreted the Constitution in different ways.
Divine Order 7
January 27, 2025
Many may not realize that divine order includes our being loved as well as our loving others. Yes, being loved is a basic human need, and we are totally out of divine order when and if we are not loved. Decades ago, child developmental psychologists Spitz and Bowlby, among others, observed the behaviors of children and babies in particular. Their observations revealed that babies who were not nurtured or loved, and who formed no physical attachment with a caretaker frequently went into what is known as anaclitic depression, which if not treated, leads to Failure to Thrive Syndrome, and death.
Divine Order 6
January 26, 2025
One of the most significant pieces of evidence of divine order is witnessing it in individuals we meet and know. The person’s life may not always be successful. It may have extremes of ups and downs. They are not always outwardly happy, and everyone may not always like them. But the person who strives to live in divine order is first and foremost grounded and driven by a higher cause than their ego alone.
Divine Order 5
January 25, 2025
Sometimes, when at the drugstore, I get frustrated searching the card aisle for the right card for a special occasion. Right off the bat, none of the cards say what needs to be said. I go up and down the aisle, pulling out one card after the other, opening them, finding that they won’t work, and replacing them in the rack.