Spiritual

Perfect Love Prevents Fear

Jun 22, 2021

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by

Ron Johnson

in appreciation, Development, emotional maturity, feelings, grief, happiness, mindfulness, self-awareness, Spiritual

In one of the later books of the New Testament, the writer and apostle, John, states this: “There is no fear I love. But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4.18, New International Version). Other versions of…
The Challenges of Honesty, Openness, and Truth

May 31, 2021

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by

Ron Johnson

in communication, Development, emotional maturity, feelings, mindfulness, Personality, relationships, self-awareness, social esteem, Spiritual

I am no philosopher, but like all people, I delve into the medium and art of philosophy unavoidably as we all do. I am certain that philosophes could be bemused by my meanderings in their territory with my minimal training and understanding of such things. I am often bemused by people meandering into the realm…
The Last Half of Life

Mar 27, 2021

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by

Ron Johnson

in appreciation, Development, Discovery, feelings, grief, happiness, men’s issues, mindfulness, Opportunity, self-awareness, social esteem, Spiritual

I’m in the last half of life. Perhaps, I should put quotes around that statement because I am not speaking concretely and practically but abstractly and metaphorically. I just flew by my 77th birthday a bit ago and now I’m well into my 78th year of life. Who knows how long I will live: a…
Life’s Issues and Challenges: It’s All about Trauma

Jan 10, 2021

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by

Ron Johnson

in emotional maturity, feelings, Opportunity, Spiritual

A colleague, Jackie, recently told me about an experience she had had with an attorney. This colleague does quite a bit of family therapy and has a long history of having been involved in families that are usually quite dysfunctional. “Dysfunctional” is not one of my favorite words, but it means that the adults in…
Intention and Production

Jan 2, 2021

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by

Ron Johnson

in communication, Personality, political, relationships, self-awareness, Spiritual

It is important to produce. It is equally important to intend to produce. But these two ways of engaging the world are profoundly different, a difference we might call spiritual. I conceive of these elements of psychological life on a spectrum with purpose in the center of the spectrum, something like this: Intention…………..……….……Purpose…………………………..Production ______________________________________________________________________________ This…
Patience

Dec 29, 2020

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by

Ron Johnson

in appreciation, emotional maturity, feelings, mindfulness, self-awareness, Spiritual

I am not, by nature, a very patient person, which means that I tend to jump before I think and talk before I think. However, this lack of “thinking” is not the real essence of patience. Patience is much about feeling. If you have followed our recent blogs, specifically over the past year, you have…
Different Kinds of “I’m Sorry”

Nov 16, 2020

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by

Ron Johnson

in appreciation, communication, emotional maturity, feelings, grief, relationships, self-awareness, social esteem, Spiritual

“I’m sorry:” a very important statement. Very, very important. Most people should be able to express these words at least once a day, and possibly several times a day. But what does “I’m sorry” mean, or more accurately what can it mean? For some reason “I’m sorry” has fallen into disuse in America, and perhaps…
You Taught Me How to Love You

Nov 11, 2020

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by

Ron Johnson

in appreciation, feelings, mindfulness, relationships, Spiritual

I knew a therapist who composed a song with this title in reference to his own therapist. This song reflected how his therapist had, indeed, taught him how to love. Recently, I had an experience with a patient that reminded me of a person who served as a therapist for me albeit in a somewhat…
It’s The War

Sep 14, 2020

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by

Ron Johnson

in appreciation, emotional maturity, feelings, mindfulness, political, self-awareness, Spiritual

Deb and I really enjoy Masterpiece Theater, which comes on PBS pretty regularly. Actually, we don’t watch any other channels aside from the three PBS channels we get over the air. We’ve had “air only” TV forever. Occasionally, however, when we happen to be in a motel where there are 600 cable channels, we waste…
The H’end of the Road

Sep 3, 2020

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by

Ron Johnson

in Development, emotional maturity, feelings, happiness, Opportunity, self-awareness, Spiritual

This is actually an interlude from my previous and forthcoming blogs on “the end of” series. There is a similarity to the “end of” to this blog, but it is a different twist.I’m going to have a little fun before I get to the meat of this blog, the essence of which I think is…