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"If you think of your love as a da Vinci painting, it's a wonderful gift to give someone. But if you see it as an old sock, you wouldn't want to bother your loved one with it. Instead, you might try to compensate for the perceived deficiencies of your emotional support with some kind of financial or service-oriented behavior. And you're likely to get resentful or angry when your family considers these inadequate compensation . . . Most male anger comes from feeling like a failure as a protector, provider, and sexual-lover." Steven Stosny In the wake of the Orlando nightclub shooting, many are focusing on the role that the lack of adequate gun control, radical Islam, homophobia or bipolar illness played as contributing factors. But the question I ask is this: why are these mass shootings usually carried out by MALES - isolated, alienated, ANGRY males? Most men would never even think of doing such an act. But what is it about the stress of our society - or male psychology - that pushes unbalanced males over the edge? These are questions I've been pondering during my outdoor adventures this past week. What are YOUR ideas? Here's a short article from Psychology Today to get the ball rolling. I apologize in advance for the fact that it only discusses heterosexual relationships: www.psychologytoday.com/blog/anger-in-the-age-entitlement/201004/anger-men-and-love Photos: Cascades, Globeflowers, and the rare Brown Ladies' Slipper Orchid, Fern Lake Trail, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, June 14, 2016 "I am dead and gone to heaven." John Muir In the Mountains of Yosemite I cannot adequately describe the feeling I had today while sitting on the grassy shoreline of Fern Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. The intense sunlight took the chill out of the gentle, intermittent breeze, and the music of cascading waterfalls coming from three different directions was nicely complemented by the chuckling of the lake water against the bank. A variety of bird calls - an osprey, ruby-crowned kinglets, hermit thrushes, pine siskins, robins, a Townsend's solitaire and others - made the very air seem festive. Globeflowers, glowing in the sunlight, in turn gave off their own radiance. I meditated for twenty minutes. The lake-setting - spacious, but filled with echo-like water and bird sounds arising, it seemed, from a very ancient past - became a veritable embodiment of the vast, meditative mind. I will carry this day with me for a very long time . . . Photo: Globeflowers and Fern Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, June 14, 2016 For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ #mountainsarecalling #johnmuir #meditation #earthwisdom #unrulymystic#stephenhatch #wildernessmysticism "Birds, insects, flowers - all in their own way tell a deep summer joy." The Contemplative John Muir Photo: Rocky Mountain Iris and Golden Banner, Moraine Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, June 14, 2016 For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ "The waterfall, as if it were a living creature, is full of the strength of the mountains and their huge, wild joy. The young river is gloriously alive. On it goes, shouting roaring, exulting in its strength." The Contemplative John Muir Photo: Ouzel Falls and rainbow, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” Carl Jung I wonder how many more solitary mass shootings we will undergo here in America before we begin to release ourselves from our obsession with external distractions and really explore the complexities of our own inner deserts, both individually and culturally? Photo: Joanne in the Bisti De-Na-Zin Wilderness, NM, May 30, 2016 For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ |
AuthorStephen Hatch, M.A. is a spiritual teacher and photographer from Fort Collins, Colorado. His approach is contemplative, inter-spiritual, and Earth-based. Archives
June 2016
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