Happy everything!

I am scheduling this post to go up on December 25^th. Christmas is a holiday that I have a complicated relationship with. December 25^th is the day my Dad died, in 2009. So, it is a combination of a very joyous day, and the anniversary of one of the worst days in my life. This year will mark 14 years since he died from a heart condition that was left untreated due to his faith in Christian Science. Like I said, it’s complicated.

It was always there…it was just suppressed…

“The compassion was always there. It was suppressed. Now it’s being released, and allowed to act naturally.”
(from a Facebook group for former Christian Scientists–quote shared with permission from the author)

So many of us who have left Christian Science are amazed by the simple acts of human compassion that we encounter day-to-day. We see it in so many places: co-workers, new religious/spiritual communities we join, friends, family, or among other former Christian Scientists. Sometimes, it’s something as simple as an acknowledgement of the grief or anger a person is feeling, and the offer to help in whatever way a person can; other times, it’s a knowing nod, or an “I totally ‘get’ how you feel…”; or it’s something as simple as acknowledging when someone isn’t feeling well, and offering comfort. Compassion comes in many different ways. I am among those who still marvels in this, even though it’s six years since I began to leave Christian Science myself.

Savour Every Moment

“If we remembered every day that we could lose someone at any moment, we would love them more fiercely and freely, and without fear–not because there is nothing to lose, but because everything can always be lost.”
~Facebook meme (Womenworking.com)

Humour on the Dark Side

Sometimes humour can be found in the most trying of circumstances, and you can find yourself laughing at times when it would seem more normal or appropriate to be crying. I’ve often found myself in that situation. Humour is a release from stress, kind of like opening a pressure relief valve. It lets you blow off steam in a mostly benign way.

Death and the Christian Scientist

Christian Scientists sometimes have some of the most bizarre reactions to death of any group of people you will encounter. The reactions range from stepfordesque emotionless stupor to abnormal and inappropriate joy, happiness, and acting as if nothing at all out of the ordinary has even happened. Some things I have seen or that have been related to me are (or should be) to most people, truly bizarre.

Sunday Morning Thought-spill

A fellow ex-Christian Scientist blogger has often mentioned to me that she gets shocked and saddened sometimes at the search terms (usually centred around “death” and/or “death in Christian Science” or other such terms) that bring people to her blog. I haven’t noticed those types of search terms bringing people here quite as much (I don’t tag often with the “death” tag, so maybe that’s why), but it does happen, yes; but what has tugged at me though are a couple of comments that were shared on a recent post.

Perilous Denial

Artwork by Isabella Bannerman.

Denial…spend any time talking to a former Christian Scientist and you’ll get an earful on the subject–I’ve interwoven the subject throughout many posts on this blog. If you talk to a practicing Christian Scientist, you’ll find that denial is a perfectly legitimate way to address almost any problem. Christian Science denies problems, it denies grief, denies anything “bad”, and therefore claims that by this process, the problem (which they claim never existed anyway) is solved. Confused yet? If you are, I don’t blame you. Explaining Christian Science and the requisite mental gymnastics required to practice it to someone who knows little or nothing about it, is like describing colour to someone who has been blind from birth.