Pain – Red Tent Living

Honoring Pain

By: redtentwomen March 1, 2023February 13, 2023

Day to Day, Intentional Living, Monthly Themes, relationshipsAging, Getting Older, Janet Stark, Kindness, Pain, physical pain, Wednesday in the Weeds1 Comment

Getting older is not for the faint of heart. I am keenly aware of this today as I feel the pain from a chain of events that started with an old knee injury. I’d been concerned after experiencing pain and decreased range of motion twice in the past six months, but each time I chalked…

The Gift of Sensitivity

By: redtentwomen November 19, 2021November 22, 2021

Day to Day, Faith, Intentional Living, Monthly Themesloving ourselves, Natalie Sum, Pain, self-care, tender heart7 Comments

As I awoke from surgery, I was keenly aware that I did not have the dreamy, light, euphoric feeling I had coming out of anesthesia ten years earlier. This was different. It felt more like a backhoe had gutted a hole in my core—gut and bowels included. Any movement at all would shift what felt…

Hope Is Not a Lost Cause

By: redtentwomen June 16, 2021June 12, 2021

Faith, Femininity, Monthly Themes, relationshipsAnnie DeWaal, Grief, Hope, Miscarriage, Pain6 Comments

I started to lose you on Christmas Day. Never have I experienced such agony as my worst fear unfolded into reality. I didn’t understand what miscarriage could be—the intensity of the physical process; bodily desperation as my reaching arms tried to hold on, tried to save my child who is already gone; the depth of…

The Wounded Healer

The wounded healer arrives on the scene not a moment too soon or too late. She is ready and anchored in the flow of love to lean into the other’s deep pain. She heals with her eyes, her heart, and her hands, using words of comfort and care. She knows how it feels to be…

Tracing the Story

By: redtentwomen May 30, 2019May 29, 2019

Monthly Themesbecoming, belonging, Identity, Joy, Pain, Passion, Questions, Stories, Tracy Johnson, UnGame1 Comment

The move from our home in San Mateo, California to Los Angeles was the hardest thing I can remember in my early childhood. I was 8 years old, and yet in my body it seems like I was so much older than that. It was move number six in my short life and I felt…

Cut

By: redtentwomen March 11, 2016March 10, 2016

relationshipsAbuse, Brené Brown, conflict, forgiveness, intimacy, Jill Dyer, Marriage, Onsite, Pain, self-forgiveness10 Comments

My husband recently returned from Onsite’s Living Centered Program.

A Mother’s Heart to Her Imprisoned Son

By: redtentwomen May 21, 2015August 2, 2015

Day to Day, Intentional LivingJesus, Leslie McCarthy, Mothering, Pain, Prison, Redemption, Shame, Sons11 Comments

My 33-year-old son will be released from prison in November.

Breath of Heaven

By: redtentwomen April 6, 2015August 4, 2015

Day to Day, The HomeAmy Grant, Breath of Heaven, Christine Browning, Death, Disease, Fear, Marriage, Pain, Redemption, suffering, trauma, Winter16 Comments

The loud and painful anger of his cough tears the silence in our home.

Life Is Pain

By: redtentwomen November 7, 2014August 21, 2015

Day to DayJanet Stark, Life is Pain, Messy Relationships, Pain, Self Protection, The Princess Bride17 Comments

As I sat with my morning coffee, I pondered all that my heart was holding after a conversation with my friend the night before.

Longings

By: redtentwomen December 10, 2013September 17, 2015

Day to DayComfort, God, Hope chest, longing, Matthew 5:4, Mourn, Pain, Renee Web, Soul music3 Comments

I’ve noticed something shifting lately; I can feel it deep inside me. It’s like the seasons slowly blending one into the next, my soul is shifting, and these are the verses that have been washing up on the shore of my heart over and over again like tireless waves against the rocks.