It's Not for Nothing

This Father's Day, Rev. Connie Nissen speaks about the walls we put up in consciousness, and she gives us meditation exercises to help break them down.

Many of us carry a hole in our heart in the shape of the father. A common story told is, "If my father had just been there, I think I would be better than I am now." But Joseph Campbell wrote, "Where we stumble, therein lies our treasure." The fatherless sons, telling that single story, may feel valueless. But we know these feelings create our experience, that our thoughts and beliefs are creative things.

Our feelings are our most genuine path to knowledge---knowledge about ourselves. In examining our thoughts and feelings, we can figure out what is poison and what is medicine, what inspires and wakes us up and what keeps us running in circles. We can inform ourselves in a conscious way so that we can tell a new story and make a different choice.