03: Me, My Mom, and the God Between Us

What happens when the theology you were raised inside begins to soften, and the person who taught it to you is willing to soften too?

Last year, I completed what was my own "Year to Live" exercise. At the top of that commitment was my relationship with my mom. She raised me and my siblings inside the Seventh-day Adventist church. Faith shaped everything—what to eat, what to fear, what to believe, what to bury.

And yet here we are…sitting on the kitchen table, reading The Third Jesus by Deepak Chopra together. No microphones. No plan. Just two former Adventists, opening a book neither of us could've touched when I was a kid.

In This Episode:

• The revelation: "I thought it was heartbreak... it was all the grief" - unpacking depression after Peace Corps service
• Why we sometimes prefer heartbreak to grief - the devil we know versus the one we don't
• Understanding emotions as "disguises" and what lies behind evil
• Finding profound love and Christ consciousness through prison work
• The vital practice of learning to "Protect Your Peace"
• Healing divides through nourishment - a mother's realization about seeing unmet needs
• Seeing the "God" or innocence beneath everyone's surface
• How focusing on the afterlife can rob us of the present moment
• Moving beyond duality - challenging "good vs. evil" thinking

Key Insights:

• Grief wears disguises - sometimes as heartbreak, anger, or busyness
• Christ consciousness is about seeing the divine in everyone, especially those society has rejected
• Moments of peace must be protected - a spiritual practice of creating boundaries
• The transition from religious dogma to spiritual understanding creates space for deeper connections
• Finding divinity not as something external, but as the essence within each person

This isn't a polished podcast. It's a prayer you overheard - a raw conversation about what opens between a mother and son when grief softens, and religion lets go.

Watch on YouTube

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