Just one look at Kathy Chomitz makes it clear that she’s blessed with an inner tranquility that comes from beyond this world. But it hasn’t always been that way. Having grown up in an abusive home, Kathy long struggled with trying to feel “normal,” eventually experiencing a sense of despair so debilitating that she literally wanted to die. “I had contemplated ending my life almost my whole life,” says Kathy, a registered nurse with 19 years’ experience in the ICU and almost 4 years in palliative care. “But something–God–kept me plugging along, trying the best I could to find a reason for staying in this life.” Nine years ago, however, Kathy’s mental health hit bottom. “I couldn’t do anything but sleep, eat, and contemplate taking my life,” she says. “The only thing that kept me from acting on it was my children. I had worked so hard to become the parent to them that my parents had not been for me, and had come so far in my crusade to end the family abuse in my lifetime, that I was not about to cause them the trauma of losing their mother at her own hand. I did not even want them to know I was hurting. Their lives had to be innocent and untouched. So I struggled to become well, and slowly crawled out of my hole.” Continue reading →

Truly Helpful

For many of us, our work with the Course begins from a place of sorrow. Something in this world is making us crazy or breaking our hearts, sending us in search of a higher wisdom and a gentler way. So we come to the Course’s teachings with great longing and high hopes. But because our lives feel chaotic and our hearts are breaking, we may also come cautiously–warily–and armed with a fair amount of doubt about whether forgiveness really can heal our suffering and bring us peace. Continue reading →