Walter Thiessen
@nbwaltert.bsky.social
Prof/Therapist interested in contemplation, narrative, community and just peacebuilding as paths to wholeness
"I categorically reject any notion that violence is ever justified. It is always an act of de-sanctification, of not being able to see the divine in the other." - Rabbi Michael Lerner
June 24, 2025 at 4:34 PM
"I categorically reject any notion that violence is ever justified. It is always an act of de-sanctification, of not being able to see the divine in the other." - Rabbi Michael Lerner
Why It's Better to Look Death in the Face
"When death awareness threatens us from the edges, we get anxious and defensive, but when we turn to face death together we gain perspective on the value of life and become more compassionate." open.substack.com/pub/walterth...
"When death awareness threatens us from the edges, we get anxious and defensive, but when we turn to face death together we gain perspective on the value of life and become more compassionate." open.substack.com/pub/walterth...
Why It's Better to Look Death in the Face
Is death why we resist consenting to reality?
open.substack.com
May 29, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Why It's Better to Look Death in the Face
"When death awareness threatens us from the edges, we get anxious and defensive, but when we turn to face death together we gain perspective on the value of life and become more compassionate." open.substack.com/pub/walterth...
"When death awareness threatens us from the edges, we get anxious and defensive, but when we turn to face death together we gain perspective on the value of life and become more compassionate." open.substack.com/pub/walterth...
Pretty much how I feel
search.app/Zi6Cu
search.app/Zi6Cu
The people refusing to use AI
Worried about the environment and the loss of skills, some people are resisting the rise of AI.
search.app
May 7, 2025 at 2:04 AM
Pretty much how I feel
search.app/Zi6Cu
search.app/Zi6Cu
A good word for our days:
Guard the Image of Humanity: A contemplative approach to healing sociopolitical division
Guard the image of humanity, for it is the manifest image of God. Look for it in your neighbour. Search for it. Seek it. For it is found even in your enemy.
www.ssu.ca
April 25, 2025 at 5:51 PM
A good word for our days:
D. Soelle: "...until the end of the world, as Blaise Pascal put it, Christ still hangs on the cross; namely in the victims of injustice, every one of whom is to be regarded as a sister or brother of Christ. Without compassio in this encompassing sense there can be no transformation of suffering.
April 22, 2025 at 6:02 PM
D. Soelle: "...until the end of the world, as Blaise Pascal put it, Christ still hangs on the cross; namely in the victims of injustice, every one of whom is to be regarded as a sister or brother of Christ. Without compassio in this encompassing sense there can be no transformation of suffering.
"Little moments of consent make a life of ultimate consent possible."
Consenting to Life Itself
“Consent” is the middle word of my title phrase, and it’s meant to do the heavy lifting.
open.substack.com
April 17, 2025 at 7:59 PM
"Little moments of consent make a life of ultimate consent possible."
"Reality presents itself to me, and I often miss it, deny it, avoid it, bury it, and forget about it. Or try. Important aspects of reality have this habit of not staying hidden. Thank goodness – except that it messes with our lives, this pesky, persistent intrusion of reality."
Blowin' in the Wind
Reality as the Cure
walterthiessen.substack.com
April 7, 2025 at 10:53 PM
"Reality presents itself to me, and I often miss it, deny it, avoid it, bury it, and forget about it. Or try. Important aspects of reality have this habit of not staying hidden. Thank goodness – except that it messes with our lives, this pesky, persistent intrusion of reality."
Starting a series on Substack (free), sharing some of the building blocks of a major project I'm working on. Now's a good time to subscribe for descriptions of a contemplative pathway to healing and maturing. Begins with my commitments to the process.
A Compassionate Consent to Reality
My Project Commitments
open.substack.com
March 31, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Starting a series on Substack (free), sharing some of the building blocks of a major project I'm working on. Now's a good time to subscribe for descriptions of a contemplative pathway to healing and maturing. Begins with my commitments to the process.
Street art in Ljubljana:
March 25, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Street art in Ljubljana:
Here's the third and final part of my series reflecting on interviews with Ukrainian refugees:
What I Learned by Listening to Ukrainian Refugees - Pt. 3 (final)
Implications for Healing
open.substack.com
March 25, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Here's the third and final part of my series reflecting on interviews with Ukrainian refugees:
In the second part of my series based on my interviews with Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw, I observe the biggest surprise of the interviews:
What I Learned by Listening to Ukrainian Refugees - Pt. 2
"Numb and Empty" - Trauma or Depression?
walterthiessen.substack.com
March 18, 2025 at 2:58 PM
In the second part of my series based on my interviews with Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw, I observe the biggest surprise of the interviews:
Here's the first of three parts sharing what I'm learning about trauma listening to the experiences of Ukrainian refugees (in Warsaw):
What I Learned by Listening to Ukrainian Refugees - Pt. 1
Eighty-two years ago, my mother fled to Poland from Ukraine with her family.
walterthiessen.substack.com
March 11, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Here's the first of three parts sharing what I'm learning about trauma listening to the experiences of Ukrainian refugees (in Warsaw):
After a week in Warsaw listening to interviews with Ukrainian refugees, I reflect on how this affected me:
A Reality Check in Warsaw
It’s been a strange week to be in Warsaw.
open.substack.com
March 6, 2025 at 12:35 PM
After a week in Warsaw listening to interviews with Ukrainian refugees, I reflect on how this affected me:
Can we please stop referring to Musk as "the world's richest man" as if he were the gold medalist in the capitalist Olympics? How about:
- a person who has much wealth and no human compassion
- a person who symbolizes the gross lack of equality in our world...
- a person who has much wealth and no human compassion
- a person who symbolizes the gross lack of equality in our world...
February 17, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Can we please stop referring to Musk as "the world's richest man" as if he were the gold medalist in the capitalist Olympics? How about:
- a person who has much wealth and no human compassion
- a person who symbolizes the gross lack of equality in our world...
- a person who has much wealth and no human compassion
- a person who symbolizes the gross lack of equality in our world...
In an earlier post I advocated the value of texts commanding genocide remaining in the Bible. Below I clarify why (spoiler: so we smarten up and talk about the evil)
Why I'm Not Ripping Genocide out of My Bible
We desperately need the book of Joshua in our Bibles.
walterthiessen.substack.com
February 17, 2025 at 9:23 PM
In an earlier post I advocated the value of texts commanding genocide remaining in the Bible. Below I clarify why (spoiler: so we smarten up and talk about the evil)
A simple image of a mystery:
Holy Eavesdropping
(Where Do We Find Trust?)
walterthiessen.substack.com
February 10, 2025 at 11:11 PM
A simple image of a mystery:
"I remember the basic aikido stance: readiness was being balanced, soft and relaxed even when preparing to meet an attacker. There was a deep rightness to this. I know a soft and open heart is the best posture to face all the challenges of the world right now."
A Soft Heart in Hard Days
There are many different strategies that folks are using to get through these days when there is so much change and fear and anger.
walterthiessen.substack.com
February 3, 2025 at 7:54 PM
"I remember the basic aikido stance: readiness was being balanced, soft and relaxed even when preparing to meet an attacker. There was a deep rightness to this. I know a soft and open heart is the best posture to face all the challenges of the world right now."
My annual post of "top ten films" (for 2024) is up and ready. Not too much correspondence with the Oscars. 😊
Walter's Top Ten of 2024
No preliminaries this year; I'll just dive right in: 10. His Three Daughters – A man is dying of cancer and his three daughters (one a st...
thiessenbros.blogspot.com
January 31, 2025 at 4:47 PM
My annual post of "top ten films" (for 2024) is up and ready. Not too much correspondence with the Oscars. 😊
2014 - Bessel van der Kolk stresses the importance for trauma healing of "knowing what you know and feeling what you feel"
1979 - John Bowlby writes an article, "On Knowing What You Are Not Supposed to Know and Feeling What You Are Not Supposed to Feel
Phrase makes even more sense now...
1979 - John Bowlby writes an article, "On Knowing What You Are Not Supposed to Know and Feeling What You Are Not Supposed to Feel
Phrase makes even more sense now...
Knowing What We Know
(when we're not supposed to)
walterthiessen.substack.com
January 28, 2025 at 10:16 PM
2014 - Bessel van der Kolk stresses the importance for trauma healing of "knowing what you know and feeling what you feel"
1979 - John Bowlby writes an article, "On Knowing What You Are Not Supposed to Know and Feeling What You Are Not Supposed to Feel
Phrase makes even more sense now...
1979 - John Bowlby writes an article, "On Knowing What You Are Not Supposed to Know and Feeling What You Are Not Supposed to Feel
Phrase makes even more sense now...
Reposted by Walter Thiessen
"We are easily allured by the next new thing, the new politically correct agenda. And then we discover it’s run by unenlightened people who in fact do not love God but love themselves. They do not love the truth, but love control." (2016)
The Activist's Guide to Contemplation
If we are going to have truly prophetic people who go beyond the categories of liberal and conservative, we have to teach them some way to integrate their needed activism with a truly contemplative…
sojo.net
January 26, 2025 at 3:00 PM
"We are easily allured by the next new thing, the new politically correct agenda. And then we discover it’s run by unenlightened people who in fact do not love God but love themselves. They do not love the truth, but love control." (2016)