November 30, 2016

Is Loving Others Without Loving Ourselves First Possible?

November 30, 2016/ Katie Bergman

In a way, caring for ourselves has never been more accessible. These days, you don’t have to go too far to find a yoga studio or an adult coloring book to de-stress. Self-help books are a multi-billion dollar industry in the U.S. alone. Mental health conversations are being de-stigmatized through a surge of awareness campaigns.

And yet, self-care has never been harder. We’re surrounded by distractions. Our chirping phones remind us there’s always somewhere else we should be, someone else we should be prioritizing. Wi-Fi and smartphones make it hard to get away from work—especially if measure our success by how busy we are.

August 25, 2016

You Wondered if the Climb Was Worth It

August 25, 2016/ Katie Bergman

The sun embellishes the top half of valley with light, warming your back. The splashes of light illuminate the purple and yellow wildflowers beside your feet, the glaciers that frost the mountains and hold up the sky, and the towering rockfaces adorned in every shade of red, grey, and brown: coffee, caramel, and crimson with long bands of mahogany and cocoa, streaks of silver and slate … and suddenly, you’re more distracted by the beauty than the apprehension.

August 04, 2016

Are You FOR Something Or Against Something?

August 04, 2016/ Katie Bergman

If we’re only standing against something, we’ll never be for the things that matter, the things that actually address the root of the problem. The real change happens when we stand for good – for things like building peaceful and functional communities. Or addressing the deeper problems behind violence, like abuse or trauma, community breakdown, and mental health issues. Or restructuring our expectations of masculinity that otherwise normalizes aggression, reinforces violence, and represses healthy emotional expression.

June 27, 2016

Where is God in All of this Bad News?

June 27, 2016/ Katie Bergman

Here, in our state of immobilization, in the wake of grief, in fear of responsibility, we are numb. We wonder what our world has come to. We ask ourselves: Where is justice? Where is sanity? Where is God?

We are not responsible for the world’s suffering—we are only responsible for our own choices and actions. But we can no longer hide from the ways our judgments and choices contribute to the world’s suffering.

June 23, 2016

Is It Ever Okay to Disengage When the World Overwhelms Us?

June 23, 2016/ Katie Bergman

Maybe that sounds apathetic. Selfish, even. But there’s a difference between willful ignorance and being intentional about taking a step back at times. Being aware of social issues is important, but so is taking care of ourselves. Compassion is fundamental to the human experience, but let’s not confuse empathy with martyrdom.

We can’t avoid or hide. Sometimes, detaching ourselves from distressing news is less about putting up a wall and more about deliberately focusing on the good.

May 25, 2016

What Justin Trudeau (Accidentally) Taught Us About Being Human

May 25, 2016/ Katie Bergman

Things start falling apart when we discover that those “good people” in the non-profit world have actions that are antithetical to the mission of the organization. When they pay lip service and wear façades in order to be the person they want the world to see. The public face versus the private face. The idealized self versus the real self.

April 05, 2016

How Effective are Awareness Campaigns in the Fight against Human Trafficking?

April 05, 2016/ Katie Bergman

Compassion can be hard—and maybe that’s why we detach ourselves in the first place. I wonder if we limit ourselves to single-day awareness campaigns because it’s as much as we can handle. People who are learning about human trafficking for the first time are heartbroken and often can’t spare too much energy on it. Even veteran service providers are susceptible to compassion fatigue and burnout.

How do we approach these kinds of tough issues more sustainably, instead of expending all our energy at once?

March 08, 2016

Grieving Oppression, Celebrating Strength: Reflections on International Women’s Day

March 08, 2016/ Katie Bergman

Do you know why else it matters that we shine the spotlight on women today, International Women's Day? Because women are more than “victims”. Women are powerful. Despite the complex intersectionality of gender, race, economics, culture, and politics that perpetuates systemic oppression, women have still surpassed the obstacles to make enormous contributions to the world.

March 02, 2016

Good News About Creativity (Review of Ken Wytsma's Latest Book)

March 02, 2016/ Katie Bergman

I’d always seen creativity as a finite resource. Something with limits. Something you use up, like gas in a tank—except that once it’s been consumed, you can’t easily replenish your supply. There aren’t any fuel tanks of creativity dotted along the highway to fill up at when you’re running low. You either have it or you don’t.

Commodifying creativity has been problematic for me. My “creative spurts” tend to be accompanied by a sense of panic, because I never know how long the creativity will linger for this time—maybe the day if I’m lucky, maybe the hour. I’d exhaust myself trying to make the most of it while I was on a roll, because I figured my crash was bound to come at any minute.

February 23, 2016

The Secret Ingredient to a Great Love Story

February 23, 2016/ Katie Bergman

For the average person, regardless of religious belief or vocation, being compassionate to oneself doesn’t come naturally. Sometimes—even a lot of the time—it’s easier to love others than to love ourselves. And that’s because we’re unavoidably aware of our own flaws and fears and failures. We live everyday with the qualities we deem to be unlovable. We know the lousy things we’re capable of doing, the horrible things that cross our mind that we hide from others. We see the bad in us and the good in others.

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