So I was reading some excerpts from your book online, and I came up with a question if I may? You wrote that realization came to you that there was an underlying greater presence, and that presence was God. I grew up with a wrathful and angry god who was punitive and judgemental and loved to punish people. Can you tell me more about the God that you feel was revealed to you? For I have long wanted to find a loving presence, but I cannot except the version of god that seems popular in the US today, that of a white male god who dominates. And who is of course, very male.
If I may add a personal note - your question touched me. I feel you there, asking it. And I can feel that you've been asking it for some time. Earlier this week, I wrote a post that I thought might offer more depth than the rather clinical answer I gave. It's here if you want to read it. https://amyoscar.substack.com/p/the-one-who-blesses
Thank you for asking—and not only for yourself. I know there are others wondering the same thing. How do I know? Because ever since I opened the door of my spiritual counseling practice, they’ve arrived with stories of the God you describe—and of parents, teachers, and communities who, in the name of that God, caused deep pain and confusion.
The God that I write about, is not that God.
Not a wrathful king on a distant throne. Not a punisher. Not a patriarch in the sky who rules by fear.
The presence I’ve come to know is neither male nor female, but both—and beyond. It is the radiant, creative force behind all life. The one who spoke light into the dark and called it good. Who shaped a world from the rich waters of potential and filled it with every condition needed to nourish what would come next: clear air, living soil, changing seasons, and cycles of renewal.
This God is not a being who needs worship or obedience, but a living current of Love itself—moving through all things, beckoning everything toward wholeness and unfolding. I encounter this presence not through doctrine but through experience: in the synchronicities, in the stillness, in the breathtaking generosity of the natural world.
Sometimes, when I’m quiet enough, I feel held. Not judged. Not watched. But witnessed with a love that sees to the core and says, You are good. You are wanted. You belong.
Thank you so much Amy. And the god/goddess you describe has become my lived experience. It is not well received by a few members of my family who are deeply into a “biblical worldview“. I don’t read the Bible and nor do I attend any organized religious services. I believe in love, the power of kindness, if I say I believe in anything. And I dwell deeply within nature, water, trees, birds, and any living thing that I encounter in my daily walking through the world.
I have had similar (poorly received) conversations with a few people in my life. So I know how that feels - and how discordant with the truth that I experience about the nature of God.
So many of the people who resonate with my work describe themselves as you do - devoted to love. It's a belief built on encounter, on lived experience, not dogma.
So I was reading some excerpts from your book online, and I came up with a question if I may? You wrote that realization came to you that there was an underlying greater presence, and that presence was God. I grew up with a wrathful and angry god who was punitive and judgemental and loved to punish people. Can you tell me more about the God that you feel was revealed to you? For I have long wanted to find a loving presence, but I cannot except the version of god that seems popular in the US today, that of a white male god who dominates. And who is of course, very male.
If I may add a personal note - your question touched me. I feel you there, asking it. And I can feel that you've been asking it for some time. Earlier this week, I wrote a post that I thought might offer more depth than the rather clinical answer I gave. It's here if you want to read it. https://amyoscar.substack.com/p/the-one-who-blesses
Thank you for asking—and not only for yourself. I know there are others wondering the same thing. How do I know? Because ever since I opened the door of my spiritual counseling practice, they’ve arrived with stories of the God you describe—and of parents, teachers, and communities who, in the name of that God, caused deep pain and confusion.
The God that I write about, is not that God.
Not a wrathful king on a distant throne. Not a punisher. Not a patriarch in the sky who rules by fear.
The presence I’ve come to know is neither male nor female, but both—and beyond. It is the radiant, creative force behind all life. The one who spoke light into the dark and called it good. Who shaped a world from the rich waters of potential and filled it with every condition needed to nourish what would come next: clear air, living soil, changing seasons, and cycles of renewal.
This God is not a being who needs worship or obedience, but a living current of Love itself—moving through all things, beckoning everything toward wholeness and unfolding. I encounter this presence not through doctrine but through experience: in the synchronicities, in the stillness, in the breathtaking generosity of the natural world.
Sometimes, when I’m quiet enough, I feel held. Not judged. Not watched. But witnessed with a love that sees to the core and says, You are good. You are wanted. You belong.
That is the God I know.
Thank you so much Amy. And the god/goddess you describe has become my lived experience. It is not well received by a few members of my family who are deeply into a “biblical worldview“. I don’t read the Bible and nor do I attend any organized religious services. I believe in love, the power of kindness, if I say I believe in anything. And I dwell deeply within nature, water, trees, birds, and any living thing that I encounter in my daily walking through the world.
Thank you, too.
I have had similar (poorly received) conversations with a few people in my life. So I know how that feels - and how discordant with the truth that I experience about the nature of God.
So many of the people who resonate with my work describe themselves as you do - devoted to love. It's a belief built on encounter, on lived experience, not dogma.