I’ve been using this blog to write about my professional life, starting with my transition from therapist to mentor and coach. That change requires a lot of positive thinking and hope and optimism. Those things are in me–even though I have to look pretty hard sometimes to find them. But that’s not all I am!

I decided to create another blog to house my thoughts from others areas of my life, and from the other parts of me.

My new blog is at www.StevesNotNice.com. My first post there is an essay I wrote for my web site, which I never uploaded because I haven’t finished my web site rewrite. It’s called “I Am Not Nice.” It might be the most civilized thing I post there.

I have a heart that seeks after the good of others. I believe in the Law of Love as explained by Jesus the Christ in the gospels: The first commandment is to love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, and mind. The second is to love your neighbor as yourself. That’s powerful stuff, but he says something even more incredible next. He says all the religious law and all the commandments are really about those two laws! Know where you come from, honor your Creator, and care for each other. Wow!

That pull is definitely in me, and it’s a big reason why I value mentoring relationships that help people find their gifts and develop them. It’s a big reason I like to see groups develop into welcoming places for people to find and develop their gifts. It’s why I believe in redemption and restoration, and here I mean in relationships between people. It’s a big part of why I learned to be a therapist and still want to help people who feel lonely and lost.

But I’m not really that good very often. I’m not “sweetness and light,” even when I am most attuned to the goals and beliefs of caring for each other in community and fellowship.

I believe in the “corruptible soul” because I have one. I believe in redemption, or salvation, for that corruptible soul because I need it.

And if I only post the thoughts from my professional life and professional development, I will be giving a very narrow, and ultimately deceptive, view of who I am. So I started the other blog.

I have posted on a weekly schedule here. That may change, but I will be more inclined to follow a schedule here, meaning a set day for posting but having possible additional posts–like this one.

With the other blog I will post as I feel inclined. It will be more random, kind of like the less disciplined and more corruptible way I feel much of the time. Follow along if you will.

May You Find Authenticity,

Steve Coxsey