Julie O'Hara - Author, Poet and Spiritual Warrior
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Thank you for reading my work. Feel free to contact me with your thoughts or if you want to chat. [email protected]
Stories (1493)
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Annie After
Annie always said she was “handling things beautifully,” though no one had asked her to. In the days after Paul’s death, she moved through the house with the restless energy of someone who needed an audience. Lockdown meant there would be no funeral, no gathering, no public display of devotion. The absence of spectators unsettled her. She needed a stage, and grief—real or imagined—was her current favored script.
By Julie O'Hara - Author, Poet and Spiritual Warrior4 days ago in Fiction
Louise After
Louise didn’t attend a funeral because there wasn’t one. It was lockdown, and gatherings were forbidden. Paul’s body went straight from the hospital to the crematorium, and Annie collected the ashes in an urn she had made years earlier in a ceramic class. It was lopsided, glazed in streaky turquoise with hearts etched in the side—more craft project than vessel—and entirely wrong for him. But that was how things were done in Annie’s world: symbolism without substance, noise without meaning. And of course her name was carved in the bottom. She had to put her name on everything.
By Julie O'Hara - Author, Poet and Spiritual Warrior4 days ago in Fiction
The Last Confession of Paul Brennan
Paul Brennan had been dying for four days, though the truth was that something in him had been dying for forty years. The hospital room smelled of antiseptic and gardenias. A statute of Mother Mary on the bedstand and a cross hung over the bed. The hallway outside pulsed with the restless chatter of people who didn’t know how to sit still with death. Annie was among them—loud, frantic, and determined to turn the moment into a spectacle. She had always been that way. Aquarius sun, hurricane heart. Always trying to define the narrative that put her center stage.
By Julie O'Hara - Author, Poet and Spiritual Warrior4 days ago in Fiction
Beyond Labels: Unity, Ego, and the Misinterpretation of Soul Identity
Spiritual identity becomes distorted the moment consciousness is viewed through the lens of separation rather than unity. At the highest level, all souls arise from a single source—a unified field of awareness described across mystical traditions as the One Mind, the Original Thought, or the fundamental ground of being. Every spark of consciousness is an expression of this same source, differentiated only for the sake of experience. When this truth is forgotten, the ego begins constructing elaborate narratives to restore a sense of specialness or significance. These narratives often take the form of spiritual hierarchies, cosmic identities, or metaphysical labels that appear meaningful on the surface but ultimately reinforce separation rather than dissolve it.
By Julie O'Hara - Author, Poet and Spiritual Warrior4 days ago in Humans
Karmic Bonds, Sacred Bonds, and the Trap of Ego
A spiritually grounded life collapses the moment we start interpreting our relationships through the lens of ego. The ego wants to be special, chosen, justified, superior, or vindicated. It wants to believe that every intense connection is destiny and every painful one is someone else’s fault. But the soul has no interest in any of that. The soul is concerned with growth, repair, and evolution. When we confuse karmic relationships with sacred ones, or when we elevate ourselves above the lessons we are meant to learn, we interrupt the very process that was designed to free us.
By Julie O'Hara - Author, Poet and Spiritual Warrior5 days ago in Humans
Karmic Imbalance, Soul Contracts, and the True Nature of Limerence
Human relationships do not arise out of coincidence or emotional whim. They unfold within a larger architecture of karmic patterning, soul agreements, and energetic exchanges that precede this lifetime. Many spiritual and philosophical traditions describe this architecture in different language, but the underlying principle is consistent: the soul enters each incarnation with a set of lessons, debts, and developmental tasks that shape the relationships it attracts. The Bhagavad Gita refers to this as the soul’s dharma, the path of necessary experience that cannot be avoided without creating further imbalance (Easwaran, 2007). Kabbalistic teachings describe it as tikkun, the soul’s repair work, the unfinished business that must be addressed for the soul to evolve (Berg, 2004). Jungian psychology, though secular, echoes the same principle through the concept of the unconscious task, the inner work that draws us toward certain people and situations until the lesson is integrated (Jung, 1959). These frameworks differ in language but converge in meaning: relationships are not random. They are purposeful.
By Julie O'Hara - Author, Poet and Spiritual Warrior5 days ago in Humans
Self Pity as Ego: Why Holding On Keeps the Wound Alive
Self pity is one of the most misunderstood emotional states in modern culture. It is often treated as a natural, even necessary, response to pain, especially when that pain comes from abuse or trauma. People are encouraged to “talk it out,” to revisit the story, to share it widely, and to seek comfort from others as proof that their suffering is real. In the early stages of shock or injury, this can be stabilizing. I, myself, am guilty of this. Being believed matters. Having the truth of what happened acknowledged matters.
By Julie O'Hara - Author, Poet and Spiritual Warrior7 days ago in Humans
