Time Will Tell

"You will never be alone my love,
my heart is your home.
Hand in hand,
today, tomorrow and forever."

These were the words chosen by Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in his Instagram post, announcing his engagement to Princess Beatrice on Thursday, September 26, 2019.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-49843830

What we speak . . .

“What we speak becomes the house we live in.”
~ Hafiz

For a New Beginning - John O'Donohue

For a New Beginning
John O'Donohue

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.


John O'Donohue was an Irish poet, author, priest, and
philosopher.

Trust

Cara Wall, The Dearly Beloved: A Novel, Simon & Schuster, 2019, Kindle pages 207-8

quote:
They went to service at her church, and James was spellbound by her father’s presence. He was not only in the pulpit but was, somehow, also of it—an alloy of man and minister, fearsome and approachable, exacting but kind. James felt the tension of the current, upheaving times in the church, but also the long rudder Nan’s father had put in the water, his strong hand on the wheel. He wondered how he would ever attain that wherewithal, that command.
When he asked Nan’s father about it later, in the same office in which they had sat once before, her father said, “In my opinion, the most important job a minister has is to become a man who can lead his congregation through difficult times.”

“This,” her father continued, “requires you to become someone they can trust.”
James flinched; it was a quick and sudden cut. He saw, instantly, that he was not that man for his congregation.
“Nan tells me you are the one causing trouble at your church.”
James nodded.
Nan’s father shook his head and sighed. “That’s one option—standing for what you want to stand for. If you stick with it, you’ll earn people’s respect. But if you want to earn people’s trust, you can’t chastise those who disagree with you. You have to include everyone—no matter how misguided they seem to you. You have to give them time to say their piece, look them in the eye, and give them credit for it.”
James said, “That is the very last thing I want to do.”
“Then you’re an activist, James, and you should quit the ministry.”
James flinched again. He had seen, in this trip, what Nan had lost in marrying him. In marrying her, he had lost the freedom of choosing any other profession. And he did not regret it. “That’s the other very last thing I want to do.”
“A divided congregation will always turn on itself, James, and then what use will they be to the outside world?”
It was exactly what Nan had been trying to tell him. As he watched her brush her hair before bed that night, leaning against the edge of the dresser, he said, “Your father is a wise man.”
Nan turned to him and smiled. “I know.”
“I haven’t been so wise.”

I’m So Excited for 40th Grade

New York Times - Op-Ed Headline
Sept. 7, 2019

I’m So Excited for 40th Grade
by Mary Laura Philpott
When we become adults, we lose the prompt to reboot our lives every fall. But we don’t have to.

10 Powerful Quotes That Will Inspire You To Take Action

10 Powerful Quotes That Will Inspire You To Take Action
Zdravko Cvijetic
Jun 27, 2016

1. “Every life form seems to strive to its maximum except human beings. How tall will a tree grow? As tall as it possibly can. Human beings, on the other hand, have been given the dignity of choice. You can choose to be all or you can choose to be less. Why not stretch up to the full measure of the challenge and see what all you can do?”
- Jim Rohn

2. “Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.”
- Cecil Beaton

3. “Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
- Muhammed Ali

4. “The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.”
- Jordan Belfort

5. “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.”
- Eric Thomas

6. “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
- Samuel Beckett

7. “Be so good they can’t ignore you.”
- Steve Martin

8. “At the end of the day, let there be no excuses, no explanations, no regrets.”
- Steve Maraboli

9. “Someone once told me the definition of Hell: The last day you have on earth, the person you became will meet the person you could have become.”
- Anonymous

10. “Memento Mori (Remember That You Have To Die)”
- Latin Proverb

Leave your legacy.

(Blogger deleted Zdravko Cvijetic's other comments, for brevity)

https://medium.com/@zdravko/10-remarkable-quotes-that-will-inspire-you-to-take-action-7711003e527a

the story you keep telling yourself

 “The only thing standing between you and your goal is the [BS] story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.”
~ Jordan Belfort

old proverb about the definition of hell

Old proverb about the definition of hell:
On your last day on earth, the person you became
meets the person you could’ve become
and realizes the things you could’ve done.

Put yourself behind my eyes . . .

“Study me as much as you like,
you will not know me,
for I differ in a hundred ways
from what you see me to be.

Put yourself behind my eyes
and see me as I see myself,
for I have chosen to dwell
in a place you cannot see.”

~ Rumi,
a 13th-century Persian poet, faqih, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic

Pet Peeves

"Don't pet the peeves."
~ Max Lucado

What a Wonderful World

What a Wonderful World
Joey Ramone, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald

I see trees of green
Red roses, too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself, "what a wonderful world"

I see skies of blue
And clouds of white
The bright blessed day the dark sacred night
And I think to myself, "what a wonderful world"

The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying, "how do you do"
They're really saying "I love you"

I hear babies cry
Watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll ever know
And I think to myself, "what a wonderful world"
And I think to myself, "what a wonderful world"

Songwriter: DOUG DIPRETA

Spring

“Spring is the time of year when it is summer in the sun and winter in the shade.”
~ Charles Dickens, writer

God is mystery

“To say that God is mystery is to say that you can never nail him down. Even on Christ the nails proved ineffective.”

~ Frederick Buechner

"increases in endocannabinoids only when they were coached"

New York Times email
Well
August 22, 2019
quote:
Many people can attest to the fact that exercise helps them feel emotionally balanced.
This week Gretchen Reynolds writes about new research exploring that connection. Researchers used blood samples from women with depression who rode exercise bikes, sometimes coached and sometimes at their own pace.
They found something surprising:
Both kinds of exercise made them feel a bit better, but their blood showed increases in endocannabinoids only when they were coached.

Seventy-year-old Bob Long: “Preparation trumps youth”

New York Times Evening Briefing email, August 21, 2019
quote:
Seventy-year-old Bob Long of Boise, Idaho, won the Mongol Derby, a grueling 1,000-kilometer competition across the steppes of Mongolia. Mr. Long rode about 100 hours in seven and a half days, on 28 different horses, by his tally.
The amateur rider began training in January with previous winners of the race, riding four or five horses a day as far as each could go, and learning how to change horses efficiently. The key to Mr. Long’s success? “Preparation trumps youth,” he said.

Who Jesus Is

Who Jesus Is
by Bear Grylls, from his new devotional, Soul Fuel

When I was growing up, Madonna once said, “Jesus Christ was like a movie star, my favorite idol of all.”(1)

Napoleon Bonaparte went further: “I know men, and I tell you Jesus Christ was not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires and the gods of other religions. That resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and other religions the distance of infinity.”(2)

And then there was novelist H. G. Wells: “I am an historian, I am not a believer. But, this penniless preacher from Galilee is irresistibly the centre of history.”(3)

There has never been a human quite like Jesus. He towers above us all in goodness and courage, in impact and influence. The greatest artists, leaders, and thinkers, all put together, are dwarfed by Him.
Yet Jesus did not come to impress us. He said He had come to save us, in total humility, as God come down among us. If He is who He says He is, and the Gospel is real, then this is very good news. He simply wants us to learn to reach out and trust Him to help and calm us, to forgive and restore us. If we are to live fully and empowered, then this has to be the first step.
So wherever you are with God — whether you are searching, are wanting more, or have turned your back and are walking away — this verse is truth:
The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. — Luke 19:10

(1) Scott Cohen, “Madonna: The 1985 ‘Like a Virgin’ Cover Story,” Spin, May 1985.
(2) Clayton Kraby, “Napoleon Bonaparte’s View of Jesus,” Reasonable Theology, https://reasonabletheology.org/napoleon-bonapartes-view-of-jesus/.
(3) Thomas A. Harris, I’m OK—You’re OK (New York: Quill, 2004).

Thich Nhat Hanh quotes

When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce.
Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person.
But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce.
Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument. That is my experience.
No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change.
Thich Nhat Hanh

When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That's the message he is sending.
Thich Nhat Hanh

Bring Small Children to Church

To Those Who Bring Small Children to Church:
There you are at church. Your baby or toddler is restless. Perhaps even a little boisterous. You try to silence them, and nothing. You try to pacify them with food or toys, and nothing. Eventually, you resort to the last thing you wanted to do: you pick them up, and before a watching audience, you make the march out of the church. All the while you’re a little embarrassed, maybe a little frustrated too.
You might even think to yourself, “There’s no point in coming to church. I get nothing out of it because I have to constantly care for my kid.”
I want you - mothers and/or fathers - to know just how encouraging you are to so many.
The elderly woman who often feels alone beams with a smile at the sight of you wrestling with your little one. She’s been there before. She knows how hard it can be, but she smiles because to hear that brings back precious memories. Seeing young parents and their small children brighten her day; she may have just received bad news about her health but seeing the vitality of young ones removes - if but for a moment - her fears.
The older man who always seems to be grouchy notices you too. He’s always talking about how children in this day have no respect or sense of goodness. But he sees you - a young family - in church every week. Like clockwork, he can depend on the sight of you and your young family. You give him hope that maybe the Church isn’t doomed after all, because there are still young parents who love God enough to bring their restless children to church.
Bring your children to church! If we don’t hear crying, the church is dying. As hard as it might be for you as a parent who’s half-asleep, keep on doing what you’re doing. You are an encouragement, and you’re starting off your children’s lives as you should.
~ Author unknown

Weekly Housekeeping Schedule

"So how did the Karkuts manage to keep this house looking like new for 57 years? Industrious parents who were willing to put in the time and effort, Mills says."
quotes:
Mom had everything planned:
Monday she would do the laundry and the ironing.
Tuesday was for running errands.
Wednesday she would change the sheets and clean the bedrooms.
Thursday she would clean the kitchen and the common rooms.
Friday was the bathrooms.

daughter Christina Mills explaining her mother Ann's housekeeping skills
https://www.phillymag.com/property/2019/07/25/house-for-sale-abington-midcentury-split-level/
Mr. and Mrs. E. Walter Karkut (Ann)

The 4 way test from Rotary International

The 4 way test from Rotary International:

• Is it the truth?
• Is it fair to all concerned?
• Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
• Will it be beneficial to all concerned?