"Know how to use the power that you have."

"Know how to use the power that you have."

~ Truthful Grace

"Preaching should break a hard heart, and heal a broken heart."

"Preaching should break a hard heart, and heal a broken heart."

~ Pastor John Newton, ex drunken slave trader, author of the hymn "Amazing Grace"

Loving well is the best revenge

"Loving well is the best revenge."

~ author unknown

the intuitive mind

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.
We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."

~ Albert Einstein

strength, courage and confidence

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Mindfulness

"Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness."

~ James Thurber, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Native American Proverbs and Wisdom

Native American Proverbs and Wisdom

When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice. – Cherokee

Force, no matter how concealed, begets resistance. – Lakota

Remember that your children are not your own, but are lent to you by the Creator.  – Mohawk

Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children. – Tribe Unknown

Walk lightly in the spring; Mother Earth is pregnant. – Kiowa

Everything the power does, it does in a circle. – Lakota

Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past, Wisdom is of the future. – Lumbee

The bird who has eaten cannot fly with the bird that is hungry. – Omaha

Do not wrong or hate your neighbor for it is not he that you wrong but yourself. – Pima

It is no longer good enough to cry peace, we must act peace, live peace and live in peace. – Shenandoah

The one who tells the stories rules the world. – Hopi

Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I’ll understand. – Tribe Unknown

Wisdom comes only when you stop looking for it and start living the life the Creator intended for you. – Hopi


Lakota Instructions for Living

Friend do it this way – that is,
whatever you do in life,
do the very best you can
with both your heart and mind.

And if you do it that way,
the Power Of The Universe
will come to your assistance,
if your heart and mind are in Unity.

When one sits in the Hoop Of The People,
one must be responsible because
All of Creation is related.
And the hurt of one is the hurt of all.
And the honor of one is the honor of all.
And whatever we do affects everything in the universe.

If you do it that way – that is,
if you truly join your heart and mind
as One – whatever you ask for,
that’s the Way It’s Going To Be.

Passed down from White Buffalo Calf Woman


Native American Ten Commandments

1. Treat the Earth and all that dwell therein with respect
2. Remain close to the Great Spirit
3. Show great respect for your fellow beings
4. Work together for the benefit of all Mankind
5. Give assistance and kindness wherever needed
6. Do what you know to be right
7. Look after the well-being of Mind and Body
8. Dedicate a share of your efforts to the greater Good
9. Be truthful and honest at all times
10. Take full responsibility for your actions

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-proverbs/

The Surgeon's Prayer

"May we be helped to do here whatever is most right."

~ Traditional Native American Prayer

every mentally ill person you’ve ever worked with is basically lonely

Richard Rohr quote:
I once met a psychiatrist who said something to me that initially I thought was an overstatement: “Richard, at the end of your life, you’ll realize that every mentally ill person you’ve ever worked with is basically lonely.”
“Oh, come on, that’s a little glib, isn’t it?” I replied.
“Oh, I admit, there are surely physiological reasons for much mental illness, but loneliness might just be what activates it. Every case of nonphysiologically-based mental illness stems from a person who has been separated, cut off, living alone, and has forgotten how to relate in one way or another.” I still wonder if that might be true.

Richard Rohr, with Mike Morrell, The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation (Whitaker House: 2016), 45.

Remember to FROG every relationship.

GIFTED FOR LEADERSHIP
APRIL 28, 2016
www.christianitytoday.com/gifted-for-leadership/2016/april/how-to-lead-dominating-male-leaders.html as of 4/29/2016
LINDA A. WURZBACHER
How to Lead Dominating Male Leaders
Three things I’ve learned as I’ve led dominant men
quote:

I like to say: Remember to FROG every relationship. FROG stands for “Fully Rely on God.” And that means keeping a teachable spirit before the Lord. Second John 2:27 says, “But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.”
It has taken me way too many years to realize that God will help, teach, and direct me in every relationship I have. But one requirement is that I remain open, teachable, and accountable to him. 

Linda A. Wurzbacher is Lead Pastor of Blessed Hope Community Church in Rochester, New York.

Jesus put his body where his mouth was

Jesus put his body where his mouth was.
That's one reason why I trust him.
~ Truthful Grace

when the people of God are presented with the facts . . .

“I have most often seen that, when the people of God are presented with the facts, they do the right thing.”
~ Pastor John Bisagno,
currently the retired pastor of the 22,000-member First Baptist Church of Houston, Texas

no longer in the fight

“I pray that when I die, all of hell will rejoice that I am no longer in the fight.”
~ C.T. Studd

http://www.essentialcslewis.com/2017/01/07/ccslq-31-hell-rejoices/

What C.S. Lewis said about Humility

“It is better to forget about yourself altogether.”
from Mere Christianity, book 3, chapter 8 (The Great Sin)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step.
The first step is to realise that one is proud.”
from Mere Christianity, book 3, chapter 8 (The Great Sin)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call ‘humble’ nowadays: he will…not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.”
from Mere Christianity, book 3, chapter 8 (The Great Sin)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“May God’s grace give you the necessary humility. Try not to think—much less, speak—of their sins. One’s own are a much more profitable theme!
And if on consideration, one can find no faults on one’s own side, then cry for mercy: for this must be a most dangerous delusion.”
from The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 3 (to Mary Willis Shelbrune on 1/9/1961)

http://www.essentialcslewis.com/2015/10/03/humility-is-not/

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself,
it’s thinking of yourself less.”

The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren, 2002 (original) edition, Day 19, “Cultivating Community”

The Privilege, or the Burden, which Christianity lays upon Men

“It is painful, being a man, to have to assert the privilege, or the burden, which Christianity lays upon my own sex. I am crushingly aware how inadequate most of us are, in our actual and historical individualities, to fill the place prepared for us.”

from "Priestesses in the Church?" (in God in the Dock, C.S. Lewis)
http://www.essentialcslewis.com/2015/11/14/ccslq-12-monkey-bars/

Love people before they deserve it

If you want to be miserable,
go through life thinking of yourself as the "innocent victim."
If you want the joy of the Lord,
love people before they deserve it.
~ Truthful Grace

Jesus: But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
~ Luke 6:35-36 ESV

"The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us."
~ C.S. Lewis

The Road Is Too Rough - Olga J. Weiss

The Road Is Too Rough
(Poetry on the rejection and isolation Christ must have felt.)

The road is too rough," I said,
"Dear Lord, there are stones that hurt me so."
And He said, "Dear child, I understand,
I walked it long ago."

"But there's a cool green path," I said;
"Let me walk there for a time."
"No child," He gently answered me,
"The green path does not climb."

"My burden," I said, "Is far too great,
How can I bear it so?"
"My child," He said, "I remember the weight;
I carried My cross, you know."

But I said, "I wish there were friends with me
Who would make my way their own."
"Oh, yes," He said, "Gethsemane
Was hard to bear alone."

And so I climb the stony path,
Content at last to know
That where my Master had not gone,
I would not need to go.

And strangely then I found new friends,
The burden grew less sore;
And I remember--long ago
He went that way before.

Olga J. Weiss

What Jesus will be is a mother hen who defends her chicks

The well-known preacher Barbara Brown Taylor says,
"Jesus won’t be king of the jungle in this or any other story. What he will be is a mother hen, who stands between the chicks and those who mean to do them harm. She has no fangs, no claws, no rippling muscles. All she has is her willingness to shield her babies with her own body. If the fox wants them, he will have to kill her first."
Jesus came to be a suffering servant and live a life of self-sacrifice. And he calls us to that life as well.
Mickey Anders, The Fox and the Hen

"Do not corner something you know is meaner than you."

"I learned some invaluable lessons in Nashville that apply to both farming and show business:
Do not corner something you know is meaner than you;
keep skunks of all kinds at a distance;
if you forgive your enemies, it messes up their heads."
~ Willie Nelson

Willie Nelson, Turk Pipkin (2006). “The Tao of Willie: A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart”, p.53, Penguin
http://www.azquotes.com/author/10736-Willie_Nelson

"Show 'em what you can do."

"I suppose I could have sat back and pitied myself. For a time I wondered if I'd ever be able to go on to a stage and perform again. After a couple of weeks I began to feel I could fight my way back to health if I put my mind to it. I thought to myself: 'Pity never did anybody any good. Go on. Patsy, show 'em what you can do.'"
~ Patsy Cline
http://www.azquotes.com/author/2994-Patsy_Cline

"I'm not going to limit myself just because . . ."

"I'm not going to limit myself just because people won't accept the fact that I can do something else."
~ Dolly Parton
http://www.azquotes.com/author/11357-Dolly_Parton

"if you're feeling low, don't despair."

"If you're feeling low, don't despair. The sun has a sinking spell every night, but it comes back up every morning."
~ Dolly Parton
http://www.azquotes.com/author/11357-Dolly_Parton

"I look at their eyes and their smile and seek out the good first"

"When I meet someone, I look at their eyes and their smile and seek out the good first - it's easy to find when you're looking for it. You let a person shine with their own light and try to connect it to yours. As soon as I say hello, I go right to that light and I don't care who you are! I know we're all pieces of the same thing - I go for that common light because I know it's in all of us."
~ Dolly Parton
http://www.azquotes.com/author/11357-Dolly_Parton

Nelson Mandela, “with freedom comes responsibilities”

Nelson Mandela ended his extraordinary autobiography, entitled “Long Walk to Freedom,” with these words:

“I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.”

so long as you show up

Steel Magnolias was not a great movie, but it had one magnificent line.
"God don't care which church you go to, so long as you show up."

www.facebook.com/E.C.M.churchhumor/

Did Jesus really have to die on the Cross?

Anselm's answer to someone wondering if Jesus really had to die on the Cross:

"You have not yet fully reflected on what a heavy weight your sin is."

"My iniquities have gone over my head"; they surround me,
"and like a heavy burden" weigh me down (Ps 38:5).
Free me, unburden me, and do not let "the abyss" of them "close its mouth over me" (Ps 69:16).

another translation:
Anselm: "You have not as yet estimated the great burden of sin."
https://www.ewtn.com/library/CHRIST/CURDEUS.HTM
CHAPTER XXI

Howard Thurman quotes

from https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Howard_Thurman  as of 3/1/2018

"Jesus rejected hatred because he saw that hatred meant death to the mind, death to the spirit, and death to communion with his Father. He affirmed life; and hatred was the great denial."
Jesus and the Disinherited (1949), p. 88

"The movement of the Spirit of God in the hearts of men and women often calls them to act against the spirit of their times or causes them to anticipate a spirit which is yet in the making. In a moment of dedication they are given wisdom and courage to dare a deed that challenges and to kindle a hope that inspires."
Footprints of a Dream : The Story of the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples (1959), p. 7

"Prayer is a form of communication between God and man and man and God….
I am always impressed by the fact that it is recorded that the only thing that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to do was to pray."
Disciplines of the Spirit (1977)

The Work of Christmas, Howard Thurman

"The Work of Christmas"
Howard Thurman

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among people,
To make music in the heart.

Howard Thurman. "The Work of Christmas" in The Mood of Christmas & Other Celebrations. 1985
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Howard_Thurman

Same Kind of Different as Me - movie

Same Kind of Different as Me - movie, 2018
quote:
Mr. Ron, I was captive in the devil's prison. That was easy for Miss Debbie to see. But I got to tell you: Many folks had seen me behind the bars in that prison for more than thirty years, and they just walked on by. Kept their keys in their pocket and left me locked up.
Now I ain't tryin to run them other folks down, 'cause I was not a nice fella-dangerous-and prob'ly just as happy to stay in prison.
But Miss Debbie was different--she seen me behind them bars and reached way down in her pocket and pulled out the keys God gave her and used one to unlock the prison door and set me free.
Denver Moore, Same Kind of Different as Me

Encouragement from Jane Seymour's Mother: Keep an Open Heart

In 1972, Seymour revealed a bigshot producer, who asked her to visit his home to watch a screen test for a role, allegedly assaulted her. Seymour claimed he put his hand on her leg “in the wrong place,” prompting her to do “the British cross the leg, move down the couch routine,” all while convincing herself he would stop. However, the producer allegedly pressed on. The star, who described herself as being terrified and shaken, asked him to call her a cab.
“He put me in a car and said, ‘If anyone knows you ever came here, if you ever tell anyone, ever, I’ll guarantee you never work again anywhere on the planet,’” she recalled. “And he had that power. I got in the cab and cried, terrified…
The only reason I’ve ever told that story is that women should have a choice… I was put in a situation where I couldn’t show what I could do. And I’m a person who, when something bad happens, I get over it and move forward.”
However, Seymour did have a tough time coping with the incident. The actress said she quit acting and went back to England. “I got fat,” she explained. “I baked bread and ate a whole loaf every morning and did needlepoint. I decided I wasn’t going to do this anymore. I wasn’t prepared to do what had to be done.”
However, when Seymour was given the chance to appear on stage for “A Doll’s House,” she took the chance – and the rest is history.
“People say, ‘You’re like a phoenix.’ No, I just had a strong role model in my mother,” she said. “Everyone will have challenges. Your natural instinct is to close up your heart and let it eat you up. Do something to help someone else. It will heal you. You’ll be like a magnet when you do that. Light to firefly.”
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2018/02/21/jane-seymour-poses-for-playboy-recalls-how-almost-quit-acting-after-being-sexually-harassed.html

“My one purpose in life . . . "

“My one purpose in life is to help people find a personal relationship with God, which I believe comes from knowing Christ.”
~ Rev. Billy Graham (1918-2018)

Rev. Billy Graham's Ability to Inspire People to Follow Jesus

Rev. Billy Graham's Ability to Inspire People to Follow Jesus
quote (my emphasis added):
[Graham biographer] William Martin observed that the forces gathered and unleashed at the Berlin, Lausanne, and Amsterdam meetings [international meetings initiated by Graham] constitute a third worldwide ecumenical movement, every bit as important as the World Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic Church. The amazing thing about the evangelical movement is that it is sustained not by a single organizational entity, but by multiple parachurch organizations, independent of each other but dreaming a common dream. Graham’s genius was his ability to inspire people not to follow him, but to strike out on their own, following Jesus by proclaiming the gospel in their own way; and then to call them together, to inspire and equip thousands more to do the same thing. We may never see his like again.

quoted from:
How a Humble Evangelist Changed Christianity As We Know It
Churches were divided. Leadership was concentrated in the denominations. Believers eschewed cultural influence. Liberal modernism was on the move. Then God made Billy Graham.
Michael S. Hamilton
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/billy-graham/how-humble-evangelist-billy-graham-changed-christianity.html

Good, better, best. Never let it rest. . . .

Good, better, best.
Never let it rest.
'Til your good is better
and your better is best.

~ St. Jerome
www.brainyquote.com/quotes/st_jerome_389605

Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist

"Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist."
~ George Carlin
www.brainyquote.com/quotes/george_carlin_383122

Synesthesia

quote from a book review:
"Red Sparrow's unique ability to discern the nature of people by seeing their emotions in colors (through synesthesia).[2]"

[2] "'Red Sparrow', a fantastic new spy thriller by former CIA operative Jason Matthews". The Washington Post. October 14, 2013. Retrieved February 27, 2017.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Sparrow_(book)


Synesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.[3][4][5][6] People who report a lifelong history of such experiences are known as synesthetes. In one common form of synesthesia, known as grapheme-color synesthesia or color-graphemic synesthesia, letters or numbers are perceived as inherently colored.[7][8] In spatial-sequence, or number form synesthesia, numbers, months of the year, or days of the week elicit precise locations in space (for example, 1980 may be "farther away" than 1990), or may appear as a three-dimensional map (clockwise or counterclockwise).[9][10] Synesthetic associations can occur in any combination and any number of senses or cognitive pathways.[11]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia


‘Red Sparrow,’ a fantastic new spy thriller by former CIA operative Jason Matthews
quote from a book review:
Unbeknown to most, Dominika is gifted with a form of synesthesia that enables her to see emotions as colors — a condition that aids her immensely as she assesses the motives of both friend and foe. Several of her own comrades in the service, for example, are suffused with “the familiar yellow of treachery and betrayal.” One character’s evil manifests itself as “parabolas of black . . . like bat wings.”
Dominika is ultimately targeted against Nate, of course, as a means of discovering the identity of the mole within her own ranks. His aura is deep purple, “warm and honest and safe,” but he has his own designs on this comely young agent.
“Red Sparrow” may sound like some hodgepodge of the fantastic (seeing emotions?) and the prurient (“an Upper Volga Kama Sutra”) amid a series of spy vs. spy shenanigans. But the novel is far more grounded. . . .

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/red-sparrow-a-fantastic-new-spy-thriller-by-former-cia-operative-jason-matthews/2013/10/15/3f7f9672-cc50-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html

Bill Gates Memorized the Sermon on the Mount

Bill Gates in Confirmation Class
The Gates family attended the University Congregational Church, where the Reverend Dale Turner was pastor. Each year Turner promised to buy dinner at Seattle’s 606-foot-tall Space Needle restaurant for all those in the confirmation class who memorized the Sermon on the Mount.
Although 31 others stuttered and stammered their way through chapters 5, 6, and 7 of the Book of Matthew, Turner was astounded when Bill learned the passages on a family car trip to the coast and then delivered a flawless recitation.

“I needed only to go to his home that day to know that he was something special. I couldn’t imagine how an 11-year-old boy could have a mind like that. And my subsequent questioning of him revealed a deep understanding of the passage,” Turner said.

Turner conceded that Gates probably didn’t learn the verses for their spiritual value, but because he loved a challenge.
p. 3-4, Bill Gates Speaks, by Janet Lowe, 1998

Bill Gates in High School
Like all teenagers, Gates and his friends looked for ways to seize power from their teachers:

“The greatest scam we discovered was that by getting the job doing high school scheduling, we could decide exactly what boys and girls were in our classes, and that was an incredible reward. It really motivated us to learn how to write interesting software.”

During the summer Gates and Allen earned approximately $5,000 in computer time by programming class schedules.
p. 12, Bill Gates Speaks, by Janet Lowe, 1998

"they come . . . to learn about themselves not me"

In Shirley MacLaine's New Movie, She Has 'The Last Word'
March 3, 20174:30 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
www.npr.org/2017/03/03/518391642/in-shirley-maclaines-new-movie-she-has-the-last-word
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST

Shirley MacLaine agrees that she's played a lot of sharp-tongued, difficult-to-be-around women, and that's true of her latest role in the movie, The Last Word. In her latest role, she's a woman obsessed with designing her own obituary. MacLaine talks about how she approaches acting and dodges what she wants written in her own obituary.

SHAPIRO: Shirley MacLaine told me when she does live question and answer events at theaters around the country, people almost never want to know about her Hollywood roles.
MACLAINE: No. They ask about reincarnation and UFOs and how to find one's center and how to meditate. It's all about the stuff in my books.
SHAPIRO: How could they not ask about - I don't know - "Terms Of Endearment," "Steel Magnolias," your years with the Rat Pack or on and on and on - "Sweet Charity," going all the way back to Broadway.
MACLAINE: Ari, can I call you that?
SHAPIRO: Please.
MACLAINE: They're interested in themselves. And they come to the different places that I speak to learn about themselves not me. I consider that a great compliment.

"Getting to Know 'the Other' Doesn't Work"

The Galli Report email
Feb. 9, 2018
Mark Galli
Editor-in-Chief, Christianity Today

Getting to Know 'the Other' Doesn't Work
There is a very common solution regarding people who harbor prejudice or resentment against those of another race, class, religion, or ethnicity. The solution hinges on the idea that we suspect others if we don’t really know them. If we could view them less as an “other” and more as a neighbor, as part and parcel of our common life together—then we’d all be able to get along with one another.
The only problem is that it doesn’t work. This is shown in some detail in Anatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz by Omer Bartov. A book review on Smithsonian.com begins,

There’s a common misconception about genocide that’s bothered Omer Bartov for a long time. “We tend to talk about genocide as something that calls for dehumanization,” says the Brown University professor of European history. “We think of it as a process where you have to detach yourself from the victims, to distance yourself from them as much as you can, and to create a system of detachment.” The reality of mass murder, he says, is far more intimate. …
“You can take a society in which people had lived together for centuries, and that very proximity, that very relationship between neighbors can have a dynamic of violence and self-justification,” Bartov says.

On a lighter note, it reminds me of a line in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The line comes after one of the characters describes the Babel fish, which when placed in the ear could translate any language in the universe for the listener: “Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything.”

This brings to mind another pungent line. Ruth Graham was asked if she ever considered divorcing Billy. “I’ve never considered divorce,” she replied. “Murder, yes. But not divorce.”

Such are the humorous ways of dispelling our sometimes-naïve bromides about solving conflict. Intimacy is not the answer; sometimes it’s the problem. It’s just hard, really hard, figuring out how to get people to stop killing each other. I’m tempted offer the out-of-fashion answer, naïve in its simplicity and improbable in its execution this side of history: the transformation of the human heart by Jesus Christ.

"I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it"

A critic didn’t care much for Moody’s preaching style; he thought his evangelistic manner was thoughtless and insensitive.
Moody responded, “I don’t much like it either.” He then asked his critic, “How do you do it?”
When the man said he didn’t do it at all, Moody replied, “I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it.”

Dwight L. Moody was one of the most effective evangelists of his time.

"I’ve never considered divorce"

Ruth Graham was asked if she ever considered divorcing Billy.
“I’ve never considered divorce,” she replied. “Murder, yes. But not divorce.”

(Ruth was famous for her sense of humor)

Robert Redford's mother: "She came from Texas, and she carried that kind of robust, jocular goodwill."

Fox News 2/8/2018
https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/celebrity/robert-redford-names-his-biggest-regret/ar-BBISjHo

Before Robert Redford was a celebrated Hollywood actor, he was just a restless kid in Los Angeles who allegedly stole beer for all-night drinking parties and was a member of a high school gang. However, the “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” star said it was his mother, Martha Hart, who encouraged him to change his life for the better.
“[I] had a lot of criticism, but I didn’t have a lot of support,” Redford told audiences at the Sundance Film Festival Utah Women’s Leadership Celebration, as reported by Closer Weekly Thursday.
“Why do I feel this strong connection to women?” said the 81-year-old. “I think it probably has to do with my mom… The one person who stood behind me was my mother. She believed that all things considered, she just had faith that I had something in me that was going to turn out OK.”
The actor described his mother as “the strong member of the family” who “always had a smile [and] was very, very adventurous."
“She came from Texas, and she carried that kind of robust, jocular goodwill," he said. "She saw things in a positive light.”
However, the magazine added Hart wouldn't live to see her son achieve international success as a movie star, filmmaker and philanthropist. Hart died in 1955 at age 40. Redford was only 18 at the time.
“She had a hemorrhage tied to a blood disorder she got after losing twin girls at birth 10 years after I was born,” explained Redford. He went on to reveal that while his mother was warned by doctors about the dangers of another pregnancy after his own difficult birth, she was determined to pursue her own dreams.
“She wanted a family so badly, she got pregnant again,” said Redford, adding his mother's death “seemed so unfair.”
“I took [her] for granted because that’s the way kids were at that age,” Redford admitted. “My regret is that she passed away before I could thank her.”

"I have forgiven you for what you did to me and my kids, and you have no control over me anymore."

Amy's abusive ex-husband was continuing to call her cell phone:
quotes:
At some point, Amy said she'd simply had enough. . . .
"I was so angry and filled with hate, but I actually felt sorry for him, because I knew him as a person, and there is a legitimately good side of him, and he's had a horrible life as a child, which is not an excuse, but he doesn't know anything different.  So I said, 'I have forgiven you for what you did to me and my kids, and you have no control over me anymore.'  There was dead silence, and it felt like an eternity, and he hung up.  And I have never heard from him since then. When they know that they don't have control, they don't want you anymore."

Hoda Kotb with Jane Lorenzini. Ten Years Later: Six People Who Faced Adversity and Transformed Their Lives, Chapter 1 - the life of Amy Barnes. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2013, page 18.

Quotes by Edward Abbey, Environmental Advocate

“Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.”
― Edward Abbey

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.”
― Edward Abbey

“One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure.
It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here.
So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space.
Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.”
― Edward Abbey

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/37218.Edward_Abbey
"Edward Paul Abbey (1927–1989) was an American author and essayist noted for his advocacy of environmental issues, criticism of public land policies, and anarchist political views."

Teamwork!

“One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity there ain’t nothing can beat teamwork.”
~ Author Mark Twain

she was meant to fly

Philippians 1:6 NIV
being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

"If the caterpillar just chose to stay a caterpillar, if she decided that the chaos of metamorphosis would be too much for her to handle, she would never know what she could become. Do you think that changing her entire being isn’t painful? Do you think it’s not scary and hard and overwhelming?

"Of course it is, but if she didn’t fight against the fear, if she didn’t allow the change to turn her into her true self, we would never know how beautiful she is. She would never know that she was meant to fly."

from Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis

Money Lessons Rich Parents Teach Their Kids

"If you want to be rich, solve a problem," writes Siebold. "If you want to be very wealthy, solve a bigger problem."
While "the masses solve small problems for their employers," he says, "the rich solve significant problems and get compensated accordingly."

"It's difficult to invest the necessary time and energy into a profession that bores you or has little meaning beyond money," says Siebold. "Waking up everyday with excitement for going to work is a formula for financial abundance, emotional fulfillment, and life satisfaction."

"If earning money is based on solving problems, and the number of problems is infinite, then your ability to earn money is infinite."

"Spend your time basking in entertainment, and you will struggle your entire life financially.  Invest your time creating solutions to people's problems, and you'll never lose a minutes sleep worrying about how to pay the mortgage."

"Match your talents and interests with a problem people will pay you to solve and go to work until you succeed.  This formula offers you the fulfillments of doing work you love while profiting from solving other people's problems."

Steve Siebold, Secrets Self-Made Millionaires Teach Their Kids

www.msn.com/en-us/money/savingandinvesting/14-money-lessons-rich-parents-teach-their-kids/ar-AAvdtbH

Love reflected back . . .

“It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know his own beauty or perceive a sense of his own worth until it has been reflected back to him in the mirror of another loving, caring human being.”
from The Secret of Staying in Love
by John Joseph Powell

Children's Bedtime Prayer - Rebecca Weston - 1890

Father, we thank thee for the night,
and for the pleasant morning light;
for rest and food and loving care,
and all that makes the day so fair.

Help us to do the things we should,
to be to others kind and good;
in all we do, in work or play,
to grow more loving every day.

Children's Bedtime Prayer - Rebecca Weston - 1890

http://www.worldprayers.org/archive/prayers/celebrations/father_we_thank_the_for.html

Psalm 23 : The North American Plains Indian Version

Psalm 23 : The North American Plains Indian Version
August 19, 2012

From their first encounters with Christian missionaries, the North American Plains Indians used universal sign language to communicate  Psalm 23  among tribes who spoke different oral languages.

In 1894, Isabel Crawford, a Baptist missionary to the Kiowa Indians in Oklahoma, translated the Sign Version into literal English. Here is the  Psalm 23 translation:

The Great Father above is a shepherd Chief.
I am His and with Him I want not. 
He throws out to me a rope and
the name of the rope is love and
He draws me to where the grass is green
and the water not dangerous,
and I eat and lie down and am satisfied. 

Sometimes my heart is very weak and falls down but 
He lifts me up again and draws me into a good road. 
His name is WONDERFUL. 

Sometime, it may be very soon,
it may be a long, long time. 
He will draw me into a valley. 
It is dark there, but I’ll be afraid not,
for it is in between those mountains
that the Shepherd Christ will meet me
and the hunger that I have in my heart
all through this life will be satisfied.

He gives me a staff to lean upon.  
He spreads a table before me
with all kinds of foods. 
He puts His hand upon my head
and all the “tired” is gone. 
My cup He fills till it runs over. 

What I tell is true.
I lie not. 
These roads that are “away ahead”
will stay with me through this life and after;
and afterwards I will go to live
in the great house and sit down
with the Shepherd Chief forever.

~ Isabel Crawford (Missionary to the Indians of the plains)

www.davidpaulkirkpatrick.com/2012/08/19/psalm-23-the-north-american-plains-indian-version/

"What am I?"

First grader’s somber response to a class puzzle has the Internet questioning life

USA TODAY   as of 1/4/2018
Ashley May
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/first-grader’s-somber-response-to-a-class-puzzle-has-the-internet-questioning-life/ar-BBHRR07

“I am the beginning of everything, the end of everywhere. I’m the beginning of eternity, the end of time and space. What am I?”

“The first guess from one of my 1st graders was ‘death’ and such an awed, somber, reflective hush fell over the class that I didn’t want to tell them that actually the answer is the letter e, which just seemed so banal in the moment,” Turner said in a tweet Tuesday that has since gone viral.

Twitter users had their own thoughts. One reply questioned how death is the beginning of everything (receiving more than 145 replies), another said entelechy (connected with Aristotle's distinction between matter and form) seems relevant, and a few said the obvious answer is God.

Turner said other student guesses included: Not everything, all stuff, the end, and "nothingthing."
Maybe these kids are ready for more challenging puzzles.

"Fear does not make lasting peace."

quote from email:
The New York Times   NYTimes.com
Evening Briefing
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Your Tuesday Evening Briefing
By KAREN ZRAICK AND DAVID SCULL

Dave Chappelle released the first comedy special focusing on the #MeToo movement, and our critic says it was a misfire, with bits that feel tired or callous. One example: Mr. Chappelle said that some of the sexual assault victims speaking out were now experiencing “buyer’s remorse.”

But Mr. Chappelle also offers sober political analysis during the show, which is streaming on Netflix. And he makes a passionate argument for focusing on structural issues.
“You got all the bad guys scared, and that’s good,” he says. “But the minute they’re not scared anymore, it will get worse than it was before. Fear does not make lasting peace.”

“quantum entanglement”

A Lifelong Bond

Scientists tell us that there is a most amazing, and thus-far inexplicable, phenomenon called “quantum entanglement.” If two particles of energy are kept in close proximity to each other for a long time, they form a relationship, a kind of bond, that defies the imagination. The connection between these two particles is so strong that if you take one particle to a laboratory in Los Angeles and remove the other one to a lab in New York City, whatever you do to the particle in L.A. will instantly happen to the one in New York, too.

Einstein called it “spooky.” It also defied his theory that nothing can travel faster than light. Somehow, however, once particles form this kind of bond, it cannot be severed no matter how great the distance between the two becomes.

A similar but opposite thing happened between Mary and Elizabeth. In this case, two separate people formed a relationship across a great distance, a relationship that finally drew them together. . . . Mary and Elizabeth also did not live terribly close by each other. But something remarkable, something filled with holy mystery, happened to both of these women and so despite their geographic and chronological distance from each other, these two formed a bond across that distance—a bond that would last the rest of their lives.

~ Scott Hoezee, comments and observations on Luke 1:39-55

"Sometimes you miss so much that you forget you are better without them."

"Sometimes you miss so much that you forget you are better without them."

~ attributed to Marilyn Monroe
http://www.quotesbycelebrities.com/marilyn-monroe-quotes/sometimes-you-miss-so-much-you-forget-you

Look like a girl, act like a lady . . .

Look like a girl,
act like a lady,
think like a man and
work like a dog.

~ traditional


Look like a girl,
act like a lady,
think like a man and
work like a boss.

~ attributed to Marilyn Monroe
http://www.quotesbycelebrities.com/marilyn-monroe-quotes/look-girl.-act-lady.-think

"What God loved about Mary was her willingness."

"What God loved about Mary was her willingness."
~ Truthful Grace
(Mary the mother of Jesus)

what God could do with one person wholly committed to his will

"I heard an evangelist say one night: This century has yet to see what God could do with one person wholly committed to his will."
Moody said in his heart of hearts, "By the grace of God, I'll be that person."
~ Baptist preacher D. L. Moody

Joy Rooted in Obedience

Hannah Whitall Smith's classic, The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life, contains a line that goes to the heart of the issue of joy in the life of faith. "Perfect obedience would result in perfect happiness if only we had perfect confidence in the power we were obeying."
The joy of our celebration is rooted in the obedience of Mary and Joseph and then of Jesus whose heart's desire was to honor God and obediently carry out the work God gave him to do on our behalf.
John P. Jewell, Lectionary Sermons, www.eSermons.com

Employees come first

"Clients do not come first.
Employees come first. 
If you take care of your employees,
they will take care of the clients."
~ Richard Branson

Plan A to Plan Z

"In the start of the season we have Plan A and in the middle we have Plan Z, and then we go around the alphabet like three times."

~ ESTER LEDECKA, on juggling her schedule as she tries to become the first athlete to compete in both skiing and snowboarding at the Olympics.

New York Times quote of the day, November 27, 2017 email

"Not One Expected Me!"

Surprise in Heaven

I dreamt death came the other night
And Heaven’s gate swung wide.
An angel with a halo bright
Ushered me inside.

And there! To my astonishment
Stood folks I’d judged and labeled
As “quite unfit”, “of little worth”,
And “spiritually disabled”.

Indignant words rose to my lips
But never were set free,
For every face showed stunned surprise --
Not one expected me!

~ Anonymous

"Civilized behavior, I believe, is more often measured by what a person restrains himself from doing than by what he does."

Somebody Else's Kids, by Torey L. Hayden
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York
Copyright © 1981 by Torey L. Hayden

quotes, p. 214, regarding Dr. Boom’s “expert” view of Torey’s career lovingly and effectively helping “the slowest children” as a special education resource teacher:

Dr. Boom:
“You are a gifted teacher, you know that.  Why are you wasting yourself here?” . . .
“Here with these children who’ll never amount to anything. . . .
You ought to get yourself into university teaching or some other place where you can do some real good.  You shouldn’t waste yourself here.”

Torey:
I did not answer.  Civilized behavior, I believe, is more often measured by what a person restrains himself from doing than by what he does.

Having Close Friends in Old Age Brings Well-Being

quote from Time Magazine, June 26, 2017, p. 19

IT'S HEALTHIER TO BE CLOSE WITH FRIENDS THAN FAMILY
"A report in Personal Relationships that included 270,000 people worldwide found that having close friends in old age was a stronger predictor of physical and emotional well-being than close family connections."
--J.Z.

Melania Trump tweet about Charlottesville

"Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let's communicate w/o hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence. #Charlottesville.”

(Snopes confirmed that the claim that Melania's tweet copied from a Michelle Obama speech was a bogus spoof, not true.  There is no record of Michelle saying these or similar words.)
http://www.snopes.com/melania-tweet-charlottesville/

Taylor Swift's "sharp, gutsy and satisfying" testimony

New York Times - "Today's Headlines" email
Friday, August 11, 2017

QUOTATION OF THE DAY

"I'm being blamed for the unfortunate events of his life that are a product of his decisions. Not mine."

TAYLOR SWIFT, the pop superstar who is being sued by a radio host on claims that she falsely accused him of groping her.

quotes from the trial:

On Mueller's firing Swift said “I am not going to allow your my client to make me feel like it is anyway my fault because it isn’t.”

Comment:

"Just wonderfully stated. Had you kept your hand away - you'd have a job and would not be in court right now."

Swift’s attorney, Douglas Baldridge, said that the star is asking for a $1 verdict because she’s “not trying to bankrupt this man.”
“She’s trying to tell people out there that you can say no when someone puts their hand on you,” added Swift’s counsel. “Grabbing a woman’s rear end is an assault, and it’s always wrong. Any woman — rich, poor, famous or not — is entitled to not have that happen.”

quotes from BBC News:
www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40885437

Taylor Swift wasn't backing down in court

By Mark Savage BBC Music reporter, 11 August 2017

Taylor Swift has been praised for her "sharp, gutsy and satisfying" testimony over allegations of sexual assault.
The pop star claims former radio DJ David Mueller groped her while posing for a photo at one of her concerts in 2013 - a charge which he denies.
"Just like her expertly crafted lyrics, Taylor Swift was precise, self-assured and direct," said Billboard magazine.

Speaking in court, Swift refused to back down or give ground to the DJ's lawyer.
Asked if she was critical of her bodyguard, Swift replied: "I'm critical of your client sticking his hand under my skirt and grabbing my ass".

. . .

According to the reporter, the star bristled when she was asked why she hadn't called off the meet-and-greet following the alleged incident.
"Mueller's attorney said, 'You could have taken a break,' and Taylor Swift responded: 'And your client could have taken a normal photo with me.'"

Swift's testimony was "sharp, gutsy and satisfying," said Slate magazine's Christina Cauterucci.
"For young fans of Swift's, hearing a beloved artist speak candidly about the emotional damage of sexual assault and stand up to a courtroom of men trying to prove her wrong could be a formative moment for their developing ideas of gender, sex, and accountability."

Following Swift to the witness stand on Thursday was radio station boss Robert Call, who fired Mueller two days after the alleged incident, acting on a complaint from Swift's radio publicist.
Call said Mueller had initially denied touching Swift, but when shown the photo in question, he responded: "Well, if it did happen, it was accidental."
Call said he fired the DJ because of his shifting accounts of the incident, and because the photo showed that Mueller's hand was "not where it was supposed to be".

Greg Abbott - overcame being crushed by a tree

New York Times
Monday, June 5, 2017
NYTimes.com

Your Monday Evening Briefing  (email)
By INYOUNG KANG AND SANDRA STEVENSON
Good evening. Here’s the latest.

How conservative is conservative enough in Texas?
Greg Abbott is looking for the answer as the first new governor of the state in 14 years. He’s also the first to use a wheelchair. (A tree crushed him in 1984, while he was out for a jog.)
As he navigates battling factions of fellow Republicans, he takes their criticism in context: “When you have your life broken in half and realize that you’re going to be able to piece your life back together and overcome that, everything else in life is pretty easy to deal with.”

Self-will is choosing to Not Love

"God always chooses to love.  Self-will is choosing to Not Love."

~ Truthful Grace

Avoiding Stress

"I probably missed some opportunities to make more money.  But those opportunities generally bring more stress, which I've always tried to avoid."

"I'm sort of like a rock in the ocean.  The waves are crashing against me, but I just stand there."

~ Jens Voigt, German Professional Road Racing Cyclist, author of Shut Up Legs: My Wild Ride On and Off the Bike (with James Startt, published by Rodale, 2016)

"root for the pilot of the plane you are on"

Kasich finds it hard to rule out 2020
Ben Kamisar - The Hill - Sunday, April 30, 2017
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBAyMao?m=en-us
quotes:
Ohio Gov. John Kasich returned to the national spotlight this week with criticism for the GOP and President Trump, raising questions about the former Republican presidential candidate's political future. . . .
John Weaver, a longtime aide to the governor and an outspoken GOP critic of Trump, told The Hill that Kasich is not looking toward 2020 or having internal meetings to discuss the prospect. . . .
"The governor has said you root for the pilot of the plane you are on," Weaver said. "That doesn't mean you want the same pilot for the next leg."
"You want this pilot to land the plane safely and get the hell out of there."

Expectant Faith

(bold emphasis added by me)

The Heart of Healing, George Bennett, 1972

Chapter X   Three Healing Qualities
Looking back on interviews that brought great blessing, and trying to analyze the inner dispositions of the sufferers at the time, I can see three qualities whose presence appears to be vital to the power of the ministration. They are acceptance, expectant faith and surrender. They do not come all at once.
(p. 84)
It is clear from the Gospels that expectant faith is important if any healing work is to be done. (p. 85)
This quality, when present, provides the necessary environment for an incoming of creative energy. All life is the outward manifestation of God’s creative energies continuously flowing into and sustaining our created order. Where expectant faith is present the creative energies of God have free flow.
There is a significant phrase in the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews—“faith is the substance of things hoped for.” It suggests that faith produces an energy which can be transmuted into material form. (p. 86-87)
I believe that . . . a new act of creation enters into our human life where the quality of the environment is dominated by the presence of expectant faith. If it is present in an interview then the Lord Christ is able to supply a divine energy which He makes available for the release and healing of the sick one. (p. 87)
Where faith is present, there is an outpouring of creative power that can change everything. . . .
The whole onus of faith in an interview is on the minister or helper. It is he, because of his own knowledge of what the Christ can do and because of that other unseen conversation in which he is engaged, who should unconsciously invoke this quality. Yet, when faith comes into the interview, it comes not only to the sufferer. The minister also shares in it and both are affected by it. On the human level it is the encounter between Christian helper and suffer which has brought it into being. On the level of the divine, it is a gift poured in by the Holy Spirit for the needs of that occasion.
A spiritual triangle has been created. The minister and the sufferer form the base and the Holy Spirit is the apex. When the triangle is made complete the atmosphere becomes vibrant with expectant faith. In such circumstances anything can happen. (p. 88)

~ George Bennett, The Heart of Healing. Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1972.
(First edition 1971 published by Arthur James Limited of Evesham, Worcs., England.)

Rev. George Bennett, President of the Divine Healing Mission, Warden of Crowhurst Christian Healing Centre, Crowhurst, Battle, East Sussex, England  (associated with the Anglican Church)

God is all Love and wills to do all

Julian of Norwich
Two sins & Love

It is proper for us to have three kinds of knowledge: the first is that we know our Lord God; the second is that we know ourselves, what we are by Him in nature and grace; the third that we know humbly what we ourselves are as regards our sin and our weakness. And the whole showing was given for these three, as I understand it.
All this blessed teaching of our Lord God was shown in three parts: that is to say, by bodily sight, and by word formed in my understanding, and by spiritual insight....
God showed two kinds of sickness of soul that we have: the one is impatience or sloth (for we bear our labor and our pains gloomily); the other is despair or doubtful fear (as I shall say later)....And these two are those which most trouble and tempt us (according to what our Lord showed me), from which He wills that we be put right....
And the cause why we are troubled with these sins is because of our ignorance of Love, for though the three Persons of the Trinity are all equal in themselves, the soul received most understanding in Love; yes, and He wills that in everything we have our contemplation and our enjoyment in Love.
To this knowledge we are most blind; for some of us believe that God is all Power and is able to do all, and that He is all Wisdom and knows how to do all, but that He is all Love and wills to do all, there we stop.
This ignorance is that which most hinders God's lovers, as I see it, for when we begin to hate sin and amend ourselves by the command of Holy Church, still there persists a fear that hinders us....And we do not know to despise it as we do another sin which we recognize (which comes through lack of true judgement) and it is against truth, for of all the properties of the blessed Trinity, it is God's will that we have most confidence and delight in Love.

from Chapters 72 and 73, Revelations of Divine Love
https://www.orderofjulian.org/Two_sins_and_Love

Julian of Norwich (c. 8 November 1342 – c. 1416) was an English anchoress who is regarded as an important Christian mystic. She is venerated in the Anglican and Lutheran churches. Written around 1395, her work, Revelations of Divine Love, is the first book in the English language known to have been written by a woman.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_of_Norwich

Use me, God, in Thy great harvest field. . .

                              Send Me

Use me, God, in Thy great harvest field,
Which stretcheth far and wide like a wide sea;
The gatherers are so few; I fear the precious yield
Will suffer loss. O, find a place for me!

A place where best the strength I have will tell:
It may be one the older toilers shun;
Be it a wide or narrow place, ‘tis well
So that the work it holds be only done.

                                ~ Christina G. Rossetti

Superhuman vitality and magnetism as a teacher

"Western mystics have rarely shed much light on the subject of sexuality.
Eastern mystics, on the other hand, talk openly about sexual desire as a force in consciousness. It is not good or evil in itself, they insist, any more than an electric storm is. Rather, it is energy, raw power, and our task as human beings is to come to terms with that power—not to try and destroy it or suppress it, but to claim it and draw upon it for the good of all life.
The Eastern tradition maintains that the individual who succeeds in tapping into that force will have superhuman vitality, on the one hand, and tremendous magnetism as a teacher, on the other. It is interesting to reflect that Catherine of Siena was notable in both regards."

~ Carol L. Flinders, Enduring Grace: Living Portraits of Seven Women Mystics (p. 235). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

Pray first before doing anything worthwhile

"Listen, Child of God, to your teacher’s wisdom. Pay attention to what your heart hears. Make sure you freely accept and live out the loving Father’s directions.
Working at obedience is the way to return to Christ when the carelessness of disobedience has taken you off-path. Follow Christ by wearing the strong, sacred shield of submission.
Pray first before doing anything worthwhile. Then persist and never falter in prayer. God loves us as his own children, and forgives us, so we must not grieve him by rejecting that love and doing evil.
We must always make the best use of the good things God gives us."

~ St. Benedict, c. 480-550 AD in Italy, a patron saint of Europe and students

The strengthening dialogue of community

"St. Basil stresses in his Rule that the dialogue of community nurtures the individual: 'In this communal conversation, whatever is twisted in us will be straightened and whatever is good will be strengthened, and it will help us avoid being condemned with those who are only wise in their own eyes.'"

~ Carmen Acevedo Butcher, Man of Blessing: A Life of Saint Benedict
(Kindle Locations 589-591). Paraclete Press. Kindle Edition.

Questions

"Questions are not scary.
What is scary is when people don't have any.
What is tragic is faith that has no room for them."

~ Rob Bell, one of the most controversial figures in contemporary Christianity

comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God

"He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep
pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the
heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes
wisdom to us by the aweful grace of God."

~ Aeschylus
Greek tragic dramatist and poet (525 BC - 456 BC)

the pain of discipline and the pain of regret

“There are two types of pain you will go through in life, the pain of discipline and the pain of regret. Discipline weighs ounces while regret weights tonnes.”
~ Jim Rohn

The News - Companion Fear

           THE NEWS

Companion Fear is at my side,
   I cannot make him leave,
He whispers horror in my ear,
   He twitches at my sleeve.

He presses down upon my heart,
   He catches at my breath,
He does not need to put in words
   The hovering of death.

Companion Fear is at my side,
   I cannot make him go,
For we are bound in common dread
   Of what we do not know.

~ Sec

Sparing the Fire

Sparing the Fire

Each night I spare the fire,
my last act before retiring.
I bury two fresh lumps of peat
Deep within the embers.
Then tomorrow when I wake
I can poke the fire to life.

At death may God spare me.
When they bury my body
Deep within the boggy peat,
May my soul continue to glow.
So when the last trumpet sounds
I can rise with Christ to life.

~ Celtic Poem

Heaven Now

Heaven Now

If I were in heaven
I would play my harp,
     and sing songs of praise
     with the angels.
If I were in heaven,
I would dance with joy,
     and fill the air with laughter.

Let earth be like heaven,
     and people like angels;
Let all sing songs of praise.
Don’t wait to die,
     enjoy heaven now;
Don’t argue or cavil –
     just dance.

~ Celtic Poem

"It's always better to talk with each other than about each other"

Merkel in US for talks with Trump

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to meet President Donald Trump in Washington, with transatlantic trade and Nato ties high on the agenda. . . .
Ahead of Friday's talks, Mrs Merkel told a German newspaper she was looking forward to her first meeting with President Trump.
"It's always better to talk with each other than about each other," she told Saarbruecker Zeitung.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39300452

What does that word really mean?

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride

Can Man Live Without God? No! But we try all the time....

following quoted from http://www.apuritansmind.com/apologetics/steveturnercreed/

An excerpt from Ravi Zacharias’ book “Can Man Live Without God?”
Steve Turner says “No!”…But we try all the time….

Creed - by Steve Turner
a satirical poem on the modern mind

We believe in Marxfreudanddarwin
We believe everything is OK
as long as you don’t hurt anyone
to the best of your definition of hurt,
and to the best of your knowledge.

We believe in sex before, during, and after marriage.
We believe in the therapy of sin.
We believe that adultery is fun.
We believe that sodomy’s OK.
We believe that taboos are taboo.

We believe that everything’s getting better
despite evidence to the contrary.
The evidence must be investigated
And you can prove anything with evidence.

We believe there’s something in horoscopes
UFO’s and bent spoons.
Jesus was a good man just like Buddha,
Mohammed, and ourselves.
He was a good moral teacher though we think
His good morals were bad.

We believe that all religions are basically the same-
at least the one that we read was.
They all believe in love and goodness.
They only differ on matters of creation,
sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.

We believe that after death comes the Nothing
Because when you ask the dead what happens
they say nothing.
If death is not the end, if the dead have lied,
then its compulsory heaven for all
excepting perhaps Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Kahn

We believe in Masters and Johnson
What’s selected is average.
What’s average is normal.
What’s normal is good.

We believe in total disarmament.
We believe there are direct links between warfare and bloodshed.
Americans should beat their guns into tractors .
And the Russians would be sure to follow.

We believe that man is essentially good.
It’s only his behavior that lets him down.
This is the fault of society.
Society is the fault of conditions.
Conditions are the fault of society.

We believe that each man must find the truth that
is right for him.
Reality will adapt accordingly.
The universe will readjust.
History will alter.
We believe that there is no absolute truth
excepting the truth
that there is no absolute truth.

We believe in the rejection of creeds,
And the flowering of individual thought.

If chance be the Father of all flesh,
disaster is his rainbow in the sky
and when you hear
State of Emergency!
Sniper Kills Ten!
Troops on Rampage!
Whites go Looting!
Bomb Blasts School!
It is but the sound of man
worshipping his maker.

Steve Turner, (English journalist), “Creed,” his satirical poem on the modern mind.
Taken from Ravi Zacharias’ book Can Man live Without God? Pages 42-44

quote above is from
http://www.apuritansmind.com/apologetics/steveturnercreed/

"History repeats itself, has to, nobody listens"

"History repeats itself, has to, nobody listens"
~ Steve Turner

"They only differ on matters of creation sin heaven hell God and salvation"

quote:
This reminds me of Steven Turner’s satirical observation of this sort of thinking in his poem “Creed.” “We believe that all religions are basically the same, at least the one that we read was.
They all believe in love and goodness.
They only differ on matters of creation sin heaven hell God and salvation.”
This is, as C. S. Lewis called it, “patronizing nonsense.”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/reza-aslan-doesnt-get-religion-cnns-tour-de-farce

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.

The Merchant of Venice  William Shakespeare

SCENE III. Venice. A public place.
Enter BASSANIO and SHYLOCK
SHYLOCK
Three thousand ducats; well.
BASSANIO
Ay, sir, for three months.
. . .
SHYLOCK
I cannot tell; I make it breed as fast:
But note me, signior.
ANTONIO
Mark you this, Bassanio,
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart:
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/merchant/merchant.1.3.html

“Whatever women do, they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good.”

“Whatever women do, they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good.”
~ Charlotte Elizabeth Whitton, the first female mayor of a major Canadian city

"the story that we tell is the one that becomes truth"

“[Jackie Kennedy] is such an amazing woman… Really having the understanding of history to very strongly and quickly define her husband’s legacy after the assassination. She knew that the story that we tell is the one that becomes truth.”
~ author unknown

When a man's ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

Proverbs 16:6-7 ESV
By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for,
and by the fear of the LORD one turns away from evil.
When a man's ways please the LORD,
he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

Proverbs 16:6-7 NRSV
By loyalty and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for,
and by the fear of the LORD one avoids evil.
When the ways of people please the LORD,
he causes even their enemies to be at peace with them.

the best fake Lincoln quote

"The trouble with quotes on the internet is that is difficult to determine whether or not they are genuine."
~ Abraham Lincoln

Aviation Quotes

Aviation Quotes from www.airborne-aviation.com.au/resources/aviation-quotes.php

• Aviate, Navigate, Communicate.
• Truly superior pilots are those who use their superior judgment to avoid those situations where they might have to use their superior skills.
• The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.
• In a twin-engine aircraft, the purpose of the second engine is to supply the pilot with enough power to fly to the scene of the crash.
• When a prang seems inevitable, endeavor to strike the softest, cheapest object in the vicinity, as slowly and gently as possible.
  - Advice given to RAF pilots during W.W.II.
• When in doubt, hold on to your altitude. No-one has ever collided with the sky.
• Try to learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.
• If God had meant man to fly, he'd have given him lots more money.
• You've never been lost until you've been lost at Mach 3.
• Airspeed, altitude or brains: Two are always needed to successfully complete the flight.
• When a flight is proceeding incredibly well, something may be forgotten.
• Just remember, if you crash because of weather, your funeral will be held on a sunny day.
  - Layton A. Bennett
• Never fly the 'A' model of anything.
  - Ed Thompson
• A pilot who doesn't have any fear probably isn't flying his plane to its maximum.
  - Jon McBride, astronaut
• If you're faced with a forced landing, fly the thing as far into the crash as possible.
  - Bob Hoover
• Never fly in the same cockpit with someone braver than you.
  - Richard Herman, Jr., 'Firebreak'
• There is no reason to fly through a thunderstorm in peacetime.
  - Sign over squadron ops desk at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, 1970.
• Try to stay in the middle of the air. Do not go near the edges of it. The edges of the air can be recognized by the appearance of ground, buildings, sea, trees and interstellar space. It is much more difficult to fly there.
• The three most common expressions in aviation are, "Why is it doing that?", "Where are we?" and "Oh Crap".
• Weather forecasts are horoscopes with numbers.
• A smooth landing is mostly luck; two in a row is all luck; three in a row is prevarication.
• Helicopters are for the rich... or the enlisted.
• We have a perfect record in aviation: we never left one up there!
• Flashlights are tubular metal containers kept in a flight bag for the purpose of storing dead batteries.
• Helicopters don't fly... they just beat the air into submission.
• Flying the airplane is more important than radioing your plight to a person on the ground incapable of understanding it.
• What is the similarity between air traffic controllers and pilots?
  If a pilot screws up, the pilot dies;
  If ATC screws up, the pilot dies.
• If something hasn't broken on your helicopter, it's about to.
• Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect.
  - Captain A. G. Lamplugh
• In flying I have learned that carelessness and overconfidence are usually far more dangerous than deliberately accepted risks.- Wilbur Wright in a letter to his father, September 1900
• The ultimate responsibility of the pilot is to fulfill the dreams of the countless millions of earthbound ancestors who could only stare skyward and wish.
• Helicopters can't fly; they're just so ugly the earth repels them.
• If helicopters are so safe, how come there are no vintage / classic helicopter fly-ins?
• A 'good' landing is one from which you can walk away.
• A 'great' landing is one after which they can use the aeroplane again.
• Every takeoff is optional. Every landing is mandatory... in other words, for every take-off, there WILL be a landing.
• If you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger. If you pull the stick back, they get smaller. That is, unless you keep pulling the stick all the way back, then they get bigger again.
• Flying isn't dangerous. Crashing is what's dangerous.
• One of the most important skills that a pilot must develop is the skill to ignore those things that were designed by non-pilots to get the pilot's attention.
• A helicopter is a collection of rotating parts going round and round and reciprocating parts going up and down - all of them trying to become random in motion.
• It's always better to be down on the ground wishing you were up in the air than up in the air wishing you were down on the ground.
• The probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle of arrival. Large angle of arrival, small probability of survival and vice versa.
• Stay out of clouds. The silver lining everyone keeps talking about might be another aircraft going in the opposite direction. Reliable sources also report that mountains have been known to hide out in clouds.
• Always try to keep the number of landings you make equal the number of take-offs you've made.
• A meteorologist is just a common person who went to school long enough to be paid to guess what the weather is going to be.
• You start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck.
• In the ongoing battle between objects made of aluminum going hundreds of miles per hour and the ground going zero miles per hour, the ground has yet to lose.
• Good judgment comes from experience. Unfortunately, experience usually comes from bad judgment.
• Keep looking around. There's always something you've missed.
• Remember, gravity is not just a good idea. It's the law. And it's not subject to repeal.
• There are old pilots and there are bold pilots. However, there are no old, bold pilots.
• Always remember you fly an aeroplane with your head, not your hands.
• "Unskilled" pilots are always found in the wreckage with their hand around the microphone.
• Remember that the radio is only an electronic suggestion box for the pilot. Sometimes the only way to clear up a problem is to turn it off.
• Flying the aircraft is more important than radioing your plight to a person on the ground incapable of understanding or doing anything about it.
• It is solely the pilot's responsibility to never let any other thing touch his aircraft.
• You know you've landed with the wheels up when it takes full power to taxi to the ramp.
• Those who hoot with the owls by night, should not fly with the eagles by day.
• Things which do you no good in aviation:
  The sky above you.
  The runway behind you.
  The fuel still in the truck.
  Half a second ago.
  Approach plates in the car.
  The airspeed you don't have.
• What's the difference between God and fighter pilots? God doesn't think he's a fighter pilot.
• Trust your captain but keep your seat belt securely fastened.
• An aircraft may disappoint a good pilot, but it won't surprise him.
• There are only two things required to fly a modern airliner: a pilot and a dog. It's the pilot's job to feed the dog. It's the dog's job to bite the pilot if he touches anything in the cockpit.
• Aviation is not so much a profession as it is a disease.
• There are three simple rules for making a smooth landing. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
• It's a good landing if you can still get the doors open.
• Passengers prefer old captains and young flight attendants.
• The only thing worse than a captain who never flew as copilot is a copilot who once was a captain.
• It's best to keep the pointed end going forward as much as possible.
• If the wings are traveling faster than the fuselage, it's probably a helicopter... and therefore, unsafe.
• If something hasn't broken on your helicopter... it's about to.
• Any attempt to stretch fuel is guaranteed to increase head wind.
• A thunderstorm is never as bad on the inside as it appears on the outside. It's worse.
• I know there's a lot of money in aviation because I put it there.
• It's easy to make a small fortune in aviation. You just start off with a large fortune.
• A male pilot is a confused soul who talks about women when he's flying, and about flying when he's with a woman.
• A fool and his money are soon flying more aircraft than he can handle.
• The last thing every pilot does before leaving the aircraft after making a gear up landing is to put the gear selection lever in the 'down' position.
• You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back.
• Rule one: No matter what else happens, fly the airplane.
• Flying is hours of boredom, punctuated by moments of stark terror.
• Fly it until the last piece stops moving.
• It's better to be down here wishing you were up there, than up there wishing you were down here.
• Believe your instruments.
• Think ahead of your airplane.
• I'd rather be lucky than good.
• The propeller is just a big fan in the front of the plane to keep the pilot cool. Want proof? Make it stop; then watch the pilot break out into a sweat.
• If we are what we eat, then some pilots should eat more chicken.
• Without fuel, pilots become pedestrians.
• Regards engine power: Lots is good, more is better, and too much is just enough.
• If you're ever faced with a forced landing at night, turn on the landing lights to see the landing area. If you don't like what you see, turn 'em back off.
• A checkride ought to be like a skirt, short enough to be interesting but still be long enough to cover everything.
• Experience is the knowledge that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
• No one has ever collided with the sky.
• Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.
• Experience is a hard teacher. First comes the test, then the lesson.
• Never let an airplane take you somewhere you brain didn't get to five minutes earlier.
• Don't drop the aircraft in order to fly the microphone.
• Hovering is for pilots who love to fly but have no place to go.
• Flying is the second greatest thrill known to man.... Landing is the first!
• The probability of survival is equal to the angle of arrival.
• If you've got time to spare, go by air.
• IFR: I Follow Roads.
• If you don't gear up your brain before takeoff, you'll probably gear up your airplane on landing.
• In thrust I trust.
• Helicopters are for people who want to fly but don't want to go anywhere.
• The future in aviation is the next 30 seconds. Long term planning is an hour and a half.
• I'm not speeding officer — I'm just flying low.
• The only thing that scares me about flying is the drive to the airport.
• Young man, was that a landing or were we shot down?
• It is far better to arrive late in this world than early in the next.
• Flying is not dangerous; crashing is dangerous.
• You can land anywhere once.
• I want to die like my grandfather did, peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming in terror like his passengers.
• The nicer an airplane looks, the better it flies.
• The real value of twin engine aircraft is it will double your chances of engine failure.
• CAUTION: Aviation may be hazardous to your wealth.
• If it ain't broke, don't fix it; if it ain't fixed, don't fly it.
• The worst day of flying still beats the best day of real work.
• It at first you don't succeed, well, so much for skydiving.
• It is said that two wrongs do not make a right, but two wrights do make an aeroplane.
• Without ammunition the USAF would be just another expensive flying club.
• Nothing flies without fuel, so let's start with some coffee.
• Any comment about how well things are going is an absolute guarantee of trouble.
• A terminal forecast is a horoscope with numbers.
• I give that landing a 9 . . . on the Richtor scale.
• Keep the shiny side up and the greasy side down.
• Aviation has created many millionaires, primarily from the ranks of multi-millionaires.
• Some pilots will make an emergency out of a bad magneto check. Others, upon losing a wing, will ask for a lower altitude.
• Remember, you’re always a student in an airplane.
• Keep looking around; there's always something you've missed.
• Fuel in the tanks is limited. Gravity is forever.
• Never trust a fuel gauge.

"I'm sorry"

a note about apologies from the New York Times, Jan. 30, 2017:

"Most times when we say, 'I’m sorry,' it’s for something trivial. But when it matters, watch your wording.
Psychologists and other experts say the best apologies are short and don’t include rationalizations or requests for forgiveness.
And 'I’m sorry you feel that way' really means 'I’m not really sorry at all.'"

Together

Coming together is a beginning,
staying together is progress,
and working together is success.
~ Henry Ford

Thank-You Note Suggestions from "Ask Amy"

"A personal present from an individual requires a handwritten individual thank-you.
A gift presented at a party on behalf of a roomful of people can be acknowledged with a verbal thank-you to everyone at the party either individually or, acoustics and topography permitting, all at once.
A group gift delivered at home (or tossed in an inbox at work) can be acknowledged with a card posted in the lunchroom or an email.
Miss Manners agrees that those who are not thanked cannot reasonably be expected to participate in the future."

The Washington Post, January 24, 2017
Ask Amy column

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/ask-amy-should-hurtful-mother-be-banned-from-her-childs-wedding/2017/01/22/5a308146-d8f1-11e6-9f9f-5cdb4b7f8dd7_story.html

Did Martin Luther King Jr. steal the "I have a dream" part of his speech?

Yahoo Answers
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091209211248AAeJ209

Did martin luther king steal the I have a dream part of his speech?

Best Answer: 
Critics have charged that King plagiarized that too by borrowing from a speech given to the Republican convention in 1952 by an African-American preacher named Archibald Carey, Jr.
Some of them say he gave Cary's speech word-for-word.
It can probably be said that King borrowed from the idea of the speech by Carey (who was a friend of King's), but only the last couple of paragraph's resembled Carey's speech and little of it is word-for-word.
Both men spun their remarks off the words of the song "My Country 'Tis of Thee."

King's speech ended with:
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old ***** spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Carey's speech ended with:
We, ***** Americans, sing with all loyal Americans: My country 'tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, Land of the Pilgrims' pride From every mountainside Let freedom ring!
That's exactly what we mean--from every mountain side, let freedom ring. Not only from the Green Mountains and White Mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire; not only from the Catskills of New York; but from the Ozarks in Arkansas, from the Stone Mountain
in Georgia, from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia--let it ring not only for the minorities of the United States, but for the disinherited of all the earth--may the Republican Party, under God, from every mountainside, LET FREEDOM RING!

“The second one is always harder.”

quote from a reader of the Carolyn Hax column:

Readers Dish on Family Dynamics

When my husband’s aunt died, I was devastated. Over the years we had become very close. She was kind to me and I admired and loved her.

When she died, my husband’s family closed ranks. I was not allowed to participate in planning the memorial service and no one seemed to understand how deeply I was grieving. It was especially hard because it was a few months after my mother died. In one summer I had lost a mother and a mentor.

At the funeral of my husband’s aunt, I broke down, and people were looking at me strangely and bypassing me to comfort the “real” family. The only one who understood was the minister who had officiated at the service. She pulled me aside and said, “The second one is always harder.” Those words meant a lot to me.

N.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/readers-dish-on-family-dynamics/2017/01/22/109c16fa-df43-11e6-918c-99ede3c8cafa_story.html

"This man has never had children."

Garrison Keillor: I think I need a new religion
Garrison Keillor, The Washington Post
Published 8:47 am, Thursday, January 19, 2017

. . . So I've been shopping around for a new religion to see me through the next four years. . . . I'm looking around for other options.
Buddhism involves way too much sitting still for my taste; the Dalai Lama basically says, "Be gentle. Listen to the universe. Live in the moment. Let happiness flow through you." And I think to myself, "This man has never had children."

http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Garrison-Keillor-I-think-I-need-a-new-religion-10868744.php

“I’m sorry to hear you feel this way.”

Carolyn Hax: Don’t hurl online foulness back — stay polite and exit the cesspit

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/carolyn-hax-dont-hurl-online-foulness-back--stay-polite-and-exit-the-cesspit/2017/01/10/290dee78-d455-11e6-a783-cd3fa950f2fd_story.html

quote, bold added:

By Carolyn Hax Columnist January 11 
Adapted from an online discussion.

Dear Carolyn: My adult niece, 40, posted a very nasty comment about me to a social-media site because of my stance that women and girls should NOT be judged on their looks. This stance was never communicated to her specifically, it is just something I occasionally reference.
She said of me: “She’s totally nuts. She’s got a ton of money, no kids and clearly no joy in her life, either.”
How do I get over the hurt, since I have no idea where the hate originated?
Family Member

Family Member: This sounds like the tip of the storyberg here, but, just going on what you gave me, I suggest you comment on her original nasty post so she knows you know what she wrote. Utterly without inflection, write, “I’m sorry to hear you feel this way.” That’s it, then block her on that site.
Whatever you may or may not have done to offend her, the fact that she responded this way is cowardly and completely on her. It also hints at a profoundly unhappy person, which also is about her, not you. The hate is her damage, not yours.
And the onus is on her to rebuild a relationship with you if that’s what she wants. In the meantime, heal by devoting your time and concern to people who welcome you — and civility — in their lives.

"It will all be OK in the end. If it isn't OK, it isn't the end."

"It will all be OK in the end.
If it isn't OK, it isn't the end."
~ author unknown