promise

“To thine own self be true.” What happens when you are willing to do that?

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Shakespeare said, “To thine own self be true.” What happens when you are willing to do that? I’m not sure why this memory came back to me today, but about six years ago we went out riding with our motorcycle friends on a long, leisurely, calm, dry ride to dinner.  Now flip what I just … Read more

From Crisis to Calling: Finding Your Moral Center in the Toughest Decisions – Book Summary

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As I sat down to write about this book, From Crisis to Calling: Finding your Moral Center in the Toughest Decisions by Sasha Chanoff and David Chanoff, an online article in the Huff Post grabbed my attention proclaiming Afghan Refugee Crisis Worsens. It seems the news is dominated by more and more crises related to refugees … Read more

Search for joy, find peace

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If we practice it diligently, anxiety can become a habit.  If we practice it diligently, peace can become a habit.  Remember that habits are learned behavior. Anxiety can be unlearned. The best way to learn or unlearn is what? Practice!  The best time to start is when? How about right now? Today is a good day … Read more

What to do when there’s nothing you can do…

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One of my closest friends posted this on Facebook, “It’s hard being so far away when things like this happen.” I can relate. Can you? When someone we love is thousands of miles away and we can’t go to them, helplessness is its own form of trauma. Waiting through a medical procedure, wondering but hoping … Read more

But wait! There's more!

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OK OK I get it! When we hear those words, don’t we think ‘Please spare me the lame commercial!’? I’m going to take a wild guess here and assume most everyone who reads this is a friend from Michigan, or in a state with similar weather patterns. As I look outside, the sun is frozen … Read more

Let's play a game: Fresh Look Friday

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OK! Everybody up! Rise AND Shine!  It’s Friday – Let’s play a game. Come on. You know you want to. We’ll call it Fresh Look Friday. Have you ever heard of Pay-It-Forward? How about Random Acts of Kindness? And here’s one. Have you ever heard someone transform the words of Luke 6:31 which clearly says … Read more

Wake up! You need this relationship.

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How do you wake up in the morning? OK. OK. I get that. You wake up breathing. That’s good. Keep doing that. But really how do you wake up? To an alarm? To music? To someone shaking you back to consciousness? Does a song ever wake you up? This morning I heard someone singing, “I … Read more

Within Tolerance

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“Be still my soul, the Lord is on your side” … “In the morning when I rise, give me Jesus.” Hovering between sleep and the first dawn of day, those songs made paths through my memory. To understand, you need the backstory. I don’t drive very often, and never when there’s a hint of poor … Read more

Learning from highlights of the past

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I have a rule which I follow pretty diligently. Protect the first hour and last hour of the day – no televised news shows and no talk shows. They plant seeds of negativity that have to be weeded out before the roots take hold. If you’re into gardening you know how pesky those insidious little … Read more

Refining Grace