As a child, a word I often heard from a teacher or my Momma was, “Now pay attention.” That’s a word we need to hear and pay attention to throughout life. OK, Now pay attention to this word from the French spiritual writer, Simone Weil. “Those who are happy have no...
If we don’t know where we’re going, what does where we arrive matter? If we don’t have directions, our lives become a series of cul-de-sacs, blind alleys, and we constantly are beating our heads up against that proverbial brick wall. There’s a somewhat funny story...
It seems universally true: we constantly strive for more. Satisfaction seems beyond our grasp. Getting off the treadmill of striving for MORE is difficult; even feels dangerous. Without making a decision about it, we connect our urge for more with our resistance to...
“Thousands of people have talent. I might as well congratulate you for having eyes in your head. The one and only thing that counts is: Do you have staying power.” I thought of this word by the playwright Noel Coward when I read the story of Wilma Rudolph. As a child...
Age is an issue at all times of our life. In fact, age is an issue of life because our aging determines in large part the pattern of our lives. A friend told me this story recently. A seven-year-old girl was sitting on her grandmother's lap. As the little girl moved...
Facebook can be a bane or a blessing. I could say that differently: Facebook can be a blessing or a curse. Without getting into details about why bane rather than blessing, I think it sounds better, and curse sounds so harsh, I received an email a few days ago that...
Two news items today, June 8th, got my immediate attention. Former Kansas resident Allison Ficke-Ekren pleaded guilty to leading an ISIS women’s battalion. A former teacher, she converted to Islam and left the U.S. She has been training women and girls (including her...
Far be it for me to say or write anything that would glorify war. I’m not a pacifist, but probably an “almost one.” I regularly read the newspaper and listen to the news find out what is going on in Ukraine. The war there has the attention of the world. Most everyone...