Faith & Life Inspirational Message

As Americans, we enter the Thanksgiving season. Already people are wishing me a “happy Thanksgiving.” I am delighted with that greeting. And I would be delighted if someone next week wishes me a “happy Monday.” But I guess Mondays are supposed to be normal…not so happy, not so awful. I am not sure I do major holidays very well. I am not against them. They celebrate important events in national, religious, and often personal lives. Thanksgiving is an American deal. In Turkey it is just another weekday! As an American, I welcome it. And I hope it is happy. I am confident one of the reasons I am not sure about major holidays is the trickiness of expectations. For example, Thanksgiving is supposed to be “happy.” Christmas is supposed to be “merry” and, of course, we return to the “happy” theme for New Years. Clearly, for too many people there are too many lousy things going on to gear up to be “happy” and “merry.” Holiday expectations are tricky things. The truth is Thanksgiving lasts one ...

I do not usually read books looking for quotations.  But inevitably a phrase or, even, a whole sentence will jump out at me and I know it is a “keeper.”  Sometimes, I do not even know for sure why it is so important or why it captivated me.  I am convinced that sometimes I am captivated and, then, I have to figure out why that is the case. Just such a thing happened recently as I was reading a book that is being used by a group of which I am a participant.  Parker Palmer’s book, The Active Life , is a good read.  I confess that I like Parker, that he is a friend of mine, and I am biased to like whatever he writes.  But that confession does not mean he cannot say important things and everyone would agree. The phrase that jumped out to capture me comes in a chapter he entitled, “Active Life:” The Shadow Side.”  Thinking about the shadow side does not entice me.  In fact, I find it a bit foreboding.  I don’t have doubts that I have a shadow ...

It is inevitable if you live longer enough, you learn things you never thought you would learn or even be interested in learning.  That has happened to me with regularity.  If we are lucky, we get to spend much of our time doing things we want to do.  Perhaps this is one definition of freedom.  In this sense I have been quite free.  Other than a couple jobs during college, I have had some freedom in choice of work, where to work and even more.  At least, I know I have been fortunate and am grateful. One of the things I assumed I had little interest in and assumed I did not want to learn about was business.  I respected folks who went into business.  Growing up on a farm meant, in some fashion, we were our own business.  I learned that you had to make more money than you spent or you were in trouble.  I learned the basics and could have been a farmer and made it ok.  But I was called elsewhere. During the process of a great deal of r...

I recently saw and interesting article headline that enticed me: “Home for a visit, a year after leaving the church.”  The article was penned by Melinda Henneberger, whom I learned, is a writer for a Kansas City newspaper.  I don’t know her.  But I was pulled into reading the article.  She tells about going back to church when she was in town for a meeting.  She comments, “It mostly felt good to be back at home, even though I don't live there anymore.”  I had to remember that she is talking about her visit to her church.  In many ways it was home. I began to realize that she was reflecting on her upbringing as a Catholic.  She describes how meaningful it was and that it was a really home, albeit a spiritual home.  But she has now left home.  She left home because of some of the issues that grip the Catholic Church---but not only the Catholic Church.  It was clear she misses some of her former home.  Going back only reminded her...

I have multiple occasions to consider the phenomenon of optimism.  I see many different examples of optimism and, perhaps just as frequently, its opposite, which is pessimism.  I am sure when I was younger, I would have thought that optimism and pessimism were inherent to a situation.  This means that a situation made me optimistic or pessimistic.  I had no real choice; the situation dictated how we were to see it.  That is a clear, firm answer, but now I think it is not the right answer. I had to revise this way of looking at optimism when I realized in the same situation, some people were optimistic and others were pessimistic.  People were responding from different angles to the same situation.  Apparently, there was some choosing of perspective. The more I thought my way into this situation, the clearer I became that this position likely was closer to the way things are.  I am willing to grant that at some age, people may be shaped to see thin...

For the most part, I do not like the group emails that have information that is cute or supposed to be funny.  Like the old phone calls most of us hated, some emails come and we see who sent it and our response is “Ugh!”  Thankfully, there is the handy delete button!  It is better than WhiteOut! But there are always exceptions.  And I recently received one of those.  It came from a friend whom I trust.  It was nothing more than a compilation of one-liners.  Many of them I knew and some of them I regularly use.  By that I mean something like “penny wise and pound foolish.”  I do not know who originally said that.  And many folks do not even know for sure what it means.  I have always assumed it has to do with British currency. So I briefly scrolled down the list…rather aimlessly looking at some of the one-liners.  My eyes landed on one that riveted my attention.  It said, “Forgive your enemies. It messes up their heads....

It was just a casual conversation.  I was paying attention, but it was not the kind of sharp awareness that focuses the attention to make sure I am ready for important stuff.  That meant I was not alert enough to anticipate the question that came my way.  Indeed, it began innocently.  “Can I ask you a question,” the person asked?  “Sure,” I said naively.  Usually the content matches the context.  But in this case, it did not.  The person asked, “Do you know about OM?”  “A little,” I said.  I did know a little bit about it.  I know it comes out of the Hindu tradition and is also found in Buddhist circles.  The little I know is more than most Americans would know.  But if I were in India, my ignorance would be remarkable!  So I quickly shared a bit of the little that I knew.  I said it was mostly associated with Hinduism.  It is a symbol that points to the Holy.  And that was sufficient to get me thro...