This is an odd week. No business meetings. No school. No medical appointments. No expectancy. Christmas is past, the new year not yet arrived. A week of suspended activity. But it’s just another week, isn’t it? Another seven days like any other seven days? Yet it’s...
Two Types of Hope – Which One Is Yours?
If there’s one thing in short supply these days, it’s hope. Politicians promise, but fail to deliver on their promises. Family members make commitments, but disappoint us. Terrorists strike with seeming impunity. Jobs are scarce, money is tight, and the more we wish...
Stealth Consequences
I did it again. Sigh. You’d think I would be more careful. But for several weeks, clean up from Hurricane Irma has required us to step into overgrown areas to clear downed trees. Those overgrown spaces were also full of Brazilian pepper vines. For those who are not...
Waiting in Hope…Even If
Are you in God’s waiting room? Have you been praying for something, on hold for an answer, hoping for your circumstances to change? I confess, waiting is not my favorite activity. And right now, I’m waiting for something especially critical…test results of a loved...
A New Way to Express Kindness
Kindness is a virtue most of us appreciate and many of us aspire to. You may have heard about the practice of random acts of kindness. It supposedly began in 1982 when Anne Herbert scrawled the words "practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty" on a...
Prisoner of Hope
What makes one person a prisoner of hope, while another is mired in hopelessness? My “one word” for 2017 is hope, so I’m especially attuned to this word this year. And the subject came up again during a recent lunch with a friend. She asked me how to become a...
Life’s Traffic Lights
Today is the 103rd anniversary of the first electric traffic system installed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1914. Four sets of red and green lights told drivers when to stop and go. The Cleveland Automobile Club praised the system, saying they expected that it was “destined...
What is Your New Normal?
“I can’t wait till things get back to normal.” Have you said those words recently? Normal. The good old days. A slower pace. Less hectic. Fewer troubles. Happier times. Not like it is today. Today has health problems. Doctor appointments. Conflicts. Struggles to find...
What Happens When You Write a Letter?
Most days I reach into the mailbox with disinterest. Bills. Advertisements. More bills. Rarely anything else, except at Christmas or for birthdays. After all, if someone personal wanted to contact me, I’d see their note as an email, text, or Facebook message. Who...
National I Am in Control Day
Did you know there’s a National I Am in Control Day? Really. And it’s observed annually on March 30. When I first learned of this dedicated day, I laughed. After all, I’m a self-confessed recovering control freak. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that...
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