Ideas

Your Actual Purpose

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Why am I? What do I have to give? There is much talk about purpose these days, and many folks are struggling with questions about whether they are doing the right thing with their life. They spend a lot of energy sorting out what human typecast or exterior construct their purpose should conform to, when … Read more

Be Your True Self

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There is nothing more important than being your true self. This does not mean catering to your human personality, but instead, expressing and embracing your actual individuality as created by God. There is nothing more noble or satisfying than being exactly what God made you to be. It is counterproductive to let personality define you … Read more

Quote from E.F. Schumacher

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“Our ordinary mind always tries to persuade us that we are nothing but acorns and that our greatest happiness will be to become bigger, fatter, shinier acorns; but that is of interest only to pigs. Our faith gives us knowledge of something much better: that we can become oak trees.” E.F. Schumacher Sept/Oct Quest Magazine … Read more

Resistance and Oil

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I am so grateful to have been to Creative Arts Camp this year! It was just what I needed and I want to thank everyone there for facilitating for me an “oil change” of a spiritual proportion. Let me explain. Many years ago now, I was working on a major church project that was an … Read more

Creative Arts Camp 2011: The Bible Lesson

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One of the great things about Creative Arts Camp is the morning meeting where we start our day hymn singing, doing collective Bible Study, and sharing inspirations. Just entering the incredible space on that peninsula overlooking the lake on both sides with incredible music by Phoebe (cello) and Linda (piano) is profoundly uplifting. The Bible … Read more

Rotarian Four-way Test

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My Father-in-law and brother-in-law were and are active Rotarians. James’ dad gave me a poster of their “Four-way Test” that I love, and it has an honored spot up in my office. This is a wonderful test for the things we choose to think, and say and do: Is it Truth? Is it fair to … Read more

Mark Twain’s House in Lego

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For those LEGO enthusiasts out there, I had to share this. We saw it in the Hartford airport: Mark Twain’s house in Lego. Mark Twain won and lost several fortunes in his lifetime; this house was clearly from a winning streak! Imagine building it out of Lego!

“Spitting in the Wind”

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Very timely for me, I read today the book of Ecclesiastes from the Message version of the Bible. Below I quote from the translator’s preface to the book and then a bit of the text. Interestingly, “Vanities” was repeatedly translated as “spitting in the wind.” I loved that. “Ecclesiastes is a famous witness to this … Read more

Laura’s Quarry Party

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Many years ago we started having my youngest daughter’s birthday party in the summer near her half birthday, due to multiple cancellations and rescheduling due to weather of anything we tried to plan in February. So a tradition of an August Quarry Party has evolved… A good time is had by all!

Steinbeck Quote

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“… And it is a strange thing that most of the feeling we call religious, most of the mystical outcrying which is one of the most prized and used and desired reactions of our species, is really the understanding and the attempt to say that man is related to the whole thing, related inextricably to … Read more

Thwarting Squirrels; Saving Peaches

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One of the great things about my job is having no commute; I often work at the picnic table in the summer. There is one squirrel in particular, that makes impertinent eye contact with me often. Sassy. While I’m in full view watching him, he jauntily climbs up the peach tree, chooses one immature beauty … Read more