Let me start with a story:  Imagine you're at a symphony.  The orchestra is playing the most beautiful music you've ever heard and you're completely wrapped up in the moment.  Then you realize you might have left your car unlocked.  If you leave the symphony, you can't re-enter until intermission, so you stay.  That nagging … Continue reading enjoy the symphony of life →

You might be thinking, that subject doesn't quite make sense.  This is one of Father De Mello's mantras that focuses on the concepts rather than the words and grammar. Let me illustrate this one:  say you're feeling depressed.  You're likely to think (or say), "I am depressed".  That's not true, though.  You are not your … Continue reading we are not our feelings →

The other aspect of our language that I wanted to discuss occurs in the language we don't often put a voice to...and that's the language of our thoughts.  More specifically, our thoughts directed at or to ourselves. I am one of the guilty ones here (as are many others) when it comes to being a … Continue reading the importance of language part 2 →

I am a firm believer that the language we use (verbally or in our thoughts) greatly affects our beliefs, attitude and our character.  This certainly shows up in using profanity.  Growing up, as many teens and young adults do, I used quite a bit more profanity than I do now.  I can attest that when … Continue reading the importance of language →

Another of my favorite passages of Jesus' goes as follows: "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is … Continue reading focus on the plank →

In Matthew 7, Jesus spoke about knowing a tree by its' fruit.  To paraphrase, you can recognize whether a tree is good or bad by whether its' fruit is (or brings about) good or bad.  This is an interesting test to put against many things in life. Take what we eat, for example.  If we're … Continue reading a tree and it’s fruit →

I saw a great Thomas Merton quote in the most unlikely of places yesterday (a credit union teller line): "Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony." I'm curious as to what others think of the "intensity" portion and what Merton meant by that, but this relates closely with … Continue reading happiness →

It's very easy to get caught up trying to figure out life or figure out why certain things happen and other things don't.  All of us have our own agendas, wishes and desires and we all hope and pray that God's will for us includes all of those.  When that doesn't happen, we usually get … Continue reading life as a child →