Heart Studies Suggest Eating Chocolate With Less Guilt???

Okay, so who among us could resist a title like the one for this article?  Best yet, there truly were studies and no they were NOT underwritten by any companies involved in the candy industry!  So, click on the link below the picture to read my latest article published on Technorati, and meanwhile may I offer you a :cuppa” and some chocolate chip cookies?

 

 

 

http://technorati.com/lifestyle/family/article/heart-studies-suggest-eating-chocolate-with/

WWJD? He WOULD Do This!

My most recently published article on Technorati tells of a non-profit organization which is composed of many volunteers who spend some 60 hours a week in prison empowering and educating women, leading them in new directions so that they can turn their lives around upon re-entry into their communities and their personal lives with family and friends. 

“What would Jesus do?” has become a cliché in our culture, but I must say that the answer to that question related to this prison program, is a resounding “this is EXACTLY what Jesus would do!” 

To read about this program and the great effect it is having in changing lives, click:

http://technorati.com/lifestyle/article/new-beginnings-educating-women-behind-bars/

Passion = Easy? NOT!

Are you one of those people who hear others say “but you’re so good at it” just before they try to pass off an unpopular task on you?  Are you one who hears those words spoken in disdain by folks who seem to think “some people get all the breaks” and that they do not? 

When you are passionate about something, what does it really mean?  For me, and for many I know personally, all it means is that there’s something I’m willing to work really hard at!  When something is my “PASSION’ that simply means I’m going to keep pushing, keep striving, keep my eyes and my heart on the goal until I achieve it and no matter how much it takes.  Passion doesn’t mean the goal is easy.  Gosh, it’s anything but that.  What it does mean is that I’m focused and I’m willing to work hard and that the work, the sweat, the tears . . . it’s all worthwhile. 

 

 

Out of Focus on Love

You know, this is random but you’ll realize that soon . . .  the dictionary – and society – has a poor definition of love in my personal opinion.  It seems to me that both sources of “meaning” present a picture that more closely resembles lust than love. 

 

I mean, eyes meet across a crowded room – love at first sight?  Okay, sure you can approach and have a relationship and it can become love if you both choose to make it that, but the concept of love at first sight is flawed since two strangers are only attracted initially by curiosity and lust. 

 

Love is a noun, or as a noun, is something we can have.  We decide to have it.  We work to perfect it.  We give it.  We seek it.  If we are Christians, we are especially called to all these but while it might feel good and often it might not feel all that good, its work.  It’s a lot of work. 

 

 It makes us step outside of our “all about me” world and put “it” out there and take risk in doing so.  Life becomes entirely different and in my view rises to a higher level when we decide to love and put it, this love, into action. 

 

It is not, however, initially a feeling or a verb, at all.  It begins as a noun and it’s only what we decide that makes it more than that.  We don’t even have to decide in favor.  I know some who do not choose to live with love as a focus.  I pray for them. 

 

Do you love what you do?  Does it show?  Do you feel the benefits of having made the decision to love? 

 

Just random thoughts. . . you know, getting back to the gaze across a crowded room theory . . . we are quick to buy into the concept of “love at first sight” and get all hot and sweaty about a cute stranger . . . sometimes . . . but then other times, we pass judgment and show ourselves to be unwilling to accept anyone who’s “different” from us.

 

Where’s the “love” when we’re faced with political unrest?  Where it is when we are faced with folks who worship differently than we do?  Dress differently than we do?  Speak a different native tongue than our own? 

 

Jesus died for them, too.

Perfect Peace!

 

Isaiah 26:3

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.

As we face Hurricane Irene this weekend, and other great challenges in life, I offer this verse to remind all of us of the source of all strength and peace. 

Reading this verse reminded me of an old favorite praise song.  I found a beautiful version of this which is not the contemporary one I recall, but which is quite lovely and which I share with you here:

 

Thou Wilt Keep Him in Perfect Peace – Wesley

 

Samuel Sebastian Welsey’s Thou Wilt Keep Him in Perfect Peace. Sung by Consortium. Score from cpdl.org

http://youtu.be/2ZDPcXOl7Mw

West Nile Virus – Take It Seriously!

It is that time of year again.  Most of us are facing “back-t0-school” season and either preparing our family for this or have already seen the beginning of a new school year.  This causes us to mourn the end of summer, and possibly to ignore something that we need to be attentive to.  I’m referring to West Nile Virus which is transmitted by mosquitoes.  Who among us hasn’t scratched an itch and made a face over those annoying flying insects, yet this virus can be dangerous and even deadly.  Please read my new article on Technorati, and protect yourself and  your family!

http://technorati.com/lifestyle/family/article/west-nile-virus-take-it-seriously/

What Romeo Didn’t Know

Did you know that happily married people live longer?  Recent medical research has proven this.  Read my recently published article on Technorati entitled “A Happy Marriage = A Healthy Heart to learn more!  We already know love makes us feel good, now find out how love affects patients recovering from bypass surgery!  Click here to see my article.

Window Falls – Your Child May Be At Risk

Did you know that in the last 2 decades over 100,000 children under the age of 5 were injured or killeed from falling out of windows?  This isn’t a big city problem.  It is happening in modest homes and most often through screens in first and second floor windows.  Please read my recent article on Technorati for details.

Leaping For Joy!

Just driving down the street to fill my car with gas the other day brought tears to my eyes as memories of my Dad came flooding back to me.  The anniversary of his death is coming near.  My Dad was my hero but not because he invented something world changing and not because he discovered a cure for the common cold.  My Dad was a country boy.  In my eyes he could do anything.  He found joy in simple things and taught me to do so as well.  He always had a smile, a laugh, a hug.  As I drove down the street with my car windows open, I saw a bit of smoke in the air and heard the crackling sounds of a brush fire well controlled in the neighbor’s yard and smelled that oh so familiar smell.  The smoke didn’t bring tears to my eyes, though.  It was the memories from long ago. 

One of my favorite memories is really just a small thing and yet I can remember it so well now as decades have passed and I am that 6 year old again.  I can hear the sounds from that day long gone, can smell the aromas that marked the day, and feel the textures.  Daddy was out in the yard raking leaves.  We had lots and lots of them as the yard and neighborhood were filled with trees and it was autumn.  The lovely colors were turning to rust as the leaves dried out and fell from the trees and he had a huge pile of them ready to burn.  I watched.  I can hear the squeak of the rake against the hard earth.  I can hear the crunch of the branches and dried  brush under my feat.  I watched from the stairs as the pile grew higher and higher.  Finally Daddy was satisfied with his progress and went into the cellar to get a hose and some matches to burn the leaves and put out the fire.  As he disappeared from view, I saw my opportunity

Jumping up from my watchful spot on the stairs, I ran to the pile of leaves and leaped into the pile!  As I did, the leaves flew into the air and I landed on the soft pile and then leaped up again and again!  Each time I landed back down into the soft, dry leaves, I swung my arms about me and giggled with joy as the leaves flew higher and higher into the air then fell back to land on my nose, in my hair, and scattered about the yard!  It seemed to me at the time that Daddy must have been having trouble finding that hose because I had plenty of time to leap for joy in the pile of leaves!  Looking back, I am older now than my Daddy was then and I know he must surely have been standing nearbv and watching me.  Maybe he was remembering the small boy he used to be and remembering my Grampa doing what he was doing. 

 Daddy had to do a lot of the raking all over again after my time spent playing with the pile of leaves was over.  I remember it all so well.  I don’t recall getting scolded, though, nor even frowned at.  I only recall the grin on Daddy’s face as he came from around the corrner of the yard carrying the hose and box of matches.  I can hear his laughter even now.

I love you, Daddy!

 

Leaping . . . Giggling . . . Remembering . . . Happy Tears

If your childhood was anything like mine, you will recall collecting colorful Autumn leaves, jumping in piles of them, and maybe getting gently scolded for having bits of dry brush on your clothing and in your hair.  If so, this post on my Open Salon Blog will bring back happy memories for you and I invite you to pop over by clicking the link.  Here are some photographs of New England’s colorful Fall leaves.