Category: Uncategorized
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The comfort of friendship
Powerful winds toppled trees in our neighborhood this week, and we lost power. We were in the dark for 26 hours, but our lights came on at 7:30 one morning—just as we were leaving to have breakfast with our neighbor across the street—and she still cooked us breakfast even though our power had returned! As…
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More buried wisdom
I am sorting through more papers—and more papers. Getting ready for a major house renovation. More papers! And, I have found more words of wisdom. I have always liked this poem by Mary Oliver—especially the last two lines. “Tell me, what is it you plan to do With your one wild and precious life?” –Joy
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What you pretend
“We are what we pretend to be,” the author Kurt Vonnegut once said. “So, we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
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When should you be angry?
I mentioned that I’m angry and distraught that we have to make major repairs to our home’s foundation and plumbing. The news was shocking, but I am absorbing it—and remembering something my mother said often. “You can tell the size of a person by what makes that person angry.” Yes, the news was terrible. But,…
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Throw away your anger
I am angry and distraught that our house needs extensive foundation and plumbing repairs. Yikes! That’s why something I read in the April 26, 2024 issue of The Week was helpful. Write down your angry feelings and then immediately throw the paper away. You’ll feel much better, a Japanese study reports. –Joy
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Keep reading
Yikes! I am getting rid of books. Because I have too many books. Still, it’s difficult. And, of course, I’ll keep reading—and buying more books. As Dr. Seus says, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” –Joy
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To find meaning
“It’s an absurd thing—life, we try to find meaning,” write Einar and Jamex de la Torre in the words that accompany their art exhibit at the Philbrook Museum in Tulsa.
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Helping one another
When do we help someone else? When it’s easy? When it requires some sacrifice on our part? When it would be easier not to help? In Claire Keegan’s book Small Things Like These, the main character is confronted with a difficult decision. Should he help if helping might carry negative consequences for him and his…
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Courage
In her book Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan calls for us to act with courage. “Was it possible to carry on along through all the years, the decades, through an entire life, without once being brave enough to go against what was there and yet call yourself a Christian, and face yourself in the…
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Chance
“It seemed both proper and at the same time deeply unfair that so much of life was left to chance,” says Claire Keegan, author of Small Things Like These.