Recovery. Sobriety. Living Wise.
The dogwood tree outside my bedroom window is blossoming. When I open the drapes in the morning and look out from my second-story window, I see hundreds of small white flowers. I first noticed the buds opening on Easter morning, and my first thought was: Praise the Lord, Christ has risen. I sensed what the Jesuit poet Gerald Manley Hopkins sensed when he wrote: The … Continue reading A Thought on Prayer (by Joe N.)
Friends, I’d like to dedicate this post to one of the most skilled sailors I know: my cousin, Dennis Parker, the elder of the Moriarty clan, a friend to many, and my first hero. In the opening act of Shakespeare’s Henry VI, the King appears in a forest, disguised and carrying a prayer book. Thinking he is alone, he speaks aloud while trying to … Continue reading Smooth Seas Do Not Make Skilled Sailors
We got wind over the holidays that a number of dear friends have have had a rough go of it. One friend said it was like having the lights go out, then living in darkness with no way to turn them back on. Living in darkness may be the ultimate experience of powerlessness. I remember when such a darkness hung over me. It was June … Continue reading The Beauty of Borrowed Light
[This post includes a short video best experienced from the Just a Thought website. Please click the link above.] “Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me – The Carriage held but just Ourselves – And Immortality.” ~ Emily Dickinson I’ve reached an age where I’m frequently hearing of an old friend boarding the carriage bound for eternity. There … Continue reading Live a Good Life. Now.
“The greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.” ― Martha Washington And yet in places like Gaza and Ukraine and the Sudan it’s impossible to believe that anyone could find happiness in such harsh, brutal and terrifying circumstances. But miraculously, people do. And it is one of the great miracles of life. We see it … Continue reading The Flutter of Happiness