All in the Family S07E14 Gloria's False Alarm

still a social problem in USA 2018 ad.

Exploring Pennsylvania's abandoned highway

Open Prayer

Today’s Reflection

PART OF LEARNING to pray continually is to stay open in prayer. Sometimes after we say amen, we check off prayer on our to-do list and shut down the conversation. But God has invited us — called us — to pray without ceasing, to keep the conversation going all day, every day. The hymn “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” is absolutely correct: “What a privilege to carry every thing to God in prayer!”

– Jenny Youngman
Scrambled Starts

The Taking of Flight 847 - The Uli Derickson Story (1988) ENGLISH VERSION

Mercy Mission: The Rescue Of Flight 771 (1993)

All in the Family S4 E16 Mike and Gloria Mix it Up

All in the Family S4 E15 Edith's Christmas Story

The King Of Queens S4E15 Dougie Nights

Radical Humility

Today’s Reflection

FOR ME, the spiritual journey is not about growing more certain about the world, but rather about embracing more and more the mystery at the heart of everything and living into the great questions of life. In a world where so many people are so very certain about the nature of things, especially in religious circles about who God includes and excludes, I believe unknowing calls us to a radical humility.

– Weavings, May/June/July 2015

Weekend Blessing

All In The Family, Edith's Problem, S 2 E 14

The Story Of Flight 93 (9/11 Documentary) - Real Stories

All in the Family S02E18 Archie Sees a Mugging

All in the Family S5 E12 George and Archie Make a Deal

Comfort Me, God

Posted: 12 Sep 2018 10:01 PM PDT

Today’s Reflection

I GAZE out the window at the oak tree my children and grandchildren used to climb.
Now that I am alone, the memories of this house comfort me.
I wish I could roll back the clock to an earlier time when laughter and music filled these rooms, but I can’t.
On days when I feel sad and lonely, I find comfort in the familiarity of home. My home.
The kitchen window overlooks the crape myrtle that blooms every spring.
The squeaky screen door announces a neighbor’s arrival.
The workshop smells of oil and wood shavings.
My family members think it is time for me to move, but I cannot imagine my life compressed into a single-room apartment.
I have tried to digest their concerns—
I need more help; I can no longer live safely on my own; I am alone; my home is too expensive to maintain.
I know they mean well, but the idea of moving brings anxiety and fear.
O Lord, I don’t know what to do.
How can I leave the place that brings so much joy to what time I have left?
Comfort me, God, and give me direction.

–
Voices of Aging

Comfort Me, God

Today’s Reflection

I GAZE out the window at the oak tree my children and grandchildren used to climb.
Now that I am alone, the memories of this house comfort me.
I wish I could roll back the clock to an earlier time when laughter and music filled these rooms, but I can’t.
On days when I feel sad and lonely, I find comfort in the familiarity of home. My home.
The kitchen window overlooks the crape myrtle that blooms every spring.
The squeaky screen door announces a neighbor’s arrival.
The workshop smells of oil and wood shavings.
My family members think it is time for me to move, but I cannot imagine my life compressed into a single-room apartment.
I have tried to digest their concerns—
I need more help; I can no longer live safely on my own; I am alone; my home is too expensive to maintain.
I know they mean well, but the idea of moving brings anxiety and fear.
O Lord, I don’t know what to do.
How can I leave the place that brings so much joy to what time I have left?
Comfort me, God, and give me direction.

–
Voices of Aging

From page 53 of Voices of Aging: Adult Children and Agin

Bald Eagle Lands On Fire Truck During 9/11 Ceremony: Doesn't Get Much Mo...

The Upper Room

Today’s Reflection

TIME (or rather, the lack of it) is a great source of worry for many. For some reason, you may have the idea that there isn’t enough time to go around. Twenty-four hours in a day are too few to do what needs to be done. Twenty-five or even twenty-six hours would do the trick. Perhaps you wish for a forty-day month!

Where did we get the idea that time is a finite commodity? The psalmist says, “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night” (Ps. 90:4). God’s time is an infinite quantity. Time is a divine gift — limitless and beyond counting. How does that thought change your perspective on time? Are you suddenly feeling less rushed and harried?

When all is said and done, the only time you really have is this moment. The past moment is gone; the future moment is yet to come. A lot can happen between this moment and the next: a phone call could change your life; a heart attack could take it away. You have only this moment to concern you. If you’re feeling anxious about time, take this moment and pray that God will give you the time you need to do what needs to be done. Time is God’s gift, and when you become mindful of this gift, you’ll be surprised to find that the time you need is suddenly there. It’s as if the clock is slowed down or that the minutes stretch out before you, limitless and abundant.

– Patricia Wilson
Freedom from Worry

Where were you September 11, 2001? Remembering 9/11 - Behind the News

Today’s Reflection

Standing Firm Posted: 09 Sep 2018 10:01 PM PDT WE HAVE PLACES of fear inside of us, but we have other places as well — places with names like trust and hope and faith. We can choose to lead from one of those places, to stand on ground that is not riddled with the fault lines of fear, to move toward others from a place of promise instead of anxiety. As we stand in one of those places, fear may remain close at hand and our spirits may still tremble. But now we stand on ground that will support us, ground from which we can lead others toward a more trustworthy, more hopeful, more faithful way of being in the world. – Excerpt is from “Standing Firm” by Parker J. Palmer Hope

Sound of Silence

Silence Posted: 07 Sep 2018 10:01 PM PDT Today’s Reflection WE NEED TO FIND times and places of silence because every day our ears are bombarded with noise; it’s everywhere! From the moment we awaken in the morning until our head hits the pillow at night, we are assulted by noise — traffic, leaf blowers, Muzak. Restaurants too can be filled with the buzz of waiters dropping glasses, children crying, and people who speak exceptionally loudly. These references to external noise do not touch the noise within, which may be louder than the noise on the street. Those around us cannot hear our inner voices, but we hear them, and they take their toll on our creativity, productivity, and peace. In this cacophony of noise, there is one sound that we rarely hear: the sound of silence. A world without things going on would be awful, and when things go on noise is inevitable; as a consequence, we must search for pockets of silence to find respite. Daily those of us who treasure silence engage in a war on noise and, unfortunately, we lose many battles. Why is that? Are we bored with life? Bored with ourselves? Must we be distracted every minute of the day? In this turbulence we need to find a place of silence where we can receive new strength and discover the Reality that waits for us beyond the noise and distractions of life. What a difference it would make if we could for once stop to explore the depth of silence within us. – Ben C. Johnson and Paul H. Lang Time Away

Believing Power

THE WOUNDS that scar the mind and heart,
the pain that binds the soul,
the power of faith that transcends thought,
the Love that frees, makes whole,
all shape a life more certainly
than visible reality.

-Gerrie L. Grimsely and Jane J. Young
Contemplative by Design

What Are We Forming ?

Today’s Reflection

FORMATION COMES as a function of time, practice, and symbol. Some families are forming sports fans. Some are spending lots of time outside hiking and biking, practicing habits of recycling. We form our families by the ways we spend our time, our regular habits, and the symbols that repeat themselves on our clothing and refrigerator magnets.

Yet choosing to form our children spiritually seems more intimidating, more difficult and abstract. For many parents, spiritual formation sounds like a burden, an impossibility, a task for which they feel unqualified. But the same practices that form a die-hard Hoosier or a politically astute child — family time, regular practice, and concrete symbols — can convey Christian tradition and spirituality to our children with equal joy and lasting effect. As we engage in spiritually forming one another, family members spend time together with God, develop spiritual practices, and incorporate Christian symbols into our lives.

– Kara Lassen Oliver
Passing It On

A Neighborhood Reconciliation Center Posted: 04 Sep 2018 10:01 PM PDT Today’s Reflection RECONCILIATION IS NOT a hasty process, proclaiming peace where there is no peace, ignoring injustice and human suffering. Reconciliation is intimately connected with justice, with right relations. As Christians, we must restore the work of reconciliation from the periphery to the center of the life and witness of the church where it belongs. My dream is that every church becomes a neighborhood reconciliation center. – Thomas Porter The Spirit and Art of Conflict Transformation

Upper Room

Today’s Reflection

SWAMI DESCRIBED the modern-day Hindu guru as God’s grace — not a ploy for men and women to be worshiped and elevated above others. God cares for us enough to bestow mercy on us by showing us how best to serve. Grace has been bestowed on someone who is more advanced and who can now show us the way,” Swami explained. “We shouldn’t envy someone whom we perceive to be more advanced at living like Christ than we are. Instead, we should feel joy that God cares enough to send that person to show us what to do.”

I hadn’t thought about God appointing gurus to help us figure out this mess of a life. But that is exactly what Jesus was: the ultimate guru and the ultimate grace. And that’s precisely what the hometown gurus I’d known — the dear followers of Jesus — had done for me.

A real guru, like Christ, will always point to God. The saints I’d known in my childhood and adolescence embodied God’s grace — and accurately represented God by that grace.

– J. Dana Trent
Saffron Cross