These days, there is a lot of poverty in the world, and that’s a scandal when we have so many riches and resources to give to everyone. Pope Francis Angela Burgess is on a mission to help families escape the poverty trap and find hope for their futures. I met this exuberant carrier of hope through the Houston non-profit RaiseUp Families organization. After being a long-time donor, she became the executive director in 2020. In […]
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People of Hope – Dr. Leslie
People of hope are men and women who see a need and find a way to respond to it; doing something encouraging for others. With so much discouraging and upsetting news bombarding us at every turn, it is easy to become distraught and overcome by despair. Living with despair is bad for our mental health. I can’t change the news, but I can counter it with stories about people who find ways to instill hope. […]
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Friendships
Friendships are as crucial for a well-balanced, healthy, happy life as food is for sustaining life. Alan Loy McGinnis’ The Friendship Factor highlights the crucial role friends play in our overall health. He suggests that if everyone had at least one close friend, we would see a considerable drop in assorted mental health challenges. Friendships are essential to feeling satisfied with life. Friends provide company, consolation, encouragement, and even healthy challenges at times. The first friend I […]
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Liminal Spaces
A new year. A fresh start. New possibilities. New hopes. New Goals. Lately, I’ve been hearing and reading about liminal spaces; those times when we’re in transition from what was to what is becoming. That seems like the perfect description of the time between the end of one year and the start of another. Liminal spaces can be exciting as we anticipate all the glorious things we’re going to accomplish before the next New Years’ […]
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Christmas Carol
It’s hard to imagine a Christmas season without Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol making an appearance. This Christmas holiday season finds me giving copious quantities of cash to various home supply shops as I organize my new apartment. My daughter and her daughter are celebrating all of us being together this year by helping me bake cookies for a church fundraiser to support a local charity. I hope you’ll enjoy this rerun from 2018. May the transformed […]
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