InSpiritry

“No matter how busy you are, you must find time to read. ” Confucius

Ahhh, time to read…

For most of us, our schedules make finding time to read a challenge, even though we know how good it feels to settle in with a good book or magazine.

To add to the challenge, many of us who are particular about what we read are also partial to where we read. Our choices of the perfect places to read can be as personal and unique as choosing which books to pull from the shelf. We might translate the wisdom of Confucius as: No matter how busy you are, you must find a place to read! 

So where do you prefer to commune with words: (more…)

We all profit if our healthcare system is transformed…

and that profit will not be just financial! 

This week in Washington, the hot topic is healthcare. Those with an eye on the cost and scope of expanding healthcare are calling for reform. Those with a heart for medical care as a humanitarian mission are calling for healthcare to be transformed. Most of us, confused and concerned with how to provide healthcare for our own family and others, are somewhere in between. (more…)

“Every so often, I take it out and read it again.” A friend talking about her favorite book

With summer here, the topic of books to take on vacation came up this week. Headed to the beach with a bag of books, a friend of mine was lamenting that, with her busy schedule, she didn’t usually have time to reread her favorite books – young adult novels that make her remember what she loved about childhood in a small town.

Books have a way of doing that – opening up places in our hearts and minds we have kept dormant. (more…)

The best part of living in a small town…

Yesterday, I had lunch in Honey Grove, Texas. I was speaking to the Friends of the Library there, a group of 75 people dedicated to supporting the public library in a community of descendants of farming families. Some had lived there all their lives, but many have retired from successful careers to this struggling town of historic buildings and fond memories. My topic was Celebrating Small Town Life — (more…)

“There aren’t enough days in the weekend.“       Rod Schmidt

It’s Monday. Again. Time to rise and shine, grab a cup of coffee and a bagel and leave the weekend behind. For some of us, this past weekend was full of time with family and friends.  For some, it was a chance to hit the lake for fishing. Others enjoyed three days of yard work or home repair or a service project. Lots of us spent Sunday in church and maybe even at a church picnic. Many of us went to concerts or had a night out for dinner or had friends over. Of course, some of us were at jobs that don’t stop on Saturday or Sunday. Sadly, a few of us felt compelled to keep working and worrying and waiting for things to change (you know who you are!) (more…)

“When a teenager wants to learn to drive, don’t stand in her way!”

There are many rites of passage for kids growing up in America in the past half century: the first day of school, spending the first night away from home, learning to ride a bike. With each experience, adults help children move away from the safety of home to acquire new skills. Each event is an important step towards independence — that ultimate goal of childhood!

Another of those experiences most of us remember is learning to drive. (more…)

“Everything changes. Nothing remains without change.” Buddha

Our jobs. The economy. The weather. The planet. Our relationships. Our families. Our faces. Everything does change! (more…)

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this…I can take the next thing that comes along.“ 

Eleanor Roosevelt

While none of us wish for fear–and many of us avoid it at all cost–it is true that we grow from experiences that make us feel afraid. (more…)

“We are what we repeatedly do.“   Aristotle

Think about how you spend an ordinary day. Much of our time is filled with things we repeatedly do! Aristotle reminds us that as we take actions over and over again, they become our habit of living and finally our way of being. (more…)

“President Obama has announced that Sonia Sotomayor

is his nominee for the Supreme Court.“ 

Yesterday, after several weeks of consideration, President Obama introduced us to the woman he is nominating as the next Supreme Court Justice. (more…)