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Thursday's Essay Preview

The first paragraph of the essay, "The storms of life," reads as follows: "I remember vividly the circumstances surrounding my father’s death just about 16 years ago.  I remember divorces, retirement, and dealing with my wife’s mother’s death.  These are some of “the storms of life” that have affected my life.  Fortunately, in all the cases, I seemed to have (a judgment I am making in retrospect) the resources necessary to face and survive the storms.  It is only in retrospect now that I am able to look back and analyze how I survived."
         
                                                                                                                                                                Thursday's Essay Excerpt - from the last paragraph of the essay

Thinking at your best may mean seeking professional medical, psychological, financial, legal, or spiritual help when you realize they may be your best resource.  When you are in doubt, you should never endanger yourself by relying only on yourself and neglecting such experts.  In these cases, too, it is important to remember that it is how you go about choosing the experts and how you use what they have to offer that counts.




And Then Some News

And Then Some News

Thursday's Essay Preview

The first paragraph of the essay, "The true meaning of birthdays: Developing a receptivity to and capacity for wisdom," reads as follows: "As I was getting dressed for church, the call came in on my cell phone, and when I answered, a chorus of youthful, cheerful, and well-prompted singers broke into their rendition of “Happy Birthday” to grandpa.  What a great way to begin the day — actually, any day — but particularly this one.

That alone could be the true meaning of birthdays, and this would be a very short essay!"

                                                                                                                                                               

Thursday's Essay Excerpt - from the last paragraph of the essay

The true meaning of birthdays is the growth, development, and change we experience as we acquire the history and knowledge that wisdom requires.  Wisdom doesn’t automatically come with age, but with determination, persistence, patience, and observation we can make good use of the history and knowledge we acquire and thus develop a receptivity to and capacity for wisdom.




And Then Some News

And Then Some News

Thursday's Essay Preview

The first paragraph of the essay, "When the day is done," reads as follows: "It doesn’t take that much to convince me that I’ve had a successful day.  One day I repaired a hole in the side of my daughter’s house.  Although it was only 3-inches by 3-inches by 1 1/2-inches deep, it took a couple of hours to cut a block of wood to fit into the hole, shape a piece of aluminum flashing to cover the wood piece and more of the rotting wood, screw the flashing to the wood behind one of her gutters with treated screws so they wouldn’t rust, and then seal the area with silicon to protect it from further water penetration."
                                       
                                                                                                                                                               

Thursday's Essay Excerpt - from the last paragraph of the essay

For me, it is as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote in the final four lines of his famous poem, “The Day is Done”:                            
                                     And the night shall be filled with music

                                     And the cares, that infest the day,

                                     Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,

                                     And as silently steal away.

And Then Some News

Thursday's Essay Preview

The first paragraph of the essay, "Lake Superior (Gitchigoomie)," reads as follows: "Our confusion was not whether or not we wanted to take this trip around the north side of Lake Superior, it was, rather, which way to go.  We could start from the east and proceed west and then farther west through Canada, or we could travel west first (north through Michigan, then west through Wisconsin and Minnesota) then east along the north side of Lake Superior.  The latter was our choice."
                             
                                                                                                                                                               

Thursday's Essay Excerpt - from the last paragraph of the essay

What was interesting after our two weeks in Canada is that when we crossed the border into Maine, the skies cleared, there was no more rain, and with the exception of a single thunderstorm and heavy rain, we had clear skies and no more rain for the remaining two weeks of our vacation in Bar Harbor, Maine, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, and Woodstock, Vermont.



And Then Some News