Tag Archives: Life

Personal Patina…

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(reposted from my professional blog at http://www.lifelinesmobile.org/blog )

I’ve been given some lovely silver trays, bowls, and serving pieces that have been passed down through generations. This time of the year I begin to think how I would love to use them for holiday dinners…but then I think of the polishing…and the polishing…and the polishing and then it never really looking like the shiny version of what I imagine my great grandmother would have used.

What is it in us that always wants the shiny version?

Tarnish is a chemical reaction that can leave a dull finish on silver after being exposed to air. It is rather simple to clean. But the patina of the silver is a lustrous finish that well used, loved and cared for silver pieces develop over time. It is a living finish of sorts that reveals marks of history from all the uses prior. Just think of the personal history each silver piece could reveal…all the joys and sorrows that mark all the times families come together.

So, what is it in us that always wants the shiny version? …

Each of us is an accumulation of a lifetime of experiences and history…our personal patina is the wisdom we wear and share. Our personal patina is nothing to be overzealously stripped…it’s what makes each of us unique.

Are you striving to be a shiny version of yourself? …

Or are you allowing your personal patina to be the wisdom you wear?

“Let the beauty radiate from inside your heart to the outside world.” Imania Margria

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Everywhere You Go…

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kindness

A friend once told me that one of the most lasting lessons of wisdom her father taught her was,

“Everywhere you go, leave it a better place”

This has always stuck with me. What if we all adopted this mentality? …

“Everywhere you go leave it a better place”.

What would this look like? Remembering to say thank you to someone who has assisted you in any way, smiling at those who cross your path, pausing to say a kind word to someone whose day is troubled, offering to help when an extra set of hands is needed, really listening to another without any distractions, telling someone you love them when they least expect it…leaving everywhere you go a better place could take on so many different directions. It’s certainly something to think about…

“Everywhere you go, leave it a better place”

I challenge you today!

Live the SHOCK…

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image via From the heart of j

image via From the heart of j

God has put “timelessness” in our hearts…

Let us live this SHOCK in the midst…

of the time constrained culture we walk in…

How will you live the timelessness this day?

“I have considered the task which God has appointed for men to be busied about.  He has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into their hearts, without men’s ever discovering, from beginning to end, the work which God has done. ” Ecc3: 10-11

Shutters of the Heart…

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Annecy, France image via fromtheheartofj

Annecy, France
image via fromtheheartofj

There is something sacred about the early morn…

the just waking up of the world as the sky stretches into the hello of the sun…

easing into colors of praise pinks, blues, and yellows.

The birds begin their hymns… their song joining in the symphony.

How often Lord have I insulated myself from the joy of arrival…

with curtains drawn and a hit to the snooze button?

The song of the new day knocks

May I be awake to answer this glory…

May my life be a part of this orchestra of grace each day anew.

Let the shutters of my heart be opened.

Companions of Your Pilgrimage…

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In loving your neighbor and caring for him…

You are on a journey.

Where are you traveling if not to the Lord God, to Him whom we should love with our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole mind?

We have not yet reached His presence…

But we have our neighbor at our side.

Support, then, this companion of your pilgrimage if you want to come into the presence of the one with whom you desire to remain forever.  + St. Augustine

An Epic Poem to be Savored….

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feet-up-resting-footstool

Official permission to slow down one’s life…

is like being given an epic poem yet to be savored.

Give thanks for those things in life that sloooooow down one’s steps….

for truly the mind and the heart soon follow. (I promise)

“Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ” James 1:2-3.

Only a Little Pencil…

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“I am only a little pencil in the hand of our Lord.  He may cut or sharpen the pencil.  He may write or draw whatever and whenever He wants.  If the writing or drawing is good, we do not honor the pencil or the material that is used, but rather the one who used it. “

+ Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Rising to the Challenge…

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image via from the heart of j

image via from the heart of j

In the much to do…in the little to do…

In the sufferings and sorrows…in the joys and laughter…

In the consolations…in the desolations…

In the can’t wait to do…in the can’t stand to do…

God has picked you!

Will you rise to the challenge?

His Grace is sufficient.

All is Grace.

Mingling…

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image via watsontravels.blogspot.com

image via watsontravels.blogspot.com

Make it a habit to mingle with the characters who appear in the New Testament.

Capture the flavor of those moving scenes where the Master performs works that are both divine and human, and tells us with human and divine touches, the wonderful story of His pardon for us and His enduring love for His children.

Those foretastes of Heaven are renewed today, for the Gospel is always true!

+ St. Josemaria Escriva

Streams of Creativity…

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image via from the heart of j

image via from the heart of j

Why is it that pain, trials, sufferings -be it emotional, physical, or spiritual- break open streams of creativity?

Could it be that the living water that seeps through the cracks of our humanity

saturates the dryness of hopelessness and brings resurrection…

again and again and again.

The current of new life erodes the deadness of discouragement and despair,

breaking down the banks of fear that have built up along the sides of the lack of peace.

Without the foundation of fear the living waters gently but forcefully flood the stagnant pool of suffering…

bringing movement and re-circulation and peace and ahhh…

oneness with Him who is living water and who re-hydrates the parched soul.