Prefer the given. I read this phrase in the book Grumble Hallelujah and it has stuck with me. I loved the sound of it. But I didn’t love the reality of it. If life gives me the equivalent of the snack size sack of M &…
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How to Find Your Real Life
When you read the title, you may have thought, “What does she mean, my “real life”? How can I live anything but this one real life? Well, the title is inspired by the words of Colossians 3:1-3. This passage begins: “You have been raised to…
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When You Can’t Do It By Yourself
Every week people pass through my living room and take a turn sitting at my grand piano. I give them my undivided attention for thirty to sixty minutes while they play music by Mozart and Beethoven and Gershwin. I help them make sense of fingering…
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When Your Part Seems Small: Playing in the Symphony of Life
Every so often I persuade my husband to attend a concert of classical music with me A while ago we traveled into the city to hear the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. As soon as we found our seats, I knew something special was going to happen.…
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What to Do When Life Disappoints
What do we do when life disappoints? Our natural reaction is to complain and grumble. We tell our sad story to anyone who will listen. This is what I tend to do. Especially about the fact that my grandchildren live far away. I make sure…
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Side Effects of…Praising God
My husband has been diagnosed with lymphoma and has begun the road to recovery. Recently he had his first round of chemotherapy. The effects of the drugs were amazing. Just three short days after competing the infusion of drugs, we saw a major reduction in…
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How to Truly Love Yourself: The Four Degrees of Love
I tend to have a love/hate relationship with myself. Maybe you can relate. Perhaps you also find it hard to love yourself. On days things are going smoothly, we are pleased. But on days we mess up we might be disappointed with our performance and…
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Finding Focus — in Lent
I’m on a quest to find more focus in my life. To zero in on the important and to ignore the rest. To help me in this quest I am going to observe the holy Lenten season. Lent is the period of forty days…
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10 Ways to Tell Your Husband “I Love You”
I have a problem. I love writing. But I’m not very good at writing meaningful words to the ones I love. What do I write besides, “I love you”? My husband is especially talented at this. I save all the cards that he gives me…