It was two days before Christmas and a horrible ice storm hit our town. Thousands were without power and the outside temperatures were below freezing.
After cleaning up the kitchen, I sat down for a minute to relax and work on a puzzle. Out of the blue, a family from my church came to my mind. The mother is suffering from a severe mental condition and has been placed in an adult care facility. The father has a major brain injury, and the oldest son has Down syndrome.
Author Stephen Levine asks the question, “If you had an hour to live and could make only one phone call—who would you call, what would you say, and why are you waiting?" Stephen continues, “Who knows what we are waiting for? Perhaps we want to believe we will live forever, or that “someday” we will get around to telling the people we love, just how much we love them. Whatever the reasons, most of us simply wait too long. "
Brian Mansfield is a writer for USA Today and was diagnosed with colon cancer at age 48. Brian chronicles his life...
At the end of one’s life, we will not be concerned with (1) how many times we went to a shopping mall, or (2) how many rounds of golf we played, but rather the important question will be: Did my life make a difference?
Consider telling someone this week they made or are making a difference in your life. One way to do this is to write an “I Remember” letter. The following is an example of an “I Remember” letter I wrote to an older friend, Rickie:
How can we care for a person with cancer or other serious illnesses? I was overwhelmed with having to do this by...
From: The Power of the Pause Nothing can be more useful to a person than a determination not to be hurried. -...
Clare DeGraaf tells the following story: I was in Chicago on Michigan Avenue and saw a homeless man. God gave me a nudge to stop and talk to him. My heart wasn’t really in it. God was taking me out of my comfort zone.
I asked the homeless man, “Are you hungry? Let me buy you lunch.”
“Yeah, sure,” the man said without enthusiasm. I was sure he was hungry, so I just figured he was as wary of me as I was of guys like him. This was new territory for both of us.
There is no deeper sense of abandonment than the feelings provoked by a parent’s suicide. It can be...
