Greetings!

During Lent I wrote a series of 13 reflections on some of my favorite scriptures from the Old and New Testaments. They were personal thoughts from my own life and experiences, but hopefully ones that shed a bit of light as well on the universal experience of learning to know and love God, our neighbor and ourselves better.   

Tonight, I begin the next series of 13 reflections. These will be on human virtues. They too will be interwoven with my life, present and past, not so much as to give you a run down on who I am, but to stimulate your own thoughts about your own journey.

There is depth and meaning and hope behind all that we do. Realistically though, we can't always be focused on that deeper level. We are just too wonderfully human for that. When you laugh at a joke heartily, it just feels so good. There is something in delighting in a meal or grieving mournfully over the loss of a loved one, or glancing at the powerful waves of the ocean, that doesn't cry out for meaning, but just is what it is. But, sometimes, behind the good laugh or the great loss and the awesome waves, we sense a gentle calling to us to be all that God has planned for us to be. We know there is "more". Stepping aside to reflect now and then , draws out of us something very important....a clearer understanding of the path that God has us on, and the freedom that He has placed inside each one of us to choose our next steps with the moments we have on this earth.

Upcoming Gatherings 

Please join us at a Women's Breakfast,  August 27th at 9:30 A.M. 

Topics: "Women's Health: Taking Care of Yourself" (speaker Dr. Cheryl Johnson), and "Adding Creativity to Your Life" (Brenda Mitchell).

It will be held in the social hall at St Bernard/St Mary'sParish in downtown Akron on Broadway. 

An Unexpected Phone Call  

 On Monday, our daughter called  to tell us that she felt a growth by her kidney that the doctor was really concerned about. He had ordered an ultrasound and sure enough it did not look good. After a cat scan was taken, Joy was referred to the top kidney surgeon in Pittsburgh and yesterday, Wednesday, the larger than lemon size cancerous tumor that was growing inside her kidney was removed.  

Here we are in New Hampshire, so far away, and everything happening so quickly. So much peace surrounded our daughter, that there wasn't any space to worry. She gave us that gift. I could have hooked into the "worry thing" since it was hovering around (shouldn't we worry about these things?), but I accepted her gift of faith and peace and joined my prayers with hers and many others.  

 Her pain this evening and the tomorrows of her recovery will be her next unexpected steps of life.  Joy is a dedicated nurse practitioner, a dedicated sister, daughter, friend, aunt, mother.   We all know that she would do anything for any one of us. Her dedication to us elicits the love of all of those who love her so dearly.  Our daughter Anne took off from her job to go be with her, Joe and Darcy and kids headed to Pittsburgh today, Chris, her husband, and so many of her Steubenville friends, her cousins, her children, are ready to walk this path with her.

Take some time to think about that word, DEDICATION, this week and where it might be found in your life, what it looks like and where you see it in others that inspire you. What are the benefits of dedication? Are the sacrifices involved in being dedicated worth it?....To our husbands (even after 40 years)?, our children (even when they forget us?), our grandchildren, our friends, our parents,  a special cause, an interest, playing a musical instrument, to our country?

The picture at the beginning of this reflection is of my Aunt Gertrude. I don't get to see her very much, but we did stop by Albany on the way to New Hampshire and were touched once again by her genuine love for us and tender devotion after all of these many years. I recalled her dedication to Bob and I, and to our children, mostly through her warmth and making a space in her life for us. Thank you Madeleine!