Great Life Gifts

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”   ----from  A Return to Love , by Marianne Williamson . When I was a little girl I played with Suzy. Everyday was a play date with Suzy as we ran up and down the stairs of the white wood frame farm house where I lived. In all ways, she was the best type of friend a 6-year-old girl could have: she let me choose all the games we played, she always did what I told her, she never hurt my feelings, and I always got to go first.  Was it the skill of her parents that taught Suzy to be the ideal friend? Or perhaps, at 6 years of age, she was...

The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and placed there the man whom he had formed. Genesis 2:8. In the midst of our beings is the small, still voice within us that convinces us of our worth and place in this Universe.  At 9:30 a.m. (EST) Dec. 21, the nation fell silent for One Minute to honor the sweet spirits of 26 people who were  stopped mid journey, nay in the early days of their journey, by a young man who may never have had the capacity to hear his still, small voice.  Once the minute had passed away, the throngs returned to the myriad of activities they feel compelled to complete in this turbulent sea journey called life. But what about this man named, Adam? Buried underneath the diagnosis of mental illness or a brain disorder of the autism spectrum, or bad cultural influences of violent video games, or the traumatic environment of fighting parents, and, later, their divorce, or the ostracization of school mates for his social ineptness, or any ...

By Brenda Henning Southeast New Mexico and West Texas are sections of the country where big game hunting and gun shooting competitions are popular and threatening to take away people's gun rights can come close to inducing armed marches to Washington, D.C. Some people wear their concealed gun rights in the same way people wear clean underwear: they don't leave home without them.  But for all of the rhetoric these gun advocates espouse, in no recent incident have any of them ridden up on their white horses to save children and school teachers or to kill the madmen. Typically, the madman does the job himself with the very gun he brought to the killing spree.  In chronological symmetry to the events in Connecticut was the mentally deranged Chinese man in Hunan Province, China, who stabbed and injured 22 children and one adult outside a primary school . Seven of those students were admitted to the hospital but none of them were seriously injured.  These are ...

Up until a few weeks ago, I was working full-time and busy finishing up my master's in mental health counseling. It's break neck speed with no room for error or complications. And when you're a working mom, then your kids work just as hard as you in maintaining a schedule of school and day care.  Then, one day, the car veered into the ditch and that's where it's stayed. The event that forced the car (me) off the road was my son Danny and his lack of enthusiasm for all-day pre-school. But as a back story, you all should know it hasn't been just the past few weeks that have been break neck speed, it's been the entire year. My schedule was foisted on me by life circumstances of keeping up with my mother who, until a few months ago, lived in Iowa recovering from a broken femur. This unexpected health issue added a layer of responsibility to my already laden plate of full-time mother, wife, employee, and student--not to mention the dozens of volunteer commi...