“Life can be so busy, and we sometimes take for granted the important little things that make us smile. Look at the sunset, share a cup of coffee with your best friend, or hear the wind rustle through the trees. Take some time to listen to life and feel the sun on your face. Stop to watch butterflies in your garden.”

During this Advent time let us take the time to recognize God’s presence in our life. O come, O come, Emmanuel

“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air. You name them – work, family, health, friends, and spirit – and you’re keeping all of these in the air. you will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls-family, health, friends, and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.”

Brian Dyson

I find this image very interesting but very true. Let us pause and remember what is important in our life.

“Material wealth definitely has its merits – but it alone cannot provide the riches of a truly meaningful life. A truly meaningful life possesses an inherent sense of both self and purpose. It celebrates truth, love, and freedom and remains forever appreciative of its blessings. It is a life that gives and cares and makes a difference in endless poignant ways. It leaves the world a far better and brighter place than it would have otherwise been.

People are often looking for ways to measure the worth of their lives. The most fortunate among them come to realize that you need not have the finest education to possess the greatest wisdom or the biggest bank account to feel rich beyond measure. For if you are joyful and share your bliss at every turn, then you walk among the most successful beings to ever grace this earth.” Lynn Keachie

I believe God gives us the graces we need each day.

Come, let us climb the Lord’s mountain… They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.

Once, I climbed up Mount Rainier

in Washington State, glorious and beautiful, with vistas of magnificent trees giving way to glaciers – a long

and steep climb for one unaccustomed to such treks. Perhaps I wouldn’t have persevered on my own, but I was buoyed up by my cousin and my 80-plus-year-old aunt walking with me, who knew the path well.There is a way, Isaiah tells us today, to get where we can dream but cannot manage on our own. We need one another to climb the mountain, and we can do it because it is the mountain of the Lord. Can I on my own-can we, alone without God-

make peace? No. But because it’s God‘s way, and because we climb this mountain together, we can find the way of peace. We don’t have to reshape everybody else’s swords into plowshares, we only have to reshape our own.

Let us go up with you, O Lord rejoicing in your way of peace.

Mary Marrocco

“Beyond your challenges, beyond your successes, beyond the events with which life has molded your spirit, there is a placeless place within you. It is a place of peace. It is a place of freedom. It is the place where the Self you have been seeking resides.”

Barbara DeAngelis, PhD

Barbara says -the Self I believe it is the Spirit of God.