Message from Light of God Ministry • Reverend Mary White
READING TO CONTEMPLATE: What makes a good life?
This is not an abstract philosophical question.
It’s very practical.
How can you find your good life if you don’t know what it is? Is it wealth? Passion for a cause? What makes a “good” cause?
Is it fame? Is it contentment in obscurity, privacy, love, physical well-being, the creation of beauty? Beauty in what arena? Your house? Your garden? Your city?
Is a good life one that you concoct, like a traditional recipe, out of this ingredient and that? A little wealth, say, a lot of education, some kindness, and a modicum of justice-seeking.
Can one even hope for a good life, given the unforeseeable – illness, brain chemistry, a stray car on the freeway one morning?
But what is life without hope?
Everyone talks about the balanced life. Aristotle thought this was a good thing and called it the golden mean.
I suspect the good life involves giving your whole heart to something you value passionately, even if it will not be granted in your lifetime.
My elder passion is a good earth for my grandchild and his peers.
Excerpt from “The Long View“ by Donna Sinclair
With Love,
Rev. Mary
All Are Welcome with Love
In Person Worship ~ Sundays at 11am
Young Family Fun with Brenda Pielle
Dear Friends:
Last week Earth Day reminded us to be good stewards of the planet.
I would like to share some new words for the song “This Land” as recorded on the Family Fun video: “This land’s not your land, nor my land, we are guests here of the First Nations. Let’s work together to make things better. This land needs care from you and me.”
The Parent tot video has the reading of a story called, “My Animal Friends” as well as these songs: The More We Sing Together, Mary Had a Little Lamb, From My Head Down to my Toes, How Does the Rooster Talk, and I Can Feel You Near Me God.
The Family Fun video includes a feature on the crow and the salmon as well as the following songs: Me and Bobby McGee, Like a Rock, This Land, Kum By Ya, and Deep in our Hearts.
May singing along bring you joy.
Sincerely,
Brenda Pielle
Reaching Out to Families
Powell River United Church
P O E M
Kindness
Kindness, a trickle of a rainbow on a rain-soaked day
A priceless jewel gained from a spiritual hideaway
She is the softest touch
Woven from threads of fine silk
She is the warmest heart, a cozy hug
A look in the eyes that speaks of love
She melts through the iciest pockets of despair
And blazes her heat with an angelic air
Kindness says "You are not alone I see you, I'm with you
And I will hold your hand through life's stormy ground
Guide you to safety no matter how many times you fall down
I will swell your heart with the glow and energy of my own,
And give you something to believe in once more”
Kindness
The gesture from a sacred heart that can change a life in a heartbeat
Restore a broken faith
And make space for a wounded heart
To wake with fresh hope on the darkest of days
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Kindness is an act of recognition that we are all one.
P R A Y E R
O God
As I look back at my life, I see many little pieces of light. They have given me hope and comfort in my bleak and weary times. I thank you for the radiance of a dark sky full of stars, and for the faithful light of dawn that follows every turn of darkness. I thank you for loved ones and strangers whose inner beacons of light warmed and welcomed my pain. I thank you for your presence in my depths, protecting, guiding, reassuring, loving. I thank you for all those life-surprises that sparked a bit of hope in my ashes. And, yes, I thank you for my darkness, (the unwanted companion I shun and avoid) because this pushy intruder comes with truth and reveals my hidden treasures.
~Joyce Rupp “Little Pieces of Light”