Heart Hope by Olga

Across the street from the Black Walnut Bed and Breakfast was a quaint New England white clapboard church with a steeple towering toward the heavens. The sign out front said God Loves You, but the larger more predominant letters were unrecognizable to me. Now I was curious. That evening we went to the Korean/Japanese Restaurant for dinner and discovered more. The wait staff wore shirts with the Christian fish symbol. Maybe they could shed some light on the building down the street. I was informed that the writing was Korean and church services were on Sunday mornings from 11-12:15 with lunch being served afterwards. Back at the Inn, I questioned further and was told that it had been a Congregational church but that they could not get people to attend, so they sold the building to the Korean Baptist church. By now, I knew that I would have to check it out on Sunday morning. Arriving right on time I viewed everyone in their finest church clothes, somewhat of an usua...

I recently came across this poem called "If I Had Known," which goes like this: If I had known what trouble you were bearing; What griefs were in the silence of your face; I would have been more gentle, and more caring, And tried to give you gladness for a space. I would have brought more warmth into the place, If I had known. If I had known what thoughts despairing drew you; (Why do we never try to understand?) I would have lent a little friendship to you, And slipped my hand within your hand, And made your stay more pleasant in the land, If I had known. This poem by Mary Carolyn Davies is a great reminder that we don't know what is going on in the lives of those around us, but I think we can take this a bit farther by examining a couple of points that this poem doesn't mention.  First and perhaps most important is that often we don't have eyes that see the hurts in the lives of others. We fail to look deeply into the faces of the people that we pass ea...

I was having a pity party, questioning why I had made the decision to fly to Massachusetts using an airline voucher. Weeks before the flights  had been wide open, but when the time came to depart they all were full and it looked like there was no way I would make it to the wedding if I left on Thursday as originally planned. Why hadn't I bought a ticket when my husband bought his? Why did I have to take an additional day off from work? What had I been thinking? The solution was to fly into Boston on Wednesday to assure I would arrive in time for the wedding festivities. Forget the fact that my alarm was set for 2:30 AM and that during the 2 hour drive to the airport the sun did not rise...at least I could sleep on the plane. Since I was flying standby I wasn't sure if I would be able to get on the scheduled connecting flight in Chicago so when I saw that the earlier flight was in the final boarding stage I ran to the gate to see if there was a possibility of get...

Distracted driver. That’s what the police officer labeled me after pulling me over for speeding. She said that I was not paying attention while driving. But how was that so, I was not eating or drinking. I was not texting or reading emails. I was not putting on make up or changing the radio. I was only talking on the telephone about the upcoming ladies retreat, so how could I be distracted? At the time, I thought she was wrong, but now I realize that more often than I care to admit, I am distracted as I drive along. It might not be talking on the phone, but my mind is wandering. It may be that I am thinking about something going on at work. Or it might be looking at the beauty of the surrounding area. Or sometimes just reviewing my ‘to do” list. While doing these things I can be distracted and not paying complete attention to what is going on around me. I know it is pretty scary to think of not only me driving with distractions, but that the road is probably filled...