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Just a Bit Different
Money problems, type 1:
Muddled mind

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"I'm proud that everything I have I earned all on my own." 		Building Together Again
Occupy a Better Future
Don't forget about the price tag
We are all connected
Nickel and diming our lives
Hearing and saying "I appreciate you."
The purpose of technology is community
Celebrate small moments
Thankful for people
The strength around us
The leaf is proud:
a tribute to helping each other

Cleaning the workbench:
Children become adults

No power tonight:
Quieting a busy life



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"The things we want are really the times we share."

"If I had only one thing I would take a smile over an iPad."

~ Rob Hueniken

From the category archives:

Trying hard

Thumbnail image for No way to play a guitar

No way to play a guitar

December 17, 2009

I love music, and I always have. It makes my body move and my spirit soar. I have many favorite songs and passages, and I can listen to them repeatedly — thrilling to the skill and nuance of the performers. My brain plays songs I’ve heard, like a tape recorder in my head.  But sometimes it plays songs I’ve never heard, and those are the hard ones for me to hear, without the skills to make them real. When I was in first year university I lived in a residence with many other young men. It was a mix of [...]

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Thumbnail image for Doing our part to help things work out

Doing our part to help things work out

October 21, 2009

At the core of our lives are two powerful traits: responsibility and compassion. While they sound like lofty ideals, responsibility and compassion are actually life’s calls to action, built into each of us. We know there are things we should do, and we know when we should be helpful and sensitive to others.  Knowing these things doesn’t make us responsible and compassionate — it is acting on these feelings by participating. When we are young, most things are done for us. Mothers, fathers and caregivers watch over us, and try to give us what we need — both physically and [...]

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You will be eating again soon

October 3, 2009

The finishing moment of many pleasant restaurant meals is having a fortune cookie. Dropped off with the cheque, fortune cookies are a final treat, and usually a source of optimistic wisdom. So it surprised me when I opened my fortune cookie to find this message: “You may be hungry soon: order a takeout now.” At first I thought that the cookie writer was expanding upon an old joke about Chinese food burning off quickly, but then I read it again. Yes, I would be hungry soon — not “may be hungry soon”. I would want something to eat, and I [...]

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Thumbnail image for Celebrating our father’s confidence that things will work out

Celebrating our father’s confidence that things will work out

September 30, 2009

Celebrating a father’s birthday can bring out many emotions and thoughts, especially for adult children. Most of us get to experience our father for a long period of our lives, from being Daddy’s little one through to Dad seeming somehow smaller. For each of us, those days in between say a lot about how both we and our fathers matured and learned along the way, and what has stayed at our core. Every family has tough times and good times, and each person has moments of weakness and excellence. Birthdays are a natural moment in time to reflect, maybe forgive, [...]

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Thumbnail image for Going through life on an angle

Going through life on an angle

September 29, 2009

One of my favorite people is a friend who challenges himself in many fun and interesting ways. Whether it is acting on the local stage, shooting video, or leaning into the wind on a motorcycle or sailboat, this is a person who participates in life. He is also a very caring person, and works as the videographer for a hospital — a role in which he sees many of the poignant and challenging moments of family and personal life. He takes people’s concerns very seriously, but is also quick with a smile. He cares about people and knows that being [...]

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Thumbnail image for We are all connected

We are all connected

September 28, 2009

"I'm alone, on my own, cast apart, and I'm scared" – these thoughts should only happen to each of us just once. Our first moment of feeling that we are doing life on our own should be our last. When our parent hugs us that first time should be the start of a lifetime of knowing "I am part of more." People need people. People love people. People love being with people and it shouldn't be a peep-hole but a full view, with laughter and singing and hands helping — together. That is what people love. That is what people [...]

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Thumbnail image for Guess who’s not coming to dinner

Guess who’s not coming to dinner

September 27, 2009

Having dinner with friends at a nice restaurant is a wonderful event. You are with people you love, being served excellent food that arrives without any effort by you in the kitchen. The air is filled with laughter and storytelling, and time rolls backward as you reconnect with friends with youthful exuberance. I joined five friends recently for just such a marvelous evening that had all of these great things and more. Arriving at the restaurant we found the place  buzzing and busy, with hostesses taking names of eager diners and every table taken. But two of our group had [...]

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Thumbnail image for We are all the same size inside

We are all the same size inside

September 26, 2009

Humans come in all sizes, shapes and styles, and just when you think you’ve seen every possibility you see someone who looks different yet again. I think we all find people to be interesting — they are variations on ourselves and the world-wide human community. Height is one of the greatest sources of differences with people. People can look different and act differently in many ways, but height is a unique and obvious trait that we can all agree on. Height is tied into the process of human growth: we all start very small, as babies, and then grow taller. [...]

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Thumbnail image for Rings around the rosey

Rings around the rosey

September 24, 2009

Every child fortunate enough to learn about our solar system has been amazed by the rings of Saturn. Dusty rings encircling a planet is a strangeness exactly out of this world — very alien, and very isolated. Recent photographs of Saturn and its rings were taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, and published by The Smithsonian Magazine. They show more extensive rings than have been seen before, with many amazing patterns reaching out and circling back around. But while Saturn and its rings stand as a marvel, it stands as a lonely marvel, separated by millions of miles from its nearest [...]

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Thumbnail image for Not on the outside

Not on the outside

September 24, 2009

One of the worst feelings is being left out. Something is going on and you aren’t included, whether it was intentionally, or you were forgotten, or they never imagined you might want to be included . While some people prefer being on their own, that is different from actually being left out. Being left out means that you wanted to be there, if only you knew about it or were able to be there. There are always lots of reasons available for not including more people in a gathering or event, and most of them make sense — there wasn’t [...]

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