Are you chasing happiness or holiness? I will share with you this sequence of events. Willow, my 4-year-old granddaughter, was looking through the junk mail and brochures from different stores and she was circling lots of things. She then states to her Mum, “I need to write out a list for Santa for if he gets me the wrong things on Christmas Day, I’ll be very unhappy.” Oh, I chuckled! One – how important it is to write out your dreams. Two – as you mature you are actually happy with lots of things. With maturity you trust more that God will give you the desires of your heart and…

We all are such complex people. Each have our own personalities, quirks, idiosyncrasies, upbringing, and on top of that different circumstances that shape us. Visiting family lately, listening to different ones as we share life together, as we catch up on each other’s lives, it had made me think again of how frail we are. So many of us have problems, issues that we have to deal with in life. Some issues every day, some for months on end, while others that raise their head every now and again. All we want in life is peace, joy, goodness, for things to go well. We all want love to reign. Harmony…

Willow my four-year-old granddaughter has started swimming lessons. Her parents want her to learn some water safety, so she has the ability to swim or paddle to the side of a pool if she fell in etc. The only problem (like a lot of little ones) is that she does not like to put her face in the water! A bit difficult not to do while learning to swim. The first lesson the teacher pulls her in (with goggles on) under the water. She did not like it! All during the week she told her Mum she is not going back to swimming. To encourage her to continue I said…

The evening started out fine. Four little ones, ages ranging from 7 down to 18 months. I was babysitting for my son and his wife who were celebrating a wedding anniversary by having a night away from the kids. Yes, I was staying overnight (with Bruce) looking after their tribe. Bruce was still at work, so I fed them all, played with them for a while, started to read them stories to relax them before bed and got them in their pj’s.  Three of them slept in one room in this three-way bunk bed. So, we said prayers together then tucked them all in and left the room with the youngest, Abigail, on…

Great times with family. Great time with friends. Reflecting upon the wonderful time we had on the weekend, it saddens me greatly when I hear of tragedies in our world. Death, destruction, abuse, isolation, persons missing, a whole people forgotten. Sitting in hopeless cycles. Who can help?  Then I read past stories of where God came to people and rescued them.  In the book of Judith (found in Catholic bibles), this widow who trusted in her God was used by God to help rescue His people. She had to trust, pray and have courage and a plan, relying on God completely. God was ever faithful and came and saved her and…