The Pain and the Pleasure Two sides of the same coin Heaven and hell are here now. Someone somewhere is experiencing tremendous pain and suffering. Through war, trafficking, domestic violence or any other of the ways humanity tortures itself. Hell personified. Likewise, babies are being born. First-time parents are holding a miracle in their arms. People are getting back on their feet after perhaps many struggles and challenges. The idea that a single mom, perhaps living out of her car, with her children, finally gets a place of her own. She walks into her new place and closes the door. She has a safe haven for herself and her children perhaps for the first time in a long time. Flavors of heaven. What have you felt? What is the range of emotions you have felt for perhaps the last three months? Have you felt heaven? Have you felt hell? Or…
From a Struggle to a Gift What have you been carrying? So, I have been delving into my family dynamic lately. Focusing on my Father. My dad was a WWII vet that fought in the Pacific Campaign. The emotional demands of intense battle, that impaled him in the theater of war, turned out to be quite the gift for me. But I spent most my life not knowing that. My Father was a very intense man. With fierce resolve, tenacity, focus, determination, courage, etc. These traits, as far as I can tell, were not part of his demeanor before he entered the war. Perhaps you are familiar with the HBO series, “A Band of Brothers”, which followed men who fought in the European Campaign of WWII. The makers of that series then made a similar series, called “The Pacific”, which followed several men as they fought in the Pacific Campaign.…