Forward to Happiness

As some might know that's followed me for some time, I have a Bible degree under my accounting, and I spent time no only active in churches but writing devotionals.  I became jaded from personal  experiences and what I have seen in many churches over time, until recently being reminded of the good that does exist in some of them.. probably most of them even if not leadership if I am honest.  Even when the leadership or structure is being run by greed and power in many, the newest of faith often have the purest of hearts. Anyways, back then I wrote several devotionals.  One of them I considered my best work at the time and for a long time kept it 100 percent free to benefit the most people possible.  It would have thousands of downloads over the years with my paid promotion.  It was called 30 Days of Providence.  Somewhere along the time of my being disheartened in the church, I removed it from the sites of highest promotion and left it on a very lesser...

I was in a class at my new church, today, and they were discussing a few Hebrew words for love in the Old Testament.  One prompted a deeper meaning for me, and I wanted to blog about it. The word is Rakham or Rechem (I know from my own theological studies in the past there were no vowels in Biblical Hebrew).  It means compassion but is also a word variant of the Biblical word for womb. What, then, transpired was my realization that love is a thing that brings forth fruit.. it CREATES life.  It creates new. Especially right now as I'm experiencing the effects of new love, I can so clearly see this effect in operation.  As love persists and grows, it extends and nurtures an amazing new life that will result if it is given care and food. I've struggled with examples of "religion" that we so often see in this world, and my own religious training made it hard to accept any man made form as genuine and not based in power or greed.  But... that's not love. When LOVE ex...

I've noted something a long time ago about how for something to be magical there must be non magical for comparison.. for something to be special, there must be the mundane... for something to be successful, there must be others that fail.  We enjoy the MIRACLE of the light bulb, and it WAS a great success.  But, it came after literally thousands of failures. I'm experiencing a very happy life, lately.  It seems a little bizarre and unbelievable to me, sometimes.  I've had so many times where things appeared to be very good and was not.  I've had the floor fall out from under me many, many times, when I tried to stand on hope.  Though, hope is also a good net to catch you when you fall. But, then, I think about this concept.  It is the FAILURES that make the SUCCESS what it can be.  You cannot fully appreciate a magical moment or time period without the times that it failed to materialize.  And, failure can be a wonderful instructor along the...

Perhaps, it comes with age... after the Cynical 40s, you gain a wider perspective of existence. But, you also learn to get less stressed over everything happening RIGHT NOW. Why? You've seen a LOT of right now's over life, and you're still standing. I don't say that to say it's not worthy of addressing or action. What I'm saying in this post is really two things. 1. Live your life. If you postpone your happiness to deal with this "crisis" or the next, you'll find yourself far into your life story, realizing you've missed a lot of it. There is a song in my most recent playlist called Birds Still Sing that says... " Birds still sing on bad days Flowers grow around graves Not everyone stays but the real ones do Our moon moves in phases So give yourself a little grace And if you look close where the cracks meet We're still blooming in concrete " Taylor Acorn The point being, you can still have good and prosperity IN the middle ...