My experience of creating music and writing songs is finding enormous strength through vulnerability. — Bob Dylan. In my early days, I was raised to be the opposite of vulnerable. Boys were taught to be tough, and any sign of vulnerability was greeted with the words, “Boys don’t cry.” I  remember in junior high taking…

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Incline your ear to me; when I call make haste to answer me, for my days drift away like smoke, …. — Psalm 102:2. As we mature, we identify with our psalmist who says that “days drift  away like smoke.” It seems like yesterday we were having Thanksgiving dinner, and less than a week away…

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Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?” — Luke 17:17. This verse has special meaning to me. I am the beneficiary of a transplant and multiple spare parts. For whatever reason, I am living beyond my time, and must never forget to be grateful to God, George and his family,…

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I read recently about a hotel that forbad its employees to say “No.” They taught their employees to use a different word when faced with a question that under usual circumstances called for a “no” answer. That word was “actually.” For example, “Do you have a hide-a-bed?” The easy answer would be “no,” but by…

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Before we left to attend my granddaughter’s first birthday last weekend, we woke to no hot water. Our very old hot water gave out. We of course asked the plumber, “Can it be fixed?” His answer was what we feared, “We can try, but finding the necessary parts for the old girl won’t be easy.…

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