One of life‘s great questions centers not on what happens to us, but rather, how we will live in and through whatever happens. We cannot change most circumstances in our lives. (Henri Nouwen)

We often connect pruning to punishment, and so doing we miss the very real possibility that the connection of pruning is to preparation. (Henri Nouwen)

Living gratefully requires practice. (Henri Nouwen)

Historybook: Mayflower arrives at Plymouth Harbor (1620); 13th Amendment formally adopted into the Constitution, abolishing slavery (1865); Steven Spielberg born (1946); Singer Billie Eilish born (2001); Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor dies (2016).

Human traditions all tend towards stagnation and lifelessness and decay. They try to perpetuate things that cannot be perpetuated. (Thomas Merton)

3 coaching calls today: 1 Vineyard worship pastor, 1 Vineyard pastor who co-leads with his wife, 1 Christian & Missionary Alliance.

Historybook: Wright brothers make first successful airplane flight (1903); Pope Francis born (1936); "The Simpsons" series makes television debut (1989); American actress Jennifer Jones dies (2009); North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il dies (2011).

I can't imagine a life without journaling.

Historybook: Ludwig van Beethoven born (1770); Boston Tea Party occurs (1773); Author Jane Austen born (1775); Anthropologist Margaret Mead born (1901); World War II’s Battle of the Bulge begins (1944).

I know that I have no choice about how long I will live, but I do have a decision about how to live, and a choice about how I will face my aging, and about how I will live my exodus. I choose now the way I will live my declining years. (Henri Nouwen)

The world in which we live lies in the power of the evil one, and the evil one would prefer to distract us and fill every space with things to do, people to meet, business to accomplish, and products to be made. (Henri Nouwen)

When people or circumstances do not fulfill all of our needs, we withdraw or lash out. We nurse our wounded spirits. We become even needier. (Henri Nouwen)

3 coaching calls today: 1 Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), 1 Vineyard, 1 Anglican.

Starting for the second time:

Bible reading is nothing more than a means to an end, if we do not understand the end, we will make a wrong use of the means. (inspired by Thomas Merton)

Every one is a moon, and has a darkside which he never shows to anybody. (Mark Twain)

Historybook: US Founding Father John Jay born (1745); First transatlantic radio signal sent by Guglielmo Marconi (1901); Frank Sinatra born (1915); Singer Dionne Warwick born (1940); Supreme Court decides Bush v. Gore, confirming George W. Bush as president (2000).

If a man could be crossed with a cat, it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat. (Mark Twain)

Most people are bothered by those passages in Scripture which they cannot understand; but as for me, I always noticed that the passages in Scripture which trouble me most are those that I do understand. (Mark Twain)

Historybook: Encyclopædia Britannica first published (1768); Poet Emily Dickinson born (1830); Inventor Alfred Nobel, founder of Nobel Prizes, dies (1896); Spanish-American War ends (1898); Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet dies (2006).

I am not one of those who in expressing opinions confine themselves to facts. (Mark Twain)

4 coaching calls today: 1 Vineyard, 1 Evangelical Congregational, 1 former pastor, 1 UMC.

Historybook: Actor Kirk Douglas born (1916); Actress Dame Judi Dench born (1934); “A Charlie Brown Christmas” debuts (1965); Diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner Ralph Bunche dies (1971); World Health Organization confirms smallpox has been eradicated (1979).

There was never yet an uninteresting life. Inside of the dullest exterior there is a drama, a comedy, and a tragedy. (Mark Twain)

Education is what you must acquire without any interference from your schooling. (Mark Twain)

Historybook: Mary, Queen of Scots born (1542); The US declares war on Japan (1941); Musician Jim Morrison born (1943); John Lennon murdered outside his residence in New York City (1980); Astronaut and senator John Glenn dies (2016).

Education consists mainly in what we have unlearned. (Mark Twain)

Historybook: Pearl Harbor naval base bombed by Japan, killing 2,403 US personnel (1941); Basketball legend Larry Bird born (1956); Apollo 17, the final Apollo moon mission, is launched (1972); Sound barrier-breaking pilot Chuck Yeager dies (2020).

Man—a creature made at the end of the week’s work when God was tired. (Mark Twain)

I can live for two months on a good compliment. (Mark Twain)

A quote from Thomas Moore: "Many people are aware that to stay healthy, the body needs exercise and movement, but few recognize that it is equally important to keep ones thinking in motion. So often we are satisfied with ideas we picked up years ago and it kept locked up for decades."

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. (Mark Twain)

Every moment and every event of every man’s life on earth plants something in his soul. (Thomas Merton)

Historybook: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dies (1791); Walt Disney born (1901); 21st Amendment ratified in the US, repealing the nationwide ban on alcohol (1933); Montgomery Bus Boycott begins (1955); Nelson Mandela dies (2013).

If I were looking for God, every event and every moment would sow, in my will, grains of his life, that would spring up one day in a tremendous harvest. (Thomas Merton)

Just started: 1) From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life by Arthur C. Brooks, 2) Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton, 3) All You Need is Love, the Beatles in their own words by Peter Brown & Steven Gaines.

Historybook: Rock star Ozzy Osbourne born (1948); Actress Julianne Moore born (1960); First human heart transplant carried out (1967); Mikhail Gorbachev and George HW Bush declare end to Cold War (1989); Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks dies (2000).

3 coaching calls today: 2 Vineyard, 1 Nondenom.

4 coaching calls today: 1 UMC, 1 Vineyard, 1 United Church of Canada, 1 Methodist Church of Southern Africa.

Historybook: First moving assembly line introduced by Ford Motor Company (1913); Rosa Parks arrested in Alabama for refusing to give up her bus seat (1955); Author and activist James Baldwin dies (1987); World AIDS Day commemorated for first time (1988).

Historybook: "Chronicles of Narnia" author CS Lewis born (1898); Warren Commission is established to investigate President Kennedy's assassination (1963); Social activist Dorothy Day dies (1980); The Beatles guitarist George Harrison dies (2001).