WINTER STORM FERN AND THE BOOKS

Winter storm Fern is now fully entrenched over Northern Massachusetts. We are expecting between 20 and 24 inches over the next twenty four hours.

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I will post pictures of the Vicarage later. I have been out once to clean off the roofs of the chicken coops and to shovel the paths and driveways around the house. I find it easier to shovel an inch or two than seven inches or ten inches or twenty.

I do love storms like this because they stop the world and that gives me time to catch up on things like…reading.

I am currently involved in four groups that have reading requirements:

My staff is reading the SACRED ROMANCE:

We are moving very slowly through it, and I have read it a few times so keeping up with this is not that hard.

I am also involved in a minister’s cohort regarding EMOTIONALLY HEALTHY SPIRITUALITY.

The cohort has five books attached to it. The one I am working my way through now is IN THE NAME OF JESUS.

I also involved in two book clubs. THE CORNERSTONE BOOK CLUB DLT. For this group we are currently reading, YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE.

the other book club is one attached to our town library called THE OG BOOK CLUB. This month we are reading….

So that is what I am doing on this snowy day in addition to writing and prepping videos and worship services for tomorrow night.

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU ARE STUCK INSIDE?

2024 Day 8… Keep Making Stories

It is a universal truth that we humans come from stories and we are moving into story. All of our lives are made up of the mingling of many stories. We are books that tell of the intersection of lives and the conflicts and wonders those intersections create.

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You saw me before I was born.
    Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
    before a single day had passed.
Psm. 139:16

I have noticed this common truth about the people I have worked among, that life flows from the stories we tell ourselves and each other. We live until we stop telling our stories. We grow until something comes along which causes us to stop making our stories before ourselves and others. As soon as we stop adding new chapters to the book of our lives we begin to die.

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There are signs that we have stopped the authoring process. When we decide that the story is done, when we decide there is nothing more to add we stop trying to make more story and we just begin rereading the story that was. We begin to live in the past and only the past.

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We can live a long time with just the past, but we can’t create new chapters from it. The future is not in the past and neither is life.

If we look back long enough even those stories we once knew so well, become lost to us and then only the stories other people tell us remain.

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One of the great dangers of our society today is that so many people who should be making stories are just sitting and watching other people’s stories. It is one thing when a ninety year old stops telling their story. It is quite another when a twenty something gets so wrapped up with Facebook or Twitter or Instagram that they stop telling their own story.

I guess this post is an encouragement to people of any age. One of the great keys to life is to not let anything stop you from adding a new chapter to your story. Whatever is happening to you…around you don’t let the roadblocks stop you from adding something new to the book of your life. Keep making story. Keep living!

WHAT ARE THE ROADBLOCKS TO YOUR NEXT CHAPTER? HOW COULD YOU CHANGE THOSE ROADBLOCKS INTO THE NEXT DEVICE THAT PROPELS YOUR STORY FORWARD?

NOTHING IS FREEDOM?

I am working my way through this book of quotes I got from our local library’s used book sale. The book is entitled THE WISDOM OF ALPACAS.

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The theme of the book is individuality as expressed by celebrated thinkers across time. I’m not sure I celebrate this thought from AYN RAND.

“FREEDOM:TO ASK NOTHING. TO EXPECT NOTHING. TO DEPEND ON NOTHING.”

Is freedom really nothing? Is freedom even achievable? If this is freedom do I want it?

WHAT DO YOU THINK?