My new friend Joyce told me she can’t get used to being alone. Her husband passed away, with no warning, four years ago. She has children, grandchildren, and friends, but loneliness is her constant companion.
If we live long enough, most of us will have at least one or more seasons of being alone. I remember my first New Year’s Eve as a single mom. While my four-year-old slept, I cleaned house, cried, and listened to Christian radio. On the radio, I heard a woman say her life changed forever when she began keeping a gratitude journal.
I began mine that lonely night, in 1987, as it rolled into becoming 1988. Since then, I’ve started a new gratitude journal every year. It has changed my life, too. Instead of my natural inclination to be a “glass half empty” kind of person, I began to change deep inside. As I watched for blessings, I began to notice them.
One thing I wrote down that night has always stayed in my memory. It was the look on my son Michael’s face as he woke on Christmas morning. Wearing his blue flannel Charlie Brown pajamas, he came into the living room rubbing his sleepy eyes to see what he’d find under the tree. He had, and continues to have, a dad who adores him and has always been there for us, even though married to someone else. It took me several more years to appreciate that blessing.
My friend Johnna told me earlier this year that she tries to remember what she read about hummingbirds and vultures—Hummingbirds spend every day looking for something sweet, and they find it.
Vultures, though, search for something dead or dying. They find what they’re looking for, too. Our world is full of death, dying, and evil. Suffering, loneliness and bitterness are all around us. When I don’t look to the Light, the darkness can feel oppressive.
Lord, help us be like hummingbirds in this new decade, searching for something sweet. Help us provide something sweet in the lives of each person whose path we cross. Even if they never know we prayed for them, use our prayers and acts of kindness to sweeten their lives. Show them You want to become their perfect Lover and Friend. Use us, as You change their loneliness into the abundant life only You can give.
This Day
Cathy Everitt
10/6/2021
What keeps me safe?
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Jan
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The Treasure
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What’s that smell?
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This Moment
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Do your curls, girls!
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Forgotten Holiday Promise
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The Flea and the Cosmos
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Who’s Driving Me?
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Safe and Sound
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6/24/2020
Patience
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Holiday Loneliness?
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12/30/2019
Haunted? What a Shame.
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What Are We Celebrating?
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7/3/2019
Where’s The Remote?
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Post-Hurricane Prayer
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Does God Celebrate?
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12/12/2018
What For?
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10/5/2018
Birthright?
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Exclamation Points
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Shaking?
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Radiance, Not Wrinkles
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11/21/2017
Walkin' and Talkin'
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Touches
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9/8/2017
The Worry List
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Unanswered prayer?
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5/21/2017
Who's Your First Love?
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4/9/2017
Worse Than Sickness
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12/6/2016
The Highest Price
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11/28/2016
No Perfect Christmas
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11/21/2016
Sacrificing Thanks
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11/14/2016
The Director
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11/7/2016
Watching Dead People
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10/31/2016
Against The Goad
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10/24/2016
Eating His Words
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10/17/2016
Glory
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10/9/2016
What Does The Future Hold?
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10/4/2016
More Sweetness
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9/27/2016
Delicious Cycle Revisited
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9/20/2016
A Delicious Cycle
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9/13/2016
Winning and Losing
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9/6/2016
When I lose, I win
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8/30/2016
Sunrise
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8/23/2016
Impressions of Amsterdam
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8/16/2016
Sing 'Til I'm Satisfied
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8/8/2016
Ever-Increasing
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7/26/2016
Corrie
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7/11/2016
Favorites?
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6/28/2016
I love reminders from these guys...
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How Can I Help?
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A Perfect Flower
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