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Family Ties

Posted by eph21920 on October 18, 2025 in Connected, Family, Grateful, Healing, Life, Travel

Today my sister and I made it to my aunt’s house. When she first opened the door, I saw my mother, which took me by surprise just a little bit. But after only a few minutes, I recognized the accent and laugh of my aunt. It was so good to see her up and moving about. She was functioning pretty well after having a stroke this summer. We enjoyed reminiscing and visiting. In the evening we went to my cousin’s house. They were taking care of their granddaughters – my aunt’s great granddaughters. The little girls were adorable and so full of energy. They were shy for about 2 minutes, then wanted to be the center of attention. It was so fun to be in their world. We brought the family history scrapbook that my sister made with my mom. My cousins appreciated the hard work that went into it and loved seeing the old photos. I gave them the envelope of photos that my dad had sorted out for them which they referred to as “treasures”. I also brought some of my dad’s printed pictures and they chose some to keep. I was grateful to arrive safe, to visit with my relatives, and to share some of my parent’s memorabilia with them.

I Found God today in family ties.

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Not Quite

Posted by eph21920 on October 17, 2025 in Car, Family, Grateful, Travel

My sister and I started driving again this morning, hoping to make it to our destination. It got quite dark on us quite early and we were tired, so we ended up staying overnight with just 2 hours to go tomorrow morning. We spoke to our cousins who were also travelling today, coming home from the opposite direction. We also talked with our aunt who was happy to hear that our travels are going well so far. Everyone is excited to get together tomorrow. We did have a near miss on the highway. I was driving in the middle lane, passing a semi truck. There was a construction vehicle driving on the shoulder of the left lane. Just before we reached him, he came off the shoulder and was heading into the left lane. At that time, something big and black flew up either from his truck, or under his tires or something. I had nowhere to go, so we braced as we watched the object come towards the windshield. We heard and felt a loud thud and the object flew off the other direction. We saw no damage so we thanked God for keeping us safe and continued on. The next time we stopped, we took a look. There was a small dent on the hood just above the front grill. We were again so grateful that it hit that part of the car and not the windshield.

I Found God today in continued safe travels.

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Starting Out

Posted by eph21920 on October 16, 2025 in Begin, Connected, Family, Grateful, Life, Past, Relationship

I got up early this morning and said all the prayers of protection as I finished getting things ready. When my sister arrived, we started out on our road trip. We drove 9 hours which is half way to our destination. It was a pretty easy drive, not a lot of traffic, except it rained most of the time my sister drove. I enjoyed driving, riding, looking at the scenery, and talking with my sister. We stopped at a random Subway that was all decorated for Halloween and had a giant Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas. It had a motion sensor and would move and talk when it detected motion. We never really understood what it said, but took a video and sent it to my grandson who loves that character. He appreciated it. At the end of the day, we stopped for the night in the city we were both born in, going back to our origins. We have been through a lot in the 60 some years since then. I was grateful my sister was with me, grateful for our continued relationship, and grateful for safe travels.

I Found God today in safety starting on a trip.

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Remaining Close

Posted by eph21920 on October 15, 2025 in Family, Grateful, Life, Relationship

I have been sharing the pictures of my son’s wedding the past couple of days. They include a photo of me and all my siblings. As I remember the wonderful day, it makes me grateful yet again for the blessing of having the whole family together for a joyful event. I talked to my sister today who lives on the east coast. She said we need to make it a point to get all together at least once a year. I thought that sounded like a great idea. When my parents were still alive, reunions like that usually centered around them. Now, however, it really is up to us to nurture our relationship. I am grateful that we all still want to be close with one another.

I Found God today in a close sibling relationship.

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Compassionate Friend

Posted by eph21920 on October 14, 2025 in Answer, Friends, Problem, Stranger, Struggles

A friend of mine works for a home rental company inspecting their properties to make sure they are being well maintained. He told me a story today about one of the homes he visited. The resident was there and had recently been through a surgery. While my friend was going about his business and chatting with the woman, she became overwhelmed by her situation and started to cry. My friend was taken aback by the emotion and asked what he could do to help her. The woman thanked him and asked if he believed in God and if he would pray for her. My friend noticed inspirational quotes such as “Be Kind” as wall art, or on a throw rug, and in various places. He encouraged the woman to look at the words and remember what they said and take them to heart. She was grateful for his compassion.

I Found God today in a compassionate friend.

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Finding True Wisdom

Posted by eph21920 on October 13, 2025 in Answer, Connected, Faith, Life

I listened to a meditation today that really struck a chord with me. The focus of the reflection was if and/or how we seek wisdom. The first question was are we trying to seek wisdom at all in our lives, or are we just happy to go about our way doing the easy things without being challenged? The next idea was if we are seeking wisdom, where are we looking? It is so easy to get information on the Internet now, but you have to do even more research to verify if what you found is actually true or not. Jeff Cavins, who did the reflection, stated that Google processes 14 billion searches a day. So, naturally I Googled it. AI said there were 8 billion a day. Another source said 16 billion. Those are quite different numbers. Evidently Google claims that they process over 5 trillion in a year, and if you do the math from that, it comes to just under 14 billion a day. In any case, the last statement made in the meditation was, “What if we, as a planet, asked Jesus for wisdom 14 billion times a day? What a world that would be.” Indeed. I personally felt convicted that I should be spending more time seeking God’s wisdom to help me walk on His good path.

I Found God today reminded that true wisdom comes from Him.

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Passing Along History

Posted by eph21920 on October 12, 2025 in Family, Grateful, Life, Opportunity, Past, Travel

Today I talked with a couple of my cousins as I get ready to make a trip to visit them. It has been years since I have talked with them. One of them worked with my dad many years ago as they tracked their family genealogy. My dad kept a box of resources, references, and books that he used to make a beautiful scrapbook with my sister. My cousin was very interested in looking through it. My other cousin was also interested in knowing the family history. With all the information and photos that my dad had, he also put together folders for several family members. His intention was to share it with them. That is part of my mission for this upcoming trip. I am getting very excited to visit with my extended family. I am grateful that my dad had organized some family history and that I have an opportunity to deliver it.

I Found God today getting excited to visit extended family.

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Our Oktoberfest

Posted by eph21920 on October 11, 2025 in Birthday, Family, Food, Grateful, Happiness, Life, Opportunity

Since I learned that my grandson will be moving soon, it seemed necessary to have my family over before he leaves. Not only that, both my son’s birthdays are coming up, so we had much to celebrate. After talking about what kind of food to have, we decided on German. It was somewhat surprising since my son and his new wife went to Oktoberfest in Munich just a couple weeks ago and had the same food every day. I placed my food order at the local, very popular German bakery and delicatessen. That way I could arrive at 8:00 am instead of when they opened at 7:00 am. When I got there, it was already packed and people were coveting the 12 bratwurst buns that were all ready for me as they waited for the next batch to come out of the oven. Since I was there, I had to get the special cookies and treats and left with almost more than I could carry. The food was all prepared by the shop, so there was minimal prep and everything was so delicious. My son and his wife told fun stories about the real Oktoberfest. We toasted to my grandson’s new opportunity, while lamenting that we would not be getting all together like this as often any more. In all, it was another wonderful celebration with my family and I once again felt truly blessed.

I Found God today celebrating my family.

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Friends in Line

Posted by eph21920 on October 10, 2025 in Friends, New, Patience, Stranger

Today I stopped by the card store to find some entertaining cards and was surprised to see so many people there. As I was perusing the humorous cards, I noticed there were shopping bags lining the walls. They seemed to have sales orders in them and were in alphabetical order. There was Christmas music playing and the employees were dressed all Christmasy. I thought it was a little early for that, but just went about looking through the cards. I decided on what I wanted and made my way to the counter. Then I saw the long line. I debated whether to wait in the line to make my purchase, or just leave. Since I had already spent quite a bit of time looking and really liked what I found, I decided to wait it out. While in line, I learned that the store was having it’s annual Christmas ornament sale. People could pre-order this year’s new ornaments and pick them up today with a special “pass”. Some of us in line just had cards, others had bags of their pre-ordered goodies. As happens occasionally, the people around me struck up a conversation and I joined in. Everyone was friendly and respectful and it helped pass the time. We talked about travelling, being in the military, the changes in the city, and other things. I was glad I waited, got what I was looking for, and enjoyed chatting with people.

I Found God today being patient and friendly.

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Vintage

Posted by eph21920 on October 9, 2025 in Connected, Friends, Fun, Life, Past

I spent a lovely afternoon with a friend today. The weather was perfect – not too hot, or too sunny, or too windy, or too cool. We went to an eclectic city not too far from us where there is always interesting things to see. Since it was beautiful, we sat outside and enjoyed a fancy lunch. Then we walked around the city. I had visited the area now and then, but my friend used to spend a lot of time there. As we meandered, she talked about the places she would visit, though many of the stores were now different. One of her daughters is an artist. Part of the charm of the city is that it supports local artists. My friend’s daughter displayed some of her work in the galleries before she moved out of the state. As we browsed the different shops, my friend remembered one place that carried a specific brand of moccasin. She asked the young man in the store about it. He answered that they didn’t have what she was looking for, but perhaps they did “back in the day”. My friend and I were immediately dated and humorously felt very old. Not only that, but when we visited the “vintage” shops, we saw all the clothes we used to wear and toys we used to play with “back in the day”. I mentioned to my friend that walking through those stores was just like walking around and looking through my own house. She laughed and agreed. So I guess we are not old, but “vintage”.

I Found God today enjoying my age.

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