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Good Samaritan

Posted by eph21920 on November 22, 2025 in Doctor, Grateful, Hurt, Problem, Stranger

My sister and I were excited to go to a craft fair today at a local high school. It was a beautiful day so I didn’t even mind the walk from the crowded parking lot to the building. We had just crossed to the sidewalk to the school entrance when my sister noticed a commotion and a woman on the ground who looked like she was bleeding. When she pointed her out to me, we both hurried over to her. She had a lot of blood on her face. When I asked if she was ok – which was really a dumb question – she said, “No! Please don’t leave me!” I said I wouldn’t and crouched down next to her. I asked her what happened. She said she had fallen there in the parking lot. I asked if she had anyone with her. She said her son was with her and he had gone back to the car to get his phone. As I was speaking with her, a man in a truck started calling 911. The woman asked if her head was banged up as she said she hit the concrete hard. I didn’t see any wound on her head, but on her nose. The man in the truck had tissues and someone else was handing them out. The woman wiped her face some and it was then obvious that the blood was coming from her nose. The man handed out more tissues and I encouraged her to hold her nose tight to stop the bleeding. As he talked to the 911 dispatcher, we found out she was 81 years old. She said she was upset that she was going to miss the craft fair. Soon another man came over and said he was a doctor. He asked all the questions and assured the woman that the medical people were on their way. Her son arrived also and was visibly shaken, not really knowing what to do. Then the paramedics arrived, I told the woman I would keep her in prayer and my sister and I got out of their way.  It was quite a hectic scene. I was so grateful that my sister noticed the trouble, for the man in the truck, the doctor, and others who were around trying to be helpful. I’ve kept the woman in mind all day and have been praying for her.

I Found God today in many people helping an injured woman.

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Continued Birthday

Posted by eph21920 on November 21, 2025 in Birthday, Connected, Faith, Family, Food, Friends, Fun, Generosity, Grateful, Relationship

Today may be the last day of my week long birthday celebration and I felt like I received so many gifts. This morning I talked to my aunt who turned 90 on our mutual birthday. I thanked her for the card and beautiful blouse she sent me from her favorite QVC. She told me about her wonderful party with all her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. My family is a gift. In the afternoon I was treated to lunch by a couple of friends. We went to my favorite Mexican restaurant and ate, visited, reminisced, laughed and made plans to get together again. Later I received a text from a far away friend who has one of my dad’s photos. She is growing amaryllises and noticed that the photo she has matches the flowers. She just realized it and wanted to share it with me. My friends are a gift. When I was just about home, I received notice that my car was ready to be picked up. It had been in the shop a couple of days to repair the dents that happened when an object hit the hood on my last road trip. Getting my car back was a gift. After dinner, my neighbor came over and brought me pie from an event she volunteered for. We chatted for a while about faith experiences. She and her husband gave me a card with heartfelt words of gratitude. My neighbors are a gift. So is pie. As I reflected on this day, I was more aware of how much God takes care of me. As much as I am grateful for all the gifts mentioned here, I am most grateful for my relationship with God, who is the giver of all good gifts.

I Found God today in many good gifts.

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Delighted to Give

Posted by eph21920 on November 20, 2025 in Faith, Generosity, Grateful, Life, Love

I saw a quote today from CS Lewis that touched my heart:

How God loves us; not because we are lovable but because He is love, not because He needs to receive but He delights to give.

I Found God today reminded of God’s generous love.

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Preparing the Turkey

Posted by eph21920 on November 19, 2025 in Food, Friends, Generosity

I went to the Newman Center today and enjoyed visiting with the young adults. I love to hear their outlook on life in their current state of being. Some have a deep faith, others are searching. Today I was especially enthralled watching one of the young men preparing the turkey for tomorrow’s Friendsgiving dinner. He had brined the bird, then split it in half and place it face down – a technique called “spatchcock”. When I went into the kitchen, he was preparing a compound butter. He poured some drippings from a frying pan into the mixing bowl. I asked where the drippings came from. He said he had cut off a small piece of turkey and fried it to make sure it was brined correctly. It was. After the butter was mixed, he placed it in between the skin and the meat of the turkey and spread it all over the outside as well. He cut up an onion and place it around the turkey with some fresh herbs. Then it went back into the refrigerator, ready to be cooked tomorrow. I asked how he learned to cook so well. The young man replied that he learned it all on YouTube. When he was younger, he said he had a lot of extra time. He wondered what he could do that would be productive and positive. He figured he liked to eat, so he should learn to cook. He also enjoyed that he could cook things for other people and help them out that way. Instead of wasting time on media or getting into trouble, he discovered a useful and delicious outlet that makes him happy and those he shares it with. That reminded me of today’s Gospel reading. A wealthy man went away and gave his servants part of his money with the understanding that they would use it to obtain more for him. When he returned, those who earned more for him were praised. The one who did nothing at all with the money was punished. Similarly, God entrusts us with gifts and talents that are unique to us. We should be using those gifts for the benefit of others. That is exactly what the young chef was doing.

I Found God today in a young man who was an amazing chef.

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Long Distance DWTS

Posted by eph21920 on November 18, 2025 in Connected, Family, Grateful, Joy, Music, Relationship

I have been watching Dancing With the Stars fairly regularly. Last year when I was helping my daughter in law after surgery, we would watch it together with my grandson too. He moved out of state last month. My daughter in law has been missing the things that they would do together. Tonight as I started watching Dancing With the Stars, I texted my daughter in law. She was on a video call with her son and they were watching together. Then they invited me to join them. I was so happy to jump on the conversation. We watched dances together and commented and during commercials, I heard all about my grandson’s new job. He talked about how much he loves working for a race team and how much he is learning. It was great to connect this way, to see him and hear how he’s doing. I was so grateful I was invited on the call.

I Found God today seeing and talking with my grandson.

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The Drones

Posted by eph21920 on November 17, 2025 in Family, Fun, Generosity, Grateful, Music, New, Tradition

A couple of weeks ago, my sons asked if I was free last night. I said I was. They said that they would pick me up and planned something for my birthday. I had no idea what it was. My siblings and I tried to guess in our weekly Zoom session before they arrived. I thought maybe it was dinner, but they said it didn’t involve food. It wasn’t anything physical as my son hurt his back but was still participating. I asked my daughter in law what I should wear and she said whatever I wanted, it didn’t really matter. So, I just put on some jeans, sweater, and sneakers. When my sons picked me up, they wondered if I knew what we were doing. I still had no idea. We got on the highway and were headed downtown. They kept dropping hints until I guessed correctly. We were going to the Trans Siberian Orchestra concert. I was excited and surprised. They usually perform one of their Christmas stories, some additional music, and have some kind of new feature. The second half of the concert introduced a drone show that was choreographed to a couple pieces of music. I was glad we were sitting up high in the stadium, as we had a really good overview of the whole set-up. The drones were mesmerizing. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of them as they changed colors and moved to form different shapes. The show included plenty of fire, colored flames, and fireworks too. We still love the music, the positive atmosphere, and they always seem to step it up a notch each year, which is why we enjoy going so often. I was grateful for the thoughtfulness of my sons and had such a great time with them.

I Found God today in my thoughtful sons and a fun night out.

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New Priest

Posted by eph21920 on November 16, 2025 in Faith, Humility, New, Priest

We recently got a new pastor at our parish. I had seen him before in other churches and appreciated his down to earth attitude, which comes through in his homilies. He gave the parishioners an opportunity to sign up to share a meal with him. My prayer group and I signed up and met him and some other people for breakfast at IHOP this morning after the early Mass. He was even more “normal” in person. Even though he wore his collar, the conversation was comfortable. The personal stories he told were that of a regular family with regular struggles. Just the fact that he told these stories to people he had not met before was a reflection of his humility and desire to be approachable. The whole group seemed to enjoy the company of not only the new pastor, but one another as well. I know I did.

I Found God today meeting a humble, faithful priest.

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Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe

Posted by eph21920 on November 15, 2025 in Children, Connected, Faith, Fun, Generosity, Homeless, Youth

A friend of mine knew a family whose child was in an acting troupe, so today we went to their production of “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”. It was fantastic fun. I love the movie and wondered how they were going to fit all of that on a stage, but they did a great job. They did a lot of explaining in the dialogue when a certain scene wasn’t acted out to fill in any details. The characters even spoke in a British accent and very much resembled the actors in the movie. Beautiful dancing helped to describe each scene without using words. And at the end of the last war scene, all the actors went into slow motion. There was fighting all over the stage, but with the spotlight fixed on the main characters you could see clearly where the focus was. Since we went to the matinee, there were many children in attendance who clapped with excitement when the heroes overcame the enemies. And they loved it when Asland returned and roared loudly. The Christian connections were prevalent, with some more than others. Asland repeatedly told his followers, “Peace be with you,” and after he was sacrificed in place of Edmund, he came back to life through an open cave with a light streaming from it. It was hard to believe that the majority of the actors were children and teens as it was an outstanding production. One of the representatives spoke at the intermission about their non-profit organization. She shared that they had done the play for families of children who are being treated for life threatening diseases such as cancer. They also connected with a school whose students are homeless and were able to bring them in for a show. While we had a great afternoon and enjoyed the play, it was great to know that some of our ticket fee was being used to support those who are most in need.

I Found God today in a fun play with a giving heart.

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Not As Bad

Posted by eph21920 on November 14, 2025 in Family, Grateful, Healing, Hurt

My son hurt his back again a couple days ago and is very upset as he has to be out of work for a while, which is understandable. I was out and about today and stopped by their house to check in. My son was moving around pretty well, which surprised me as last I talked to him he was in a lot of pain. He said he was physically feeling better than when he first tweaked his back, though he was still frustrated. We had a good visit and I encouraged him to try to be patient and just take the time to rest and heal so he can get back to work as soon as possible. I was grateful to see that he wasn’t in a tremendous amount of pain and am praying that this episode will pass smoothly and quickly.

I Found God today seeing that my son was feeling better.

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Blessed Birthday

Posted by eph21920 on November 13, 2025 in Birthday, Connected, Faith, Life, Saint, Service

I woke up this morning thanking my parents and God for bringing me into existence on my birthday. I thought it would be good to begin my next year with a clean slate. So, I left the house early and went to Confession. I felt relieved and peaceful after hearing the prayers of forgiveness. Sometimes I am reminded of hurtful things I have done decades ago. Those memories can stay with me. I am grateful that I can bring those things to God, receive absolution, and dismiss them. After Confession, I stayed for Mass and saw 2 friends there, an extra gift. Today is also the Feast day of Mother Cabrini, whose shrine I visited on Saturday. I listened to the priest talk about her and thought about how she dedicated her life to serving the immigrants of this country. She opened orphanages, hospitals and free schools for the children. Mother Cabrini was actually from Italy and sent to the United States to care for the Italian residents. She crossed the ocean over 60 times as she laid the foundation of her mission. An immigrant herself, Mother Cabrini became an American Citizen. Her order still cares for the poor, neglected, and immigrants of all nationalities in several countries. Her biography states that she was not simply a “humanitarian”, but a lover of God who dedicated her life to His will. I am honored that my birthday is on her Feast day. I am in awe of her faith and feel I have much to learn from her.

I Found God today feeling blessed on my birthday.

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