I have no idea where I am going . . .

I came across this prayer by Thomas Merton in My Life with the Saints by James Martin:
"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone."

Amen!

The most PHENOMENAL site.

There is a time machine on the web. I found out about it only minutes ago.

Please take me back in time!

The archive.org site allows you to search for webpages that have been lost and then "visit" them. It's like being able to travel back in time.

It's important to me because back in 1997 I got permission from Randy Becton to place several of his articles about cancer and grief online. At the time I was using AOL and so the materials were placed there. At some point those articles disappeared. It was some kind of storage/restart issue at AOL. I thought they were lost forever.


But the site listed above had them archived. And here are the links:

You are not alone.

Does anyone understand my grief?

Helping children cope with cancer.

Dealing with depression in illness.

Follow a link and you should see a selection of archived pages. Choose one and you'll be able to read the text of these 4 special booklets. Note that the links on these pages are out of date so don't expect to follow them. And since these pages are over a decade old (what's that in internet years?) the addresses are no longer valid.

If this is just too confusing, email me and we'll see what we can do to lessen the confusion and make it possible for you to read these booklets. Remember these are not my booklets -- not my words. There are probably newer versions available for purchase if you'd like to share them with others. Here's a link to Amazon's selection of materials by Randy Becton.

Feb 1st, 2009

Just checking out my connections on Facebook. Looks like 3/4's of my "friends" are either family or youngsters the age of my children. Matt tells me that there seems to have been an influx of folks my age in the past month or so. I've also been invited to be friends with a fellow who shares my name. So far, I haven't accepted his invitation. Guess I'm worried that it might get confusing.
Never really expected to see 2009. Not that worried about my own health just didn't figure the world would still be turning. But here it is and here we are.

I'll pass on the resolutions, thanks. My exercise minded daughter chose to steer clear of the gym crowds for the month of January. She expects that things will be back to normal by February. And that's pretty much my opinion of resolutions in general. If it's important then it can be started before (or after) January 1st. Call it something other than a resolution and you probably increase the likelihood of success.

And now we have a new president. This one seems to have generated more hope than usual. Hope is good. It is a great start but it won't really accomplish much without some willpower and sacrifice on the part of the American people.