Adam and his birthday

Today is Adam Dyer's birthday and a day that I can well remember. I wanted Bill to be here with me for this but he insisted on going to Japan and he missed it entirely. Somehow, he managed to miss so many important moments of our lives. Focus on the positive and move on. 26 years old today --can't believe it. He has done so well in making the decisions he has made. I'm proud of him! I spend most of my prayer time, praying for him.

I pray for Colin today with his hurt. I pray for Jim Cooper and his safe trip home on Saturday. I pray for my continued feeling better from the infection of this abscessed tooth. Wish we could clean out the pus of hatred and resentment as quickly in our lives and thoughts. We have to work harder on that.

A friend of mine, Marla Dreyer, has had a terrible disease --lungs--stays on breathing machine most of the time--wrote a note to the governor for me yesterday and sent me this quote, "There comes a time in life when you walk away from all the pointless drama and people who create it, and surround yourself with people who make you laugh so hard that you forget the bad and focus on the good. Life is too short to be anything but happy." This just fell into where I am today and comes from someone who has to find her joy outside of her own health. I admire her and love and support the quote. It is the ultimate way of letting go of resentments. With joy, one finds it so much easier to be compassionate.

I love the writer Andrew Murray. He writes" If we truly set ourselves to wait upon God, we shall find that it is with him we are impatient because he does not at once, or as soon as we could wish, do our bidding. It is in waiting upon God that our eyes are opened to believe in his wise and sovereign will, and to see the sooner and the more completely we yield absolutely to it, the more surely his blessings come to us."

Another strange source that I read about compassion was from the Dalai Lama. I was taken with two of his points: Find a way to do something kind for someone every day; and when we encounter someone who mistreats us, instead of acting in anger, withdraw. Later, when you are calm and more detached, reflect on that person who mistreated you and try to imagine what that person could possibly have been going through and what bad things could have happened to him to make him react in such a negative way. Reflect on this, act with compassion and understanding , do it in small doses until you are good at it.

I shall continue to think, today, about compassion. My prayer is that God gives me an insight into, first, why I am so torn by all of this and want to withdraw more than I want to build a cohesive group. That is why I need prayer more than anyone else.