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Sharing Encouragement

Posted by eph21920 on January 20, 2026 in Connected, Faith, Grateful, Struggles

I do love TobyMac. I saw him in concert many years ago on the side of a mountain during a Christian music festival. The energy of his music is vibrant, and the lyrics are real and uplifting. He went through a very difficult time a couple years ago when his son tragically died. I have admired his perseverance and continued faith. I follow him on social media and today his message struck my heart, “And then I realized the season I wanted to skip became the soil God used to grow me.” I could relate to this feeling and was grateful for the encouraging words. While we don’t feel it or remember it in the moment, we are never alone in our struggles. God is always there, yes, and there are other people who are going through hardships. And there are those who are on the other side of a particular crisis and can encourage others. I am grateful to see the past couple years of my life in a more positive light at this time and definitely realize that I have grown through the pain.

I Found God today in an encouraging message.

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Yolanda Renee King

Posted by eph21920 on January 19, 2026 in Answer, Connected, Life, Past, Peace, Present, Youth

This morning I saw an interview with 17 year old Yolanda Renee King who was in town for an event remembering her grandfather, Martin Luther King Jr. She was incredibly well spoken and her looks even resembled her grandfather. During the interview, she talked about how important it is to choose the option for peace and not violence, to choose love for one another instead of hatred. She said that her father, who is Martin Luther King Jr.’s son, did not push her into the public spotlight. Instead, she chose to speak up and speak out for what is good and possible. She talked about the importance of voting on both the national and local levels, reminding us of the freedom that we all have to do so. And while many of the topics were serious, she was still a teenager and described how she likes to hang out with friends, eat, and listen to music. I was very impressed with her poise, her message, and how comfortable she was in front of many cameras. I am sure she will make quite a positive impact in our world.

I Found God today in the well spoken granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr.

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More Coffee Trees

Posted by eph21920 on January 18, 2026 in Creation, Family, Grateful

Years ago, my sister who worked at Starbucks got a coffee tree from them. She managed to get some cuttings to root and created several new trees. There are 2 of them in my house, 1 belongs to my sister and 1 to me. Today my sister helped to repot mine and we found out that it truly needed it as there were so many roots. It is just over 6′ tall so it was quite a project. It looked pretty happy when we were done with it. Then my sister took some cuttings off her tree to try to grow some more. She has done a lot of research and passed along information to help care for them. It was another fun day with my sister getting our hands dirty and hopefully making a positive difference in the plants.

I Found God today spending time with my sister and plants.

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Sister’s Weekend

Posted by eph21920 on January 17, 2026 in Birthday, Family, Fun

My sister came today for her birthday weekend. We had fun at the antique shop where she found a beautiful handmade purse with lots of pockets. It was just what she was looking for. Then we went out to lunch. After that we watched the football game. It was a nailbiter all the way through, but our team finally won. After dinner, we had her favorite cupcakes that she actually bought for herself. It was fun spending the day with her.

I Found God today spending the day with my sister.

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Stained Glass

Posted by eph21920 on January 16, 2026 in Fun, Patience, Struggles

As I was visiting a friend today, her daughter-in-law stopped over. She talked about an art class that she’s taking, learning to make stained glass. She told us all about the process, which is more complicated than I imagined. There is a pattern to make, an outline to follow, and sottering involved. I got lost when she was explaining wrapping the colored glass. It is even more challenging for her as she has an eye condition in which she sees doubles. The corrective glasses that she wears are effective for most daily living activities. However, for such intricate close-up work, she really struggles. Evidently her instructor even suggested starting over with her project. But, she is determined to finish what she is working on. I admired her patience, tenacity and perseverance.

I Found God today in a woman’s perseverance.

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Saint and a Bear

Posted by eph21920 on January 15, 2026 in Creation, Faith, Humor, Saint

Today I heard a rather humorous story about the saint of the day – Saint Romedio. The church recognizes so many different people as saints, which makes sense since everyone is different. The story goes like this, from the Aleteia website:

“St. Romedio lived during the 4th century and was an heir in a wealthy family near Innsbruck, Austria. Romedio felt called to give up his many possessions and lead a life dedicated to God. Leaving his inheritance behind, he journeyed to Italy. But a very unfortunate situation occurred — which was quickly turned into a positive. Pope John Paul I narrates the humorous story in a collection of his letters called Illustrissimi.

According to the legend, when he was on his way back from a pilgrimage to Rome, Romedio stopped to rest with his two faithful companions, Abraham and David. After a while he said to David: “It’s time to get back onto the road. Go and fetch our horses in the field.” David went off, then came back terrified: a bear was eating Romedio’s horse. Romedio rushed into the field, saw what was happening, and said quite calmly … “Bear. Obviously you’re hungry as you’re eating my horse. That’s all very well, but I can’t walk home, you know, so you’ll have to be my horse.” And he put the saddle, bridle and reins of the horse [the bear] had eaten on [the bear] … climbed on to [his] back as if [the bear was] the most peaceable mule in the world, and set off in the direction of Trento.

At the end of the story John Paul I left this short little prayer.

Tame me, Lord! Make me more helpful and less of a bear.“

You can actually visit the place where St. Romedio lived. On the grounds is a wildlife sanctuary for bears, which shouldn’t be surprising. Many times the stories of the lives of the saints are gruesome, or horrifying to me. So, I loved hearing the story of this saint of the day with it’s whimsical nature.

I Found God today in a whimsical story of a saint and his bear.

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BINGO

Posted by eph21920 on January 14, 2026 in Friends, Fun, Laughter

I have a friend who loves to go and play BINGO. She and her sister and whoever else wants to will go maybe once a week or so. When I saw her at a get together, a couple of us decided to join them. It has been years since I have gone to play and I always enjoyed it. Tonight we met at the BINGO hall and my friend got us all set up. Another one of her sisters’ came who I hadn’t seen in quite some time. It was great to catch up. The place wasn’t anything like the smokey halls I knew from the past with the BINGO balls rolling around in the big cage. It was clean and computerized. There were side games within the regular games. It was a little more complicated, but I stuck to the easy things. I still had paper cards and a magenta colored dobber that I borrowed from my friend. I had a lot of fun visiting with my friends and playing. My expert friend and her sister each won one game. The rest of us just had fun.

I Found God today having fun with friends.

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The Wildlife

Posted by eph21920 on January 13, 2026 in Creation, Happiness, Joy, Life

I get very excited when I receive a notification from the camera at the cabin – especially when it includes the description “Pet Detected”. Usually I see deer, turkey, fox, or an occasional coyote. Once there was a bear in the driveway attracted by some trash that was left in my brother’s truck. When I heard the notification last night and saw “Pet Detected”, I was anticipating what I might find when I opened the app. There, crossing through the snow in the driveway was a beautiful mountain lion. I had to watch the video over several times to make sure that was what I was actually looking at. Then I sent it with my family. As we were sharing our excitement, another notification came through. There was a second mountain lion, following close to the same trail as the first. I had heard that the big cats lived in the area, but in all the years I have spent at the cabin, I have never seen one. To see two was just amazing to me. Even though I wasn’t physically at the cabin, it was so wonderful to see the mountain lions in the wild right there. I had so much fun sharing the video with everyone I saw today.

I Found God today seeing wildlife.

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Fasching

Posted by eph21920 on January 12, 2026 in Begin, Children, Connected, Faith, Family, Food, Happiness, Tradition

I listened to an interesting podcast today that talked about the season of Carnevale. Evidently in the history of the church seasons, Advent was a time of fasting leading up to Christmas, as was Lent leading up to Easter. Once the Christmas season ended with the Baptism of Jesus, which we celebrated yesterday, the Carnevale season begins. “Carne” meaning “meat” and “Vale” meaning “none” gave definition to the weeks leading up to Lent in which traditionally there is fasting from meat. The 2 together has made the word “carnival” that we know today. The podcast mentioned the “fasching” season in Germany. I remember that time very well, as my family lived there in the early 1970’s. Fasching seemed to last a long time with various parades and costumes. As a child, on a specific day we would dress up and go from house to house saying, “speck und eier”, meaning “bacon and eggs”. That made no sense to me at the time, but people gave us candy, so we participated in the event. My mom was German, so she was able to navigate any awkward situations that might have occurred. Today, all this started to make sense. Different places celebrate Carnivale with their own time frame and customs. “Bacon and eggs” was a reminder that there will soon be fasting from such things and we better eat the good stuff while we can. Of course, as a child it was much more exciting to get candies instead of a steak. So, enjoy this time of merriment before we get somber during Lent.

I Found God today learning more about Carnivale and remembering the fun I had with it as a child.

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Holiday Party

Posted by eph21920 on January 11, 2026 in Friends, Grateful, Home, Tradition

Today was the annual holiday party in our little housing complex. I have been hesitant to go in the past, but planned on going today. I guess I have realized how much I enjoy and need to visit with other people – even those I don’t know very well. And everyone here is just so nice. One of the ladies even called to see if I was going. I talked with many people that I knew and some that I didn’t. Even though it’s a small community, one of the couples used their van to pick up people who had a hard time walking. That’s one of the advantages of a small community. Here, people look out for one another, check on each other, and help each other out. The food was good, the company was excellent and I was surprised how fast the time went by. I am grateful for my caring and generous neighbors.

I Found God today in my caring neighbors.

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