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The cause of Freedom and the cause of Peace are bound together.

Léon Blum

Léon Blum was the first socialist and the first Jewish prime minister of France. Elected in 1936 amid the rise of Adolf Hitler, he opposed fascism and set to work reforming the French economy by promoting workers’ rights: He instituted wage increases, a standard 40-hour work week, paid vacation, and the right to bargain and strike. Blum saw all citizens as equal, and championed the pursuit of freedom and peace throughout his political career.

You can't have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time.

History ain't what it is. It's what some writer wanted it to be.

~Will Rogers (1879–1935)

Work doesn't work without play.

Shonda Rhimes

Even if you've never heard of Shonda Rhimes, there's a good chance you've seen her work. She is the producer, writer, and showrunner behind such massive TV hits as “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal,” and “Bridgerton.” With a workload like that, it's no wonder Rhimes has spent time thinking about how to keep the creative juices flowing. In a 2016 TED Talk, she discussed how to keep the “dreaming” alive in a dream job, and one of her secrets is taking time to play. Working all the time is not sustainable, she warned. Rather, imagination and drive rely on connecting with the joy in what you do.

Only by not forgetting the past can we be the master of the future.

Ba Jin

The work of prolific Chinese writer Ba Jin often took the form of social commentary. His most famous novel, “Jia,” criticized the traditional Chinese family system. His work labeled him a counterrevolutionary during the country’s Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, and he was ostracized from society. In the early 2000s, Ba Jin called for the creation of an official Cultural Revolution museum to document the impact of the era, believing this would prevent China from repeating past mistakes. (Though a museum did open in 2005, it was covered up by the Chinese authorities less than a decade later.) With this quote, Ba Jin points out that no experience exists in a vacuum. By reflecting on where we’ve been, we can chart the course ahead to steer us in a better direction.

God's gifts are measureless, and there shall be
Eternal summer in the grateful heart.
~Celia Thaxter, "A Grateful Heart"

"It is a happy moment when our desire crosses with the will of Heavenly Father."
C.S. Lewis

There are two ways to be. One is at war with reality and the other is at peace.
Byron Katie

A message today:

a Skipping Vinyl Record (Remember vinyl records?)

It was a beautiful, Summer morning today. I took my dogs for their morning walk just as the sun was rising over the hills. The air was still cool and I laughed as I watched my dogs romp and play in the grass still wet with the morning dew. Then I did some morning chores and made myself a warm breakfast and a hot cup of coffee. I didn’t want to ruin the perfect peacefulness of the morning by turning on the news so I opened my record player and put on some of my old, vinyl records instead.

The music sounded heavenly and I smiled as I did my morning exercises. That is until the record started to skip. For those of you too young to remember that is when damage to one of the grooves in the record causes the needle that picks up the music to skip back so that you hear the same few notes over and over and over. It can become annoying almost instantly. I quickly ran over to the record player, gently lifted the needle and moved it past the damaged part.

After I did this I thought for a while on how many times my own life has become like a skipping record. How many times did I become stuck on one problem or difficulty in my life? How many times did I become fixated on something negative and failed to learn my lesson and move forward? How many times did I ignore the peace, love, and grace God was offering me because I was too busy stewing in my own misery?

Thankfully, God continues to forgive me, guide me, and bring me back to love and joy in my own life. And if there is one thing I have learned in this life it is that we are here to make our music and live our love. God doesn’t want us to become a skipping record stuck on the same jarring notes over and over. God wants us to learn our lessons, sing our song, and share our love. May you always do so. May the song of your life make God smile and the angels sing.