Daily Jots

Thought of the Day:
“Things we do not expect, happen more frequently than we wish.”
Plautus
Thinking Outside of the Box:
Kind of reminds you of “Life is what happens when you are making other plans,” doesn’t it? Plautus lived 250 years before Christ, and yet it seems that life hasn’t changed all that much. But in all reality, would we want to have it expected and planned out? Most people think not when really pushed to the wall. I sometimes find it surprising because the really surprising stuff, isn’t always such good stuff. Wouldn’t it be nice to …read more

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Thought of the Day:
“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander of the Japanese Navy, 1941
Thinking Outside of the Box:
“A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for,” said William Shedd, a protestant theologian. Evidently he was mistaken, for the ships at Pearl Harbor that morning were anything but safe.
I knew a doctor who was in World War II. He would have been fairly young but I believe he was a physician and not a medic. …read more

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Thought of the Day:
“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”
Oscar Wilde
Thinking Outside of the Box:
With six billion people on the planet, it is hard, at times, to think about what it is to be an individual. That’s a lot of people. No two alike they say – well, twins are similar and certainly alike in the DNA department, but their own experiences shape a different personality. So bottom line: Everyone is an individual and there never was before, or will …read more

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Thought of the Day:
“Is it possible that literacy standards are falling because young Australians are growing up in a culture in which they can be entertained and informed, and in which they can communicate effectively, without having to master any but the most rudimentary literacy skills?”
Hugh Mackay
Thinking Outside of the Box:
I grew up in Seattle, Washington, and have a great affection for the “Seattle Post Intelligencer.” It has always been the morning newspaper, leaned a bit (!) toward the left, and had a propensity for huge headlines. The other newspaper was much more conservative (read: boring). The …read more

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Thought of the Day:
“We are preparing to be prepared for Christmas these days of Advent. This Second Sunday of Advent we pray for a listening heart to hear the words of comfort and call. We pray for a stillness around us a letting go of production, achievement, and self-validating efficiency.”
Larry Gillick, S.J.
Thinking Outside of the Box:
Catholics all over the world are lighting Advent candles in wreaths.  To the non-Catholic that may seem a pretty, but not well understood tradition.  The candles represent hope – a lighting of the inner candle that still us and brings us the promise of a …read more

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Thought of the Day:
“When dealing with the insane, the best method is to pretend to be sane.”
Hermann Hesse
Thinking Outside of the Box:
Are we all insane, pretending we are sane? Or are we all sane from start to finish? I hope not. I mean, if we are all sane, then I would have to think we haven’t lived life to its fullest. We haven’t let go and let the wind blow through our hair while riding a bike hands-free or made a sand castle as the tide is coming in. And if we haven’t done things …read more

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Thought of the Day:
“The complete life, the perfect pattern, includes old age as well as youth and maturity. The beauty of the morning and the radiance of noon are good, but it would be a very silly person who drew the curtains and turned on the light in order to shut out the tranquillity of the evening. Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.”
W. Somerset Maugham
Thinking Outside of the Box:
I heard a song tonight I haven’t heard in ages. It was by Expose, who was at one time, one of …read more

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Thought of the Day:
“O God, my heart desires
the warmth of your love,
and my mind is searching
for the light of your Word.
Increase my longing
for Jesus. Amen” “Living God’s Word: Reflections on the Weekly Gospels”
Learning About Advent
Thinking Outside of the Box:
Christmas has changed from a purely Christian holiday to a season of the year that is represented by December holding the major holiday for many religions and faiths. As a Catholic I would like to go “on record” as saying there is nothing wrong with that; it creates a time of the year where the …read more

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Thought of the Day:
“I have resolved from this day on, I will do all the business I can honestly, have all the fun I can reasonably, do all the good I can willingly, and save my digestion by thinking pleasantly.”
Robert Louis Stevenson
Thinking Outside of the Box:
I don’t know who originally coined the phrase, “All things in moderation,” as there is a debate whether it was Aristotle or Socrates (if so, he should have tried that with hemlock.) But this quote reminded me of that phrase and of the part of the Bible in Ecclesiastes that talks about …read more

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THE CANTICLE OF BROTHER SUN
St. Francis’ Song of Joy
O most high, almighty, good Lord God,
to you belong praise, glory, honor, and all blessing!
Praised be my Lord God with all your creatures,
and especially our Brother Sun,
who brings us the day and who brings us the light.
Fa ir is he and shines with a very great splendor:
O Lord, he signifies you to us!
Praised be my Lord for our Brother Wind,
and for air and cloud, calms and all weather
through which you uphold life in all creatures.
Praised be my Lord for our Sister Water,
who is very useful to us and humble
and precious and clean.
Praised …read more

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