In my travels I meet many people who are more than willing to share their issues with me. I guess it is easier to open up to a perfect stranger who lives miles away and that you are not likely to casually meet again in the streets or at the local grocery store.
A story that came my way recently is that of a father who left an inheritance to his children. I cannot share specifics on this so you will have to forgive me for being stingy on details with this one. The father had had serious issues with his wife, which, after her death affected his relationship with his children. The inheritance of course consisted of money, but due to these issues, there were some stipulations in the deceased father’s wishes that were likely to also pass on some of these former enmities and bitternesses. This would have the effect of continuing the feud of the previous generation on to the next. Though being serious about the importance of the last wishes of their dying father, the children decided to discard the negative elements in the father’s wishes in order to let go of the feud. The decision of these children left me pondering. From East to West, whether on the religious, racial, political, or even ethnic scene, our world today mostly reacts on the inherited feuds of our fathers. Let us pause for a moment and imagine what would happen if like these wise children, we would filter out from the inheritance the old enmities and feuds that cause anger, distrust, and eventually lead to a dysfunctional world with no ends of wars passed on from generation to generation.
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Driving miles and miles through the great plains from Texarkana to Kanorado we cross a very flat land. Even one of the rivers that crosses it is called The Platte, a word in French that means “The Flat One”, due to its shallowness. Coming from Oregon, it’s a different world. We were very surprised to see that as soon as we cross the state line, people talk and even act differently. But something that really affects me was a sense of a loss of direction. The 360 degree perspective in these parts is the same everywhere. What I mean is that from where I live, I always know where East is because of Mt Hood. If I were on the east side of the Cascades, Mt Hood would point me to the West. The mountain gives me a sense of location and direction. These thoughts that crossed my mind during hours and hours of mindless driving through long stretches of straight highways through the Great Plains made me think of life. Life has got to have some sort of direction. We all need to have a mountain. If not a mountain, maybe a hill to live for or even to die on. When we don’t we aimlessly live our lives like a tumbleweed blown by every wind, subject to every fad, moved by every trend of man without anything to hold on to. We risk becoming like a star without orbit or a ship without anchor blown by every wind on a restless sea. Whether Mt Sinai, Mt Zion, or Mt Hood; whether a hillbilly fighting to keep his hilltop; whether a star travelling the great galaxies or a ship on a discovery voyage, may we find an orbital anchor that points us to a sense of purpose and direction. Patrick G. Lumbroso Chaplain Supervisor Estacada Rural Fire District No. 69 Station Phone: 503.630.7712 Cell: 503.515.2033 Fax:: 503.630.7757 www.estacadafire.org www.facebook.com/EstacadaFire To Unsubscribe from this Email: 1) Open the outlook web app: https://mail.estacadafire.org/owa 2) Log in using your EFD user name and password. Your username will need to have the domain in front of it. See the below example a. Username ex: EFD\Jdoe b. Password: This is the password you use for email or computer access 3) In the upper right corner of the screen click on the gear icon and select “Options” 4) On the left side of the screen click “Groups” 5) Double click on the “EFD Chaplain Newsletters” Group 6) Click “Leave” 7) This will remove you from receiving these newsletters |
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