Monday, January 14, 2013

Great Stories

Notice that all the great stories pretty much follow the same story line. Things were once good, then something awful happened, and now a great battle must be fought or a journey taken. At just the right moment (which feels like the last possible moment), a hero comes and sets things right, and life is found again. It's true of every fairy tale, every myth, every Western, every epic-just about every story you can think of, one way or another. Braveheart, Titanic, the Star Wars series, Gladiator, The Lord of the Rings trilogy. They pretty much all follow the same story line. Have you ever wondered why? Every story, great and small, shares the same essential structure because every story we tell borrows its power from a Larger Story, a Story woven into the fabric of our being-what pioneer psychologist Carl Jung tried to explain as archetype, or what his more recent popularizer Joseph Campbell called myth. All of these stories borrow from the Story. From Reality. We hear echoes of it through our lives. Some secret written on our hearts. A great battle to fight, and someone to fight for us. An adventure, something that requires everything we have, something to be shared with those we love and need. There is a Story that we just can't seem to escape. There is a Story written on the human heart.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Prayer Request

A good friend went into the Hospital last night his name is Jan please pray for him.

In the end

In the end, it doesn't matter how well we have performed or what we have accomplished-a life without heart is not worth living. For out of this wellspring of our soul flow all true caring and all meaningful work, all real worship and all sacrifice. Our faith, hope, and love issue from this fount, as well. Because it is in our heart that we first hear the voice of God and it is in the heart that we come to know him and learn to live in his love. So you can see that to lose heart is to lose everything. And a "loss of heart" best describes most men and women in our day. It isn't just the addictions and affairs and depression and heartaches, though, God knows, there are enough of these to cause even the best of us to lose heart. But there is the busyness, the drivenness, the fact that most of us are living merely to survive. Beneath it we feel restless, weary, and vulnerable. Indeed, the many forces driving modern life have not only assaulted the life of our heart, they have also dismantled the heart's habitat-that geography of mystery and transcendence we knew so well as children. All of us have had that experience at one time or another, whether it be as we walked away from our teachers, our parents, a church service, or sexual intimacy; the sense that something important, perhaps the only thing important, had been explained away or tarnished and lost to us forever. Sometimes little by little, sometimes in large chunks, life has appropriated the terrain meant to sustain and nourish the wilder life of the heart, forcing it to retreat as an endangered species into smaller, more secluded, and often darker geographies for its survival. As this has happened, something has been lost, something vital.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Have a great weekend

God Bless You

from wild at heart

What exactly are you perfectly clear on these days? How about your life-why have things gone the way they have? Where was God in all that? And do you know what you ought to do next, with a deep, settled confidence that it will work out? Neither do I. Oh, I'd love to wake each morning knowing exactly who I am and where God is taking me. Zeroed in on all my relationships, undaunted in my calling. It's awesome when I do see. But for most of us, life seems more like driving along with a dirty windshield and then turning into the sun. I can sort of make out the shapes ahead, and I think the light is green. Wouldn't a little bit of clarity go a long way right now? Let's start with why life is so dang hard. You try to lose a little weight, but it never seems to happen. You think of making a shift in your career, maybe even serving God, but you never actually get to it. Perhaps a few of you do make the jump, but it rarely pans out the way you thought. You try to recover something in your marriage, and your spouse looks at you with a glance that says, "Nice try," or "Isn't it a little late for that?" and the thing actually blows up into an argument in front of the kids. Yes, we have our faith. But even there-maybe especially there-it all seems to fall rather short of the promise. There's talk of freedom and abundant life, of peace like a river and joy unspeakable, but we see precious little of it, to be honest.

Happy New Year

With the new year we are going to be focusing on expanding the kingdom and spreading the good news. We have a sister site: www.foryourdailybread.com and we will be soon launching a Nationwide Church Directory. God has blessed us in 2012 and we look forward to all that he has planned for us in 2013 and look forward to our journey together. The Wildmen of Sarasota meet every Tuesday Night at Woodlands the community church at 6:30 and hope you can join us for Dinner and fellowship. If you are looking for a place to meet other believers and spend some quality time growing and walking with Jesus this is a place to be. Like las vegas what is said at Wildmen stays at Wildmen. For me personally this is a place where I can go and be with other believers and share what is going on in my life and get advice from people I can trust. Hope to see you there.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

great news

Dear Partners and Friends, Things have changed rapidly in the last several days. In response to the questions from many of you I wanted to give a quick update. if you visit the www.caringbridge.com website you may know some of this. After three (3) rounds of chemotherapy which did not produce any desired results over the last 15 weeks, as I left the hospital and Denver last Saturday one of the doctors came in and smiled to say I think I have some good news for you. She said we don't understand the reasons after no response this long, but his numbers (good ones ) have jumped. They wanted an ANC count of 500+ but which been 3-25. the whole time. She said it has jumped to 200. I did say politely I understood because we knew "The Great Physician" who was in charge and hundreds of people have been praying for this child and God's grace was allowing it. God doesn't work this way in all lives but with Collin He has chosen to at this point. By that night it was 600 and the next day it exploded to 1800. The first exciting news we had! So we are rejoicing. This does not mean everything is solved, but now the doctors can and have proceeded to the next step to a bone marrow transplant to be initiated. No one in the family was a donor match, but one has been found through the national donor bank. It appears he will be able to be home for Christmas day if he stays well and then start the transplant. The family really wants to be together on Christmas instead of 2 places. He went home yesterday to be able to see the new baby brother ( first time off hospital property in 15 weeks). Once the transplant starts and takes place he will be in the special unit for 40-45 days under strict germ protocol then the following 90 days have to be within 20 minutes of the hospital which means he still can not go home, but if he stays well can stay in "Bretts Place" an apartment for children under transplant. So, it is far from over yet, but encouraging as we see the next step. The caring bridge site is: www.caringbridge.com. The visit site collinfrye. The password is collin. Thank you for your concern and prayers. Frank -- Frank Frye Priority Associates "Developing Leaders from the Inside Out"

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Jesus Died For Your

JESUS' DEATH - 60 SECONDS ~~~ 60 seconds with God... For The next 60 seconds, set aside whatever You're doing and take this opportunity! Let's see if Satan can stop this... THE (SCIENTIFIC) DEATH OF JESUS At the age of 33, Jesus was condemned to the death penalty. At the time crucifixion was the "worst" death. Only the worst criminals condemned to be crucified. Yet it was Even more dreadful for Jesus, for unlike other criminals condemned to death by crucifixion, Jesus was nailed to the cross by His hands and feet, rather than tied... Each nail Was 6 to 8 inches long. The nails Were driven into His wrist. Not Into His palms as is commonly Portrayed. There's a tendon in the wrist that Extends to the shoulder. The Roman guards knew That when the nails were being hammered into the Wrist, that tendon would tear and Break, forcing Jesus to use His back Muscles to support himself, so that He could breathe. Both of His feet Were nailed together. Thus He was forced to Support Himself on the single nail that Impaled His feet to the cross. Jesus could Not support himself with His legs for long because of the pain, so He was forced to alternate between arching His Back and using his legs just to continue to Breath. Imagine the struggle, the pain, the Suffering, the courage. Jesus endured this Reality for over 3 hours. Yes, Over 3 hours! Can you imagine this kind of Suffering? A few minutes before He died, Jesus stopped bleeding. He was simply pouring water >From his wounds. From common images we see wounds to His hands and feet and even the spear wound to His side... But do we remember the many wounds Made to his body. A hammer Driving large nails through the wrists, the feet overlapped And a nail hammered through the arches, then a Roman guard piercing His side with a spear. And... Before the nails and the spear, Jesus was whipped and Beaten. The whipping was so severe that it tore the Flesh from His body. The beating so horrific that His Face was torn and his beard ripped from His face. The Crown of thorns (two to three inch thorns) cut deeply into His scalp. Most men Would not have survived this torture. " He had no more blood To bleed out, only water poured from His Wounds.The Human adult body contains about 3.5 liters (just less than a gallon) of blood. Jesus poured all 3.5 liters of his blood; He had three nails hammered into His Members; a crown of thorns on His head and, beyond That, a Roman soldier who stabbed a spear into His Chest.. All these without Mentioning the humiliation He passed after carrying His own Cross for almost 2 kilometers, while the crowd spat in his Face and threw stones (the cross beam was almost 30 kg of weight, to which His hands were nailed). Jesus had to endure this experience, So that you may have free access to God. So that your sins can be "washed" away. All of them, with no exception! Don't ignore this. JESUS CHRIST DIED...FOR YOU! For you, who now read this e-mail. Do not believe that He only died for others (those who go to church or for pastors, bishops, etc). He died for you! It is easy to e-mail jokes or silly photos, But when it comes to God, Sometimes we feel ashamed to forward a message about Him on To others. We are worried of what they may think. Accept the reality, the truth, that JESUS IS THE ONLY SALVATION FOR THE WORLD. God has special plans for YOU! Share this with all your friends... About what He went through to save you. Really think about it! May God bless you!

Friday, November 30, 2012

Zig

In honor and memory of Zig Ziglar, the Memorial Service will be open to the public as well as streamed live via internet radio. 11:00 am Saturday, December 1st Prestonwood Baptist Church (main worship center) 6801 West Park Boulevard Plano, TX 75093 972-820-5000

Max

We Like Sheep by Max Lucado • November 6 Sheep aren’t smart. They tend to wander into running creeks for water, then their wool grows heavy and they drown. They have no sense of direction. They need a shepherd to lead them to calm water. So do we! We, like sheep, tend to be swept away by waters we should have avoided. We have no defense against the evil lion who prowls about seeking whom he might devour. Isaiah 53:6 reminds us, “We all have wandered away like sheep; each of us has gone his own way.” We need a shepherd to care for us and to guide us. And Jesus is that Good Shepherd. The Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. The Shepherd who protects, provides, and possesses his sheep. The Psalmist says: The Lord is my shepherd! The imagery is carried over to the New Testament as Jesus is called the good shepherd of the sheep! Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. John 10:14-15”

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Zig Ziglar is now with Jesus

Zig Ziglar passed from this world today after a short bout with pneumonia. Though his time on earth has ended, he is speaking with Jesus now in his heavenly home. The angels in heaven are rejoicing and his family is celebrating a life well lived. If Zig has impacted your life or you want to leave a message to the family, please leave your remarks on his FaceBook page. Don't worry about being too specific or long. Take as much space as you want...the family wants to know. Please check back on FaceBook as we will be posting when the memorial service will be held. Personal Note: I had the privilage of knowing Zig and he was a man that walked the walk and I thank God for the time I had spent with him and the impact that it had on my life.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

are you blameless

Blameless TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman Wednesday, August 15 2012 "For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless." Psalm 84:11 If you were running for political office, what approach would your opponent take against you? If he wanted to launch a smear campaign, would there be any ammunition for him to use? Think how you would feel if the director of the opposing campaign came to you afterwards and said, "Sir, we tried to find something negative to play up in our campaign against you, but we couldn't." What does it really mean to be a person who is blameless before God? Being blameless before God does not mean we are perfect. No human being is perfect. It means that we so fully trust in God that we are willing to make things right when we fail. We are willing to humble ourselves continually before the throne of God. "...Blessed is the man who trusts in You" (Psalm 84:12). God has a specific plan for the people who fully trust in Him. He promises to be their shield, to bestow honor on them. He will not withhold any good thing from them. What a promise! What motivation to be all that we can be in God. Imagine living a life that God views as blameless, which allows Him to withhold no good thing. Pray that God would make you and me that kind of person.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

YOu are invited

I would like to take this opportunity to personally invite you to our Coaches of Excellence "kick off" event on Tuesday, August 28th at 6:30pm. That evening I would like to share about the new direction in my life as well as casting the vision of COE with you. We will also be hearing from the founder of COE, Rod Olson, who will be with us via Skye. Also that night, I will have Doug Poll from the Doug Poll Group share about our golf marathon we are hosting on Thursday, November 8th. It will be a first class event to help raise money for Coaches of Excellence. I have attached the invitation for you and please pass along to anyone you know might be interested in attending. Please RSVP your attendance and I look forward to seeing you there. Make It A Great Day!! Jason Golden Coaches of Excellence (941) 539-6083 www.coachesofexcellence.com

response

Hey Peter and Brothers Peter had asked the question about when do we start talking to our sons and even our daughters about sexual relations. I remember my surprise and feeling of loss for words when I discovered quite by accident my step son had been attempting to print pictures of naked men with naked men in intimated sexual poses. Because I had just gotten married to his mother, he had not been in my home but for a few weeks at the time. He had no previous exposure to a manly influence or biblical influence in his life. He was only 12 at the time. He is an example of the tragedy of the absence of a Godly man speaking to him from his youth about the relationships with God, with self, with other men, with other women. I believe we should start as early as we think they can understand a cartoon. The world is teaching them what Satin wants them to know. Our children are the prize of this WAR we are in. It is risky business. We expose them to sex as God intended or the world will expose them to it as Satin intended. As for my step son. I am sad to say we will have to pray for him. This world had his spirit in its grip too tightly, before I met him, for me to snatch him from it. Only God can use the seeds I planted. For now he is lost, and I had my heart torn loosing that battle for his heart and soul.

the impostor

The Impostor From the place of our woundedness we construct a false self. We find a few gifts that work for us, and we try to live off them. Stuart found he was good at math and science. He shut down his heart and spent all his energies perfecting his "Spock" persona. There, in the academy, he was safe; he was also recognized and rewarded. "When I was eight," confesses Brennan Manning, "the impostor, or false self, was born as a defense against pain. The impostor within whispered, 'Brennan, don't ever be your real self anymore because nobody likes you as you are. Invent a new self that everybody will admire and nobody will know.'" Notice the key phrase: "as a defense against pain," as a way of saving himself. The impostor is our plan for salvation. So God must take it all away. He thwarts our plan for salvation; he shatters the false self. Our plan for redemption is hard to let go of; it clings to our hearts like an octopus. Why would God do something so terrible as to wound us in the place of our deepest wound? Jesus warned us that "whoever wants to save his life will lose it" (Luke 9:24). Christ is not using the word bios here; he's not talking about our physical life. The passage is not about trying to save your skin by ducking martyrdom or something like that. The word Christ uses for "life" is the word psyche-the word for our soul, our inner self, our heart. He says that the things we do to save our psyche, our self, those plans to save and protect our inner life-those are the things that will actually destroy us. "There is a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death," says Proverbs 16:25. The false self, our plan for redemption, seems so right to us. It shields us from pain and secures us a little love and admiration. But the false self is a lie; the whole plan is built on pretense. It's a deadly trap. God loves us too much to leave us there. So he thwarts us, in many, many different ways.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Safe Sex


We started Wild at Heart by John Eldredge last week and it was nothing like what I expected.  Jan has integrated several movie clips and it was off the charts.  The first clip was from Gladiator and it set the tone.

I hope you can join us, we have a number of new guys coming and it would be great to see you again.  I am presently on a plane flying back to Sarasota and I wanted to share a thought with you and would love to get your feedback.  When in Maryland I was staying at my mother’s house and in the bathroom there was a woman magazine called Self.  With nothing else to read I opened it up and there was an article in it about Safe Sex.  In bold letters it said unless you are in a monogamous relationship you use a condom.  It went on to talk about Sexually Transmitted Disease and it was quite frightening.  

My son is 10 years old and I don’t think that I have to worry yet but at what point should I have that talk with him.   I share this with you my brothers because this is not the world we grew up in and I think we need to be extra diligent in educating our children.  

I am going to post this on the blog if you would like to publically comment or just replay back to me.  I am looking forward to getting some counsel from my brothers.  

Friday, August 10, 2012

Waiting on God

Waiting on GodTGIF Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman
Friday, August 10 2012

"Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; He rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him!" Isaiah 30:18
Have you ever noticed that God is not in a hurry? It took 40 years for Moses to receive his commission to lead the people out of Egypt. It took 17 years of preparation before Joseph was delivered from slavery and imprisonment. It took 20 years before Jacob was released from Laban's control. Abraham and Sarah were in their old age when they finally received the son of promise, Isaac. So why isn't God in a hurry? God called each of these servants to accomplish a certain task in His Kingdom, yet He was in no hurry to bring their mission into fulfillment. First, He accomplished what He wanted in them. We are often more focused on outcome than the process that He is accomplishing in our lives each day. When we experience His presence daily, one day we wake up and realize that God has done something special in and through our lives. However, the accomplishment is no longer what excites us. Instead, what excites us is knowing Him. Through those times, we become more acquainted with His love, grace, and power in our lives. When this happens, we are no longer focused on the outcome because the outcome is a result of our walk with Him. It is not the goal of our walk, but the by-product. Hence, when Joseph came to power in Egypt, he probably couldn't have cared less. He had come to a place of complete surrender so that he was not anxious about tomorrow or his circumstances. This is the lesson for us. We must wait for God's timing and embrace wherever we are in the process. When we find contentment in that place, we begin to experience God in ways we never thought possible.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Kids today




People born before 1946 were called
The Silent and Powerful generation

People born between 1946 and 1964 are called
The Baby Boomers

People born between 1965 and 1979 are called
Generation X
And people born between 1980 and 2010 are called
Generation Y
Why do we call the last group Generation Y?


Y should I get a job?

Y should I leave home and find my own place?

Y should I get a car when I can borrow yours?

Y should I clean my room?

Y should I wash and iron my own clothes?

Y should I buy any food?

Y should I contribute to the household?

are you willing?

Walking in the AnointingTGIF Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman
Tuesday, July 10 2012

"So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power...." 1 Samuel 16:13
Has the Spirit of the Lord rested on your life? Can you cite the time when God's Spirit began demonstrating His power through you?
David knew the day the Spirit of the Lord began a special work in him. That Spirit was different from most leaders. Instead of seeking power and control, he led in response to a need. Instead of being a perfect person, he learned from mistakes and acknowledged them among those he led. Instead of placing confidence in his own abilities, he sought wisdom from the only real Commander in charge. David never lost a battle through his many years of leading Israel. He failed God by sinning with Bathsheba and by numbering the troops, but he learned from those failures, and he had to pay a price for them. However, God's Spirit never left David. He never left because of David's willingness to keep a soft heart toward God, even when he failed.
God wants to do the same in you and me, but He will not allow that Spirit to rest on us if we seek to control outcomes and manipulate out of our need for power. Servant leaders know that they are only a tool in the Master's hand. They do not value themselves more than they ought. David's heart was fully the Lord's. Is your heart fully the Lord's to do with what He wills?

Stress

An excerpt from
Stress is a Choice
by David Zerfoss
Several years ago while listening to my pastor give a Sunday sermon, he spoke about how life is made up of a series of choices. It made me realize that my hectic professional and personal life was of my choosing. Therefore, a life of stress had become my choice.

Many of us hurry through life going from one place to the next, focused on conquering the next mountain, making the next deal, running the next errand, and believing we will never have enough time to do all the things we need to get done. Yet, there is all the time in the world if we just realize that we are the creators of this life we choose to live. That's right. Life is a series of choices and being free from stress is one of those choices.

Whether your business life is overly complicated or your personal life (or both), you have chosen this current system of chaos. The world is a tantalizing swirl of getting the next "fix," tempting us to fit more and more things, people and processes into our lives, personally and professionally. And because we are so busy being busy, it's easy to be lured into the fray, with our lengthy to-do lists. Yet, the greatest achievements have often come from the simplest of ideas and in the simplest forms.

To experience a simplified life, we first have to learn to slow down long enough to see through all the clutter. We need to realize that we are powerful magnets that attracted this life to ourselves—no matter what—good or bad.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Settling Disputes

Settling DisputesTGIF Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman
Friday, June 29 2012

"Casting the lot settles disputes and keeps strong opponents apart." Proverbs 18:18
We prayed about it. We discussed it. My friend had one desire; I had a different one.
"Okay, let's settle the issue the way the early Church settled matters when an agreement could not be achieved. Let's flip a coin."
"You must be joking!" my friend lamented.
"No, the early Church cast lots often to determine a course of direction or even select the disciple who would take Judas' place."
"Okay," my friend agreed.
We flipped the coin and the matter was quickly settled.
In the Old Testament there are many examples of casting lots for determining a decision. We hear little of this method today. Most of us do not want to release the decision process to this seemingly "flippant" process; yet the Lord says, "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord" (Prov. 16:33).
Flipping a coin is the equivalent to casting a lot. It removes our own opinions and leaves the final outcome to the Lord. Pray before you take such an action. It will surprise you who is willing to submit a decision to the Lord and who isn't. It removes the element of control from both parties.
I believe the Lord would first have us make decisions through agreement and continued prayer for the decision. However, there are times when this approach can be the quickest and simplest. It removes each person's temptation to lord it over the other. Cast the lot and settle the dispute.

From John


Reason and Emotion
The mind takes in and processes information. But it remains, for the most part, indifferent. It is your mind that tells you it is now 2:00 A.M. and your daughter has not returned, for the car is not in the driveway. Your heart wrestles with whether or not this is cause for worry. The heart lives in the far more bloody and magnificent realities of living and dying and loving and hating. That's why those who live from their minds are detached from life. Things don't seem to touch them very much; they puzzle at the way others are so affected by life, and they conclude others are emotional and unstable. Meanwhile, those who live from the heart find those who live from the mind . . . unavailable. Yes, they are physically present. So is your computer. This is the sorrow of many marriages, and the number one disappointment of children who feel entirely missed or misunderstood by their parents.

Yes, the heart is the source of our emotions. But we have equated the heart with emotion, and put it away for a messy and even dangerous guide. No doubt, many people have made a wreck of their lives by following an emotion without stopping to consider whether it was a good idea to do so. Neither adultery nor murder is a rational act. But equating the heart with emotion is the same nonsense as saying that love is a feeling. Surely, we know that love is more than feeling loving; for if Christ had followed his emotions, he would not have gone to the cross for us. Like any man would have been, he was afraid; in fact, he knew that the sins of the world would be laid upon him, and so he had even greater cause for hesitation (Mark 14:32-35). But in the hour of his greatest trial, his love overcame his fear of what loving would cost him.

Emotions are the voice of the heart, to borrow Chip Dodd's phrase. Not the heart, but its voice.

Make a difference


Today I Will Make a Difference
Today I will make a difference. I will begin by controlling my thoughts. A person is the product of his thoughts. I want to be happy and hopeful. Therefore, I will have thoughts that are happy and hopeful. I refuse to be victimized by my circumstances. I will not let petty inconveniences such as stoplights, long lines, and traffic jams be my masters. I will avoid negativism and gossip. Optimism will be my companion, and victory will be my hallmark. Today I will make a difference.
I will be grateful for the twenty-four hours that are before me. Time is a precious commodity. I refuse to allow what little time I have to be contaminated by self-pity, anxiety, or boredom. I will face this day with the joy of a child and the courage of a giant. I will drink each minute as though it is my last. When tomorrow comes, today will be gone forever. While it is here, I will use it for loving and giving. Today I will make a difference.
I will not let past failures haunt me. Even though my life is scarred with mistakes, I refuse to rummage through my trash heap of failures. I will admit them. I will correct them. I will press on. Victoriously. No failure is fatal. It’s OK to stumble… . I will get up. It’s OK to fail… . I will rise again. Today I will make a difference.
I will spend time with those I love. My spouse, my children, my family. A man can own the world but be poor for the lack of love. A man can own nothing and yet be wealthy in relationships. Today I will spend at least five minutes with the significant people in my world. Five quality minutes of talking or hugging or thanking or listening. Five undiluted minutes with my mate, children, and friends.
Today I will make a difference.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

The Worst of All Possible Reactions

The Worst of All Possible Reactions

The heart, Blaise Pascal said, "has its reasons which reason knows nothing of." Something in us longs, hopes, maybe even at times believes that this is not the way things were supposed to be. Our desire fights the assault of death upon life. And so people with terminal illnesses get married. Prisoners in a concentration camp plant flowers. Lovers long divorced still reach out in the night to embrace one who is no longer there. It's like the phantom pain experienced by those who have lost a limb. Feelings still emanate from that region where once was a crucial part of them. Our hearts know a similar reality. At some deep level, we refuse to accept the fact that this is the way things are, or must be, or always will be.

Simone Weil was right; there are only two things that pierce the human heart: beauty and affliction. Moments we wish would last forever and moments we wish had never begun. The playwright Christopher Fry wrote,

The inescapable dramatic situation for us all is that we have no idea what our situation is. We may be mortal. What then? We may be immortal. What then? We are plunged into an existence fantastic to the point of nightmare, and however hard we rationalize, or however firm our religious faith, however closely we dog the heels of science or wheel among the starts of mysticism, we can not really make head or tail of it. ("A Playwright Speaks: How Lost, How Amazed, How Miraculous We Are")

And what does Fry say we do with our dilemma? The worst of all possible reactions:

We get used to it. We get broken into it so gradually we scarcely notice it.