I have lived in many beautiful homes

BUT NONE OF THIS MATTERS IF YOU ARE ANGRY!

When you shout,

the dog runs and hides trembling

I tense up, shut down, can’t think, need air

BUT

When you seem lost and fumbling

I know you are angry at yourself

getting old slowly overtakes you, not hearing what is said,

feeling dizzy, vertigo

Cutting your finger on the saw again,

machines breaking down,

losing your glasses

Then I know I shouldn’t be angry nor afraid.

Comfort is what you need

And a good home is comfortable

warm in the winter

cool in the summer

LOVE LIVES HERE

~ Bunny Fazekas

On September 2012, I arrived at the Tedford Shelter from Freedom, New Hampshire. Because of a domestic situation I had a lot of anger and fear inside of me.

But God opened my eyes to a lot in the shelter. It’s hard to forgive a situation that you don’t have control of, but I began to pray and ask God to forgive my anger with the situation I had. I needed God to make me over for the better.

God made me realize it’s about me forgiving others and having peace. I have learned to look at things differently. When you learn to forgive, you have a peace inside of yourself. God has forgiven us for the mistakes we have made. To forgive can be a blessing and a gift. Life is too short to be angry.

It’s been three years here now in Brunswick and I learned it’s not healthy to hold so much anger inside toward others. I want to be an encourager, whether I’m working in the hospital with patients or on the floor at the restaurant. I want to learn to listen and pick my words wisely.

A wise man once said to be great is an honor but to spread happiness is a joy.

~ Ruth Morrow

Change, altering the paradigm, adjusting fire etc. can mean several things good or bad.

Changes are inevitable. The way we face those changes are the key to life. Examples include having a baby. Your whole world, lifestyle, everything changes. You can do nothing without factoring the needs and interests of that little human you have created.

Another change is in working or careers. We all have to inevitably change our work either through retirement or just having to leave a job. Again it requires out internal problem solving skills to figure out how we pay our bills, etc.

With all change there can be a sense of loneliness. One cannot face life change alone. We must seek help, comaraderie, assistance.

Change can be difficult but also wonderful. Stable environments are boring. Change needs to happen and moves all of us to, hopefully, better things.

As Americans we love change. It is a fundamental part of our government. We change our President, Congress, mayors and school board every few years. Our laws are designed to change, to live in a way. No law is static either due to increasing restrictions on enforcement or punishment or lessoning of some. Americans have the opportunity to change their environment for better or worse.

Change is acceptance of risk. Life is risky. How we analyze, plan and execute for those risks, those changes can determine the outcome.

Infants become toddlers. Toddlers become kids. Kids become teenagers. Teenagers become young adults. Young adults become adults, parents, career folk, retirees, grandparents and so on and so on. Change, good or bad, is life.

~Lisa Green

Everywhere I look I see broken things that need fixing.

I used to let it bother me. New I have become accustomed to having things broken. As soon as I get something fixed something else breaks.

In my youth I was of the mind that I could get things done. Fix this or that. Clean up that mess. Get that job done. Now I just let it stay broken. I’ll never live long enough to see all the unfinished projects done.

In the old days we fixed everything because everything was made to be fixed. Now in our throwaway society, everything is made to break. So for those of us who can’t buy new things, everything is always broken.

Our country is broken. we have lost our ability to raise our own crops and manufacture our own goods. everyone agrees. The cops, the storekeepers, the mechanics, the evreyday man on the street. We all agree we live in a dysfunctional society, but none of us can do anything about it.

Because we are all broken.

~Mitch Kane

(The “assignment ” was to think of two people, a place, a thing, and an animal you associate with April and then write a story using all five.)

1st  person   –   Jesus

2nd  place   –   Bailey Island

3rd  thing   –   Easter Basket

4th  person    –   Humphrey Bogart

5th  animal    –   rabbit   (Peter Cottontail)

If only Jesus could see Bailey Island in April. Usually the sun is shining, the waves are sparkly and the view is spectacular. Now there’s dirty ice banks; gobs of mud, and it’s mostly gray. Jesus’s only comment was this does not look like my creation! We need to do something – so he said, “look in the basket and see what we can do about this”. He looked in and saw a Mars bar, lots of jelly beans, an egg and a bunny. It’s amazing what Jesus can do with a loaf of bread and fishes. Then this could be the start of a beautiful friendship.

He looked up and saw Peter, Peter Cottontail that is. He handed Peter the basket and said “Feed my Easter people and the basket will always be full to overflowing and there will be peace on earth and Bailey Island”. Humphrey Bogart suddenly appeared out of the clouds and looked down on Jesus and Peter hopping off on his mission and said: “This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

~ Anne Street