Living Wisely and Well

    Most Sunday's Grace Lutheran has an Adult Forum between the first and second worship service. Last Sunday, Tom & Becky von Fischer presented on the topic Living Wisely and Well. It was an adaption of a presentation they did for a reunion of Tom's Seminary Class. Filled with wit and wisdom it included this quotation from Life Reimagined, by Barbara Bradley Hagerty.
    " Invest in friends The more friends you have the healthier, happier and more mentally acute you will be now and in later years. We are wired for friends. Research indicates that robust friendships are more important that close family re;relationships. When these relationships involve helping other people, reaching out, being actively engaged to do things for others that is an added bonus."
     Well wouldn't you know, friend Tom (see above) emailed me this quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer with some very kind words about me.  Moved to comment on it I resist because it is so profound in its expression there is little I could add. I will repeat what I've often said "one of the best things about me are my friends."

"There is nothing that can replace the absence of someone dear to us,
and one should not even attempt to do so.
Once must simply hold out and endure it.
At first that sounds very hard, but at the same time it is also a great comfort.
For to the extent the emptiness truly remains unfilled
one remains connected to the other person through it.
It is wrong to say that God fills the emptiness.
God in no way fills it, but much more leaves it precisely unfilled
and thus help us preserve – even in pain – the authentic relationship.
Furthermore, the more beautiful and full the remembrances, the more difficult the separation.
But gratitude transforms the torment of memory into silent joy.
One bears what was lovely in the past, not as a thorn, but as a precious gift deep within,
a hidden treasure of which one can always be certain." 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Takk for alt,

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