Happy Sunday my Friends! Good Morning Digital Neighbors, Triggeratti, Refugees & PHAM! Hello again Early Birds, Dawn Patrol, Later Dayers, Fascinating People and Day Walkers! I hope you find a good place to hang your hat on Locals all of you Conversants, Lurkers and Scrollers. Don't worry I didn't forget your Bigots either. ?
Another Mary Engelbreit print and some more autumn photography provided by the fine search engine that is Duck Duck GO! Momma Peggy loved this print by ME, she was a bit obsessed with pigs and the old time vibe that Mrs. Engelbreit made her own. Bottom line, better to try something and fail at it that never to try it at all. The specter of "can't" prevents us from trying so much in life. There have been too many moments in my younger years where "can't prevent me from doing things things in life. I know it is not as simple as "just do it", I am more of a what do you have to lose if you try it? Have you prepared for it? Have you done your research? Have you try to honestly assess the pro's & con's?
Once all the prep work is complete, roll the dice and hope for the best. Failure is only final when we accept it. No doubt, repeated failure sucks and a string of failures can push even the strongest into dark places. Any failure we recover from probably teaches more about ourselves than most of our successes. Sr. Zoe used to say often that failure is a better measure of character than success, who doesn't find success easy? Who doesn't enjoy success? Handling failure shows you what a person is made of. I liked Sr. Zoe. Again, no on wants or can endure a steady diet of failure, but giving up too early has probably cheated us more than we may ever realize. Thomas Edison is one of my inspirations for relentlessly for the pursuit of one's desires and dreams.
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. - Thomas A. Edison
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. - Thomas A. Edison
Well enough rambling, I have to get ready for Mass, a few baptisms and the Gamers are coming over from some table top fun. I have started a parent and child RPG group. Two Dads and their children are venturing into the dorkery of D & D type game. One dad is a seasoned gamer that I have gamed with for the last 15 years, all the rest are noobs. Happy Sunday friends, mine looks to be great one if things go well, and even if they don't it is not going to stop me from enjoying it as much as I can. On to Mother Mary Engelbreit and Mother Nature.
Today marks the three hundred and thirtieth birthday of the Frenchman François-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume, Voltaire (1694-1778).
Born into a bourgeois family during the reign of Louis XIV, the “Sun King” (r. 1643-1715), Voltaire suffered tragedy at a young age when his mother died. Never close with his father or brother, Voltaire exhibited a rebellious attitude toward authority from his youth. His brilliant mind was fostered in the care of the Society of Jesus, who introduced him to the joys of literature and theater. Despite his later criticisms against the Church, Voltaire, throughout his life, fondly recalled his dedicated Jesuit teachers.
Although he spent time as a civil servant in the French embassy to the Hague, Voltaire’s main love was writing—an endeavor where he excelled in various genres, including poetry, which led to his appointment as the royal court poet for King Louis XV. Widely recognized as one of the greatest French writers, and even hyperbolically referred to by ...
Padre - Tom Miller invites you to a Coffee Talk, Speakeasies, Schmoozes, Tea Times, Afterhours and other gatherings.
https://teams.live.com/meet/93792382189049?p=DiBHsYfuECPgDrG7vO
2026 Coffee Talk with the ADD Irregulars
Thursday, January 1, 2026
6:00 AM - 8:00 AM (CST)
Occurs every day starting 1/1 until 12/31/2027
Coffee Talk - Daily beginning at 6:00 AM Central Time Zone - USA
White Pilled Wednesday - A break from the heaviness of news and current events to focus upon things more personal & positive for the first hour of Coffee Talk.
Afternoon Chats - Most Tuesday, Friday & Sundays 2:00 PM Central
Other chats as posted in the community.
The Beautiful
Said the Disciple to the Lover, “Sir, before I left the world I heard certain men who were held in high esteem and thought to know the will of the Beloved say that those who loved the Beautiful did not love the Beloved but loved idols, yet in the Garden of the Beloved we are ever striving to create beauty for the pleasure of the Beloved. Were they then speaking the truth?”
The Lover answered, “Those who said this had never glimpsed the form of the Beloved nor ever truly sought Him, for all beauty is but the reflection of the beauty of the Beloved, although seen very dimly as in a dark and faulty mirror, even as all goodness is a dim reflection of the goodness of the Beloved. So it is that those who love beauty and goodness recognize dimly in them the form of the Beloved and though often in ignorance those who are seeking the Beautiful and the Good are seeking after the Beloved.”
The Comforting of the Disciple
Now the Beloved often came into the Garden both because of the great joy He had in the Garden and because of the great love He bore the Lover and the Disciple. Often He talked with the Lover, but the Disciple because he was not yet perfected in Love could neither hear nor see the Beloved, though he often felt a strange joy, he did not know why. Therefore he was sorrowful, for it seemed to him that on account of his sins he would never find the Beloved. So weeping he came to the Lover and said, “Sir, I know that I am a very sinful man and I much fear that though I search all my life yet on account of my sins I shall never find the Beloved.”
In reply the Lover smiled gently and said, “My son, when you first came into the Garden do you remember what sort of day it was?”
“Yes,” said the Disciple, “I remember it. It was dark and gloomy as if no sunlight ever entered the Garden.”
“When you began to strip off your rich robes,” the Lover asked, “what happened to the day?”
“It seemed,” said the Disciple, “as if the sun had suddenly broken through the clouds and the whole Garden shone with glorious and celestial light: such light as shines daily in the Garden.”
The Lover replied, “Know that the Beloved Himself is the light of the Garden, so that when you began searching for the Beloved even then you found Him, for how can any know the desire to search for the Beloved if He had not already without his knowing revealed Himself to him.”
So the Disciple was greatly comforted by knowing that although he could not see or hear Him he had already found the Beloved, and he labored the more joyously to do the service of the Beloved.
