Good Morning Digital Neighbors! Happy 11 Pipers piping to those of you still counting the days of Christmas and not rushing out to get your Valentine's Day candy. Your quote and commentary for the morning musing provided by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross most often remembered for her work on death and grief.
The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen. — Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
Beautiful people do not just happen, something more than just experience has to enter into the mix. Many people get dealt difficult cards in life and it makes them worse, they become prisoners of their tragedy. In fact, it is far too easy to become mired in the depths and turn to addictive fixes that are ultimately self-destructive. Alcohol and drugs are probably the clearest example. Beautiful lives that are never realized as they become trapped in their tragedy. It is one of the hardest things to witness if you have friends or family trapped in those depths.
Either something or someone usually helps us traverse those dark valleys, they need not even be alive. Sometimes the right book, a song charged with meaning, some expression of the arts, or your spiritual-moral compass provides you with a path out of the sorrow or trial. If you are fortunate, you may even have a friend who is with you for the long-haul. A really fortunate friend is one who has familiarity with those depths and can help you find your way out of them. While their experiences are not necessarily identical, they are familiar enough to serve as a trusted guides. Most of us need shepherding at one time or another in our life journey. Shepherds need not be a religious person, but more of a life-paying-attention-person. That life-paying-attention aspect is probably the deep loving concern that Elisabeth is talking about in the quote.
Well my friends, I hope and pray that you have good shepherds in life when you need them and may you in turn be a good shepherd to a friend in need, for that person lost in the depths that needs to find a way out to a better tomorrow. Happy Thursday to all and to all a good day.
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
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Occurs every day starting 1/1 until 12/31/2027
Coffee Talk - Daily beginning at 6:00 AM Central Time Zone - USA
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Quite apart from the fact that I utterly admire, even love, her, this is the best possible response to an idiot, who, in his defense, asked a pretty good question.
https://x.com/TBifford/status/2087992591279407133/video/1?s=61
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.”
