Good morning, Digital Neighbors! S.H.I.T. — Sure Happy It's Thursday!
Other than Valentine's Day, February is a pretty gray month of blandness. Lent is coming—still gray, but at least with a focus. A time of preparation for something more, a blossoming of new life that is slowly approaching. Until then, I make the best of these gray days of midwinter. I don’t find these days depressing—more messy and cold than anything else. I do enjoy going for rides with Rylee and looking through the trees in the countryside to see what is hidden during the rest of the year.
How about some quotes about feelings? Such a great thing when used properly, and yet so disastrous when they are enshrined as your sole guidance system. I cringe when I hear people constantly frame their statements with “I feel…” To me, it means nothing more than “I prefer this,” and that is all that matters. One should not discount feelings—they are our interior barometer and tell us a lot about ourselves—but they don’t tell us much about reality or how to deal with it.
Here are a few quotes on that wondrous part of ourselves that is meant to color life, but not direct our every decision. When people have nothing greater to strive for in life, emotional expression becomes their highest good and goal. Happy Thursday, my friends!
“When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion.” — Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People
“The passions are like fire, useful in a thousand ways and dangerous only in one, through their excess.” — Christian Nestell Bovee, Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
“Mobs in their emotions are much like children, subject to the same tantrums and fits of fury.” — Euripides, Orestes
Grandfather and daughter - Getty Images - Unsplash
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.
Happy Friday, Digital Neighbors!! Slept in a little this morning. Woke up at my ordinary time, hit the hour timer, and wandered back into short, incoherent dreamland. It was a good hour to try and get a little more rest after a long day yesterday. We had a good staff team-building day with personal prayer and then looking at the DISC tool as a way to appreciate our gifts as we work together for the good of our parish family.
Had a meeting in the evening to explore using our auditorium for an Emergency Overnight Shelter in the winter for the homeless and unhoused in our local area. Lots of potential, lots of work if that is to come to fruition. As I mentioned last night, this is where the rubber hits the road on personal charity. People feel comfortable giving money to support charities, but the possibility of hosting and staffing one is way out of the comfort zone for most. Prayer and time will tell.
Off to some “ifferisms” for your Friday cup of Joe.
If you get gloomy, just take an ...
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.”
