Good morning Friend,

I am beginning a new initiative today: to share a message of hope every Monday morning with friends. May it stimulate positive thinking and faithful living. 

My mind is the most important part of me because I have control over how I perceive the events of the day. I can respond fearfully with a negative attitude or faithfully in a positive way. I get to choose. An example in my life involves the sale of the family homestead of 42 years in a small Maine town. I am sad, to be sure, but octogenarians need to edit sometime, as change is inevitable. I have a choice; to wallow in my pity of losing my way of life in Federal-style grandeur or walk into an uncertain future with faith and hope. I have chosen faith over fear, because I have a relationship with a Power greater than myself who I can trust and will walk through this with me.

My fearful self perceives me feeling alone, disconnected, and frustrated. All calculations and analyses go nowhere. However, by changing my attitude to walk forward faithfully, I receive much more of what I like. My daughter and her husband offered their farmhouse on her equestrian acreage nearby. Most of our antique furnishings will work well in the 20^th century farmhouse on their property. Acres of pasture and woods will become my setting for a walk with my dog during the day. My grandchildren will be next door at their family home. Our eggs will be fresh. And my wife and I can live a quiet life on one floor with fresh fragrant air flowing in the windows. One million dollars for retirement is not necessary. Instead, we have each other, our health, our family, a farm community, same church, long-standing friends, and enough to pay a modest rent. 

Faith got me across the divide, and now I have more than I bargained for.