Point of view – Life After Delivery

Hi to my friends,

Sometimes a post in FB is compelling and I must share it here.
Life After Delivery, From FB 2023-09-24, Cursillo posting


In a mother’s womb were two babies. One asked the other: “Do you believe in life after delivery?”

The other replied, “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery.

Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.”

“Nonsense,” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?”

The second said, “I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now.”

The first replied, “That is absurd. Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. But the umbilical cord is so short. Life after delivery is to be logically excluded.”

The second insisted, “Well I think there is something and maybe it’s different than it is here. Maybe we won’t need this physical cord anymore.”

The first replied, “Nonsense. And moreover, if there is life, then why has no one ever come back from there? Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery, there is nothing but darkness and silence and oblivion. It takes us nowhere.”

“Well, I don’t know,” said the second, “but certainly we will meet Mother and she will take care of us.”

The first replied “Mother? You actually believe in Mother? That’s laughable. If Mother exists then where is She now?”

The second said, “She is all around us. We are surrounded by her. We are of Her. It is in Her that we live. Without Her, this world would not and could not exist.”

Said the first: “Well I don’t see Her, so it is only logical that She doesn’t exist.”

To which the second replied, “Sometimes, when you’re in silence and you focus and listen, you can perceive Her presence, and you can hear Her loving voice, calling down from above.”


Maybe this was one of the best explanations of the concept of GOD.
– this parable is from Your Sacred Self by Dr. Wayne Dyer

I really appreciate the analogy presented here.

Blessings to you all,
Bill Perry

From a Friend – Thoughts on aging

Hi Friends,
It has been a few months since I posted. Health issues, excuses, arrrrgggh!
Hope this encourages you to live for today because tomorrow is NOT promised!
Bill Perry

Barely the day started and… it’s already six in the evening.
Barely arrived on Monday and it’s already Friday.
… and the month is already over.
… and the year is almost over.
… and already 40, 50 or 60 years of our lives have passed.
… and we realize that we lost our parents, friends.
and we realize it’s too late to go back…
So… Let’s try, despite everything, to enjoy the remaining time…
Let’s keep looking for activities that we like…
Let’s put some color in our grey…
Let’s smile at the little things in life that put balm in our hearts.
And despite everything, we must continue to enjoy with serenity this
time we have left. Let’s try to eliminate the afters…
I’m doing it after…
I’ll say after…
I’ll think about it after…
We leave everything for later like ′′ after ′′ is ours.
Because what we don’t understand is that:
Afterwards, the coffee gets cold…
afterwards, priorities change…
Afterwards, the charm is broken…
afterwards, health passes…
Afterwards, the kids grow up…
Afterwards parents get old…
Afterwards, promises are forgotten…
afterwards, the day becomes the night…
afterwards life ends…
And then it’s often too late….
So… Let’s leave nothing for later…
Because still waiting see you later, we can lose the best moments,
the best experiences,
best friends,
the best family…
The day is today… The moment is now…
We are no longer at the age where we can afford to
postpone what needs to be done right away.
So let’s see if you have time to read this message and then share it.
Or maybe you’ll leave it for… ′′ later “…
And you’ll never share it….

I have been volunteering in the Southern California Lutheran Church of the Cross food ministry for the last 5 years. Second Harvest is our food supplier and partnered with them we have made food available to about 130 to 150 families each week that we distribute food, usually twice a month.

Each week that we have food distribution I send out a reminder email to about 100 volunteers adding a short devotional.

I am going to capture some of these here to share with you all…

Good morning volunteers.

I blinked, and lent is over. Easter is over, but in Matthew 28:5-6 it says, “But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”

He is Risen! He is Risen indeed!

As I get older time seems to pass more quickly. Is that the way it is for you too?

Today I want to share that Christ is my Savior and Lord and I am blessed every day by His bounty! Easter may be over but every day I get up is a new day to serve Him.

When you come tomorrow you will be serving Him too. Thank you for all for your giving hearts in the Sr. grocery Ministry.

Blessings to all who read this devotional!
Bill Perry

Good ideas all,

Found on FB today (2023-04-01):

THINGS TO TEACH YOUR SON:
1. Never shake a man’s hand sitting down.
2. Don’t enter a pool by the stairs.
3. The man at the BBQ Grill is the closest thing to a king.
4. In a negotiation, never make the first offer.
5. Request the late check-out.
6. When entrusted with a secret, keep it.
7. Hold your heroes to a higher standard.
8. Return a borrowed car with a full tank of gas.
9. Play with passion or don’t play at all…
10. When shaking hands, grip firmly and look them in the eye.
11. Don’t let a wishbone grow where a backbone should be.
12. If you need music on the beach, you’re missing the point.
13. Carry two handkerchiefs. The one in your back pocket is for you.
The one in your breast pocket is for her.
14. You marry the girl; you marry her family.
15. Be like a duck. Remain calm on the surface and paddle like crazy underneath.
16. Experience the serenity of traveling alone.
17. Never be afraid to ask out the best-looking girl in the room.
18. Never turn down a breath mint.
20. Try writing your own eulogy. Never stop revising.
22. Eat lunch with the new kid.
23. After writing an angry email, read it carefully. Then delete it.
24. Ask your mom to play. She won’t let you win.
25. Manners maketh the man.
26. Give credit. Take the blame.
27. Stand up to Bullies. Protect those bullied.
28. Write down your dreams.
29. Take time to snuggle your pets, they love you so much and are always happy to see you.
30. Be confident and humble at the same time.
31. If ever in doubt, remember whose son you are and REFUSE to just be ordinary!
32. In all things lead by example not explanation.
33. Dress how you want to be addressed.
34. Respect your elders.
35. Prove yourself to yourself not others.
36. BE BLESSED BY BEING A BLESSING

—–

Good things to know, really for all.

Blessings to you all today,
Bill Perry

For fun today, “My Life Is Falling Apart…”

From Nextdoor.com today, March 7, 2023

My Life Is Falling Apart – News at 11

MY LIFE IS FALLING APART. FILM AT 11 By Jan Marshall First: I could not find the invisible tape. Then I stubbed my toe on the refrigerator, and now the fridge is suing for unlawful contact and cursing after it warned me repeatedly to “step away from the refrigerator, Chunkette.”

At the bank, the line was so long I had to re-shave my legs. The teller looked at me suspiciously, then, abruptly shut her window. The next clerk was counting on his fingers just like I do so I felt comfortable. He urged me to stop placing threatening photos of Bonnie and Clyde on my checks and I agreed to desist if he would just deposit some currency from his account into mine every once in a while.

I did not hear his response but the guard who escorted me out of the building suggested I bank by mail with an offshore financial institute, or he said something about an institute. I forget.

Learning that post offices soon may be closing in my area, I drove to the main branch. I took a number that either was for the next postal person or my zip code. One employee was filing her nails, two others were playing post office and giggling. A man in uniform looked at his watch and me every 2 seconds because it was close to 5 pm. He then suggested I buy my stamps at the machine. That sounded sensible.

I inserted my dollar bills and they were promptly rejected. Being rejected by a beauty contest (as if that is even a remote possibility) is one thing – but a machine? I tried again. No luck. Not even an explanation such as “it’s not you, it’s me.” It is the not knowing why that still haunts me. How will I become a better person or a proper money inserter without clarification?

I realize this was just one bummer day in a lifetime of joy. These wounds will heal. I believe there will be other banks and equipment that will find me suitable. In the scheme of things, I do have so much to be grateful for, since wine and chocolate have been deemed healthy. But I must keep asking why, oh why, can’t they prove that crisp bacon and Margaritas with salt on the rim truly promote longevity.

I do not want to live in a world of exclusion and discrimination. I know only too well how that feels, thanks to bigoted money devices, humorless bankers, and ice boxes, too.

I need unconditional love; something that has never turned me down or vice versa. A Margarita (the drink!) with Rumaki sounds just perfect. (Water chestnuts wrapped with bacon, sometimes, chicken livers too, baked till crisp)

So delicious and comforting; perhaps I’ll have two Margaritas; thereafter, the urgency on finding a magic tape dispenser with a beeper may no longer be the lead wish on my bucket list.

This day may end up just swell! THE END


Hope you enjoyed the story. May you all have a blessed day!
Bill Perry

Finally I am back to posting – this one is about determining value

Hi to my friends,
I planned on posting monthly but last year I failed to do so.

This year I will endeavor to do better!

Here is a story I found today in FB. The author is unknown, but the story is a valuable one!

    Determining Value

A father said to his daughter, “You just graduated, this is a car I bought a while ago… It is a few years old. But before I give it, take it to a car dealer in the city and sell it , see how much they offer.”

The girl came back to her father and said: “They offered 1000 euros because it looks very old”

The father said: Hold it and take it to the 2nd hand car dealer.

The girl returns to her father and says: “The pawn shop offered 100 euros because it is a very old car and lots of investments are needed to drive it again”

The father asked his daughter to join a passionate car club with experts and show them the car.

The girl drove the car to the passionate car club, turned and said to her father: “Some people in the club offered me 100,000 euros because it is a rare car that is in good condition, with great capabilities and super difficult to find.”

Then the father said, “I wanted to let you know that you are not worth anything if you are not in the right place.”

If you are not appreciated, do not be angry, that means you are in the wrong place. “Don’t stay in a place where no one sees your value

——————-
That’s it for today…
Blessings to all my readers!
Bill Perry

Bees are Amazing

I found this today on FB and it seems appropriate to our nation today…
From FB, Spread Kindness, 2022-06-23

—————
My dad has bees. Today I went to his house and he showed me all of the honey he had gotten from the hives. He took the lid off of a 5 gallon bucket full of honey and on top of the honey there were 3 little bees, struggling. They were covered in sticky honey and drowning. I asked him if we could help them and he said he was sure they wouldn’t survive. Casualties of honey collection I suppose.

I asked him again if we could at least get them out and kill them quickly, after all he was the one who taught me to put a suffering animal (or bug) out of its misery. He finally conceded and scooped the bees out of the bucket. He put them in an empty Chobani yogurt container and put the plastic container outside.

Because he had disrupted the hive with the earlier honey collection, there were bees flying all over outside.

We put the 3 little bees in the container on a bench and left them to their fate. My dad called me out a little while later to show me what was happening. These three little bees were surrounded by all of their sisters (all of the bees are females) and they were cleaning the sticky nearly dead bees, helping them to get all of the honey off of their bodies.

We came back a short time later and there was only one little bee left in the container. She was still being tended to by her sisters.

When it was time for me to leave we checked one last time and all three of the bees had been cleaned off enough to fly away and the container was empty.

Those three little bees lived because they were surrounded by family and friends who would not give up on them, family and friends who refused to let them drown in their own stickiness and resolved to help until the last little bee could be set free.

Bee Sisters. Bee Peers. Bee Teammates.

We could all learn a thing or two from these bees.
Bee kind always.~
~author unknown

—————
May you all experience family and friends at this level!
Bill Perry

Do we have an entitlement problem?

Hi to my followers, This post was shared in 2019 on FaceBook. Seems appropriate to re-share it today. Stunning perspective!

This article was written by a 26 yr old college student by the name of Alyssa, who was in grad school for her MBA.

My Generation Is Blind to the Prosperity Around Us! I’m sitting in a small coffee shop near Nokomis (Florida) trying to think of what to write about. I scroll through my newsfeed on my phone looking at the latest headlines of presidential candidates calling for policies to “fix” the so-called injustices of capitalism. I put my phone down and continue to look around.

I see people talking freely, working on their MacBook’s and ordering food they get in an instant, seeing cars go by outside, and it dawned on me; we live in the most privileged time in the most prosperous Nation, and we’ve become completely blind to it.

Vehicles, food, technology, freedom to associate with whom we choose. These things are so ingrained in our American way of life we don’t give them a second thought.

We are so well off here in the United States that our poverty line begins 31 times above the global average. Thirty-One Times!!!

Virtually no one in the United States is considered poor by global standards. Yet, in a time where we can order a product off Amazon with one click and have it at our doorstep the next day, we are unappreciative, unsatisfied, and ungrateful?

Our unappreciation is evident as the popularity of Socialist policies among my generation continues to grow. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently said to Newsweek talking about the millennial generation, “An entire generation which is now becoming one of the largest electorates in America came of age and never saw American prosperity.”


Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Never saw American prosperity?? Let that sink in.

When I first read that statement, I thought to myself, that was quite literally the most entitled and factually illiterate thing I’ve ever heard in my 26 years on this earth. Many young people agree with her, which is entirely misguided.

My generation is being indoctrinated by a mainstream narrative to believe we have never seen prosperity. I know this firsthand, I went to college, let’s just say I didn’t have the popular opinion, but I disagree.

Why then, with all of the overwhelming evidence around us, evidence that I can even see sitting at a coffee shop, do we not view this as prosperity? We have people who are dying to get into our country!

People around the world destitute and truly impoverished. Yet, we have a young generation convinced they’ve never seen prosperity and, as a result, we elect some politicians who are dead set on taking steps towards abolishing Capitalism!!

Why? The answer is this, my generation has only seen prosperity. We have no contrast! We didn’t live in the great depression or live through two World Wars, the Korean War, The Vietnam War and we didn’t see the rise and fall of Socialism and Communism.
We don’t know what it’s like to live without the internet, without cars, without smartphones.

We don’t have a prosperity problem. We have an entitlement problem, an ungratefulness problem, and it’s spreading like a plague.

– – –
I am grateful for my life here in America!
I wish you all a great day,
Bill Perry

Easter 2022

Hi all,
An early post from me for sure. We are just a few days from Holy Week and then Easter.

Ya’know, believers in Jesus have a sin problem and they deal with it by accepting Jesus selfless act of dying for our sins in our place. Its a simple but life changing decision. Simple because it requires no action on our part other than assenting to His work of salvation for us. He becomes our Lord and Savior at that point.

Life changing because after accepting his gift of salvation we have a duty to share his gift with others and , as it says below, we “boast in God” through Jesus.

One reference:
Romans 4:9-11, “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

I am saddened by those unwilling to see the truth in the scriptures, but, God has given us free will to accept or reject His Son, Jesus.

I encourage you this Easter 2022 season to consider this for your life.

Easter blessings to all,
Bill Perry

ps: If you would like to enter into a discussion, please Leave a Comment” in the section below.

The Donkey, the Tiger and the Lion

Hi all,
I am trying to post monthly right now and it is proving to be a challenge. But it is still March, so here goes…

I found this last December and thought it worth sharing:

Credit to Tim Farrell on FB, December 28, 2021 at 10:06 PM ·

The donkey told the tiger, “The grass is blue.”

The tiger replied, “No, the grass is green .”

The discussion became heated, and the two decided to submit the issue to arbitration, so they approached the lion.

As they approached the lion on his throne, the donkey started screaming: ′′Your Highness, isn’t it true that the grass is blue?”

The lion replied: “If you believe it is true, the grass is blue.”

The donkey rushed forward and continued: ′′The tiger disagrees with me, contradicts me and annoys me. Please punish him.”

The king then declared: ′′The tiger will be punished with 3 days of silence.”

The donkey jumped with joy and went on his way, content and repeating ′′The grass is blue, the grass is blue…”

The tiger asked the lion, “Your Majesty, why have you punished me, after all, the grass is green?”

The lion replied, ′′You’ve known and seen the grass is green.”

The tiger asked, ′′So why do you punish me?”

The lion replied, “That has nothing to do with the question of whether the grass is blue or green. The punishment is because it is degrading for a brave, intelligent creature like you to waste time arguing with an ass, and on top of that, you came and bothered me with that question just to validate something you already knew was true!”

The biggest waste of time is arguing with the fool and fanatic who doesn’t care about truth or reality, but only the victory of his beliefs and illusions. Never waste time on discussions that make no sense. There are people who, for all the evidence presented to them, do not have the ability to understand. Others who are blinded by ego, hatred and resentment, and the only thing that they want is to be right even if they aren’t.

When IGNORANCE SCREAMS, intelligence moves on.


Thoughts? click on the “Leave a Comment” below. I look forward to hearing from you!
Blessings all,
Bill Perry