What is Dying?

     I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength and i stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud, just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other.
     Someone at my side says, "There, she is gone."
      Gone where? Gone from my sight- that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side, and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her. Just at the moment when someone says, "There, she is gone," there are other eyes watching her coming and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, "There she comes!"
      And that is dying.                                           -Henry Van Dyke

   I came across this reading recently, and thought i would post it. Sometimes its as if we need to take a look at death maybe from a different perspective. Nevertheless it is still a sad thing. Yesterday my friend's, (Mindy), dad passed away, from a sudden heart attack.Her father was George Friesen and they are from Grant, Nebraska. She is my age, and her dad my dad's age. Its a sobering thing, and I would like to request you all to pray for her and her family as they go through this time of grief.

...peace...

It's all in the perspective

     The other day at work i was thinking about fall. Now personally i dont really have a great love for fall... or i should say didn't have. But than i got to thinking that, you know what? God made fall! He made this season for a purpose, and its in His perfect plan, so really i shouldn't complain! And i should enjoy what he made right? So i started thinking of things that i like about it! Like thanksgiving! and those days that i go outside and it just smells so good, its that "autumn" smell, you know? gorgeous blue skies. taking walks on wonderfully cool days. I stay cool at work. I get to hear the canadian geese honking as they migrate! Beautiful leaves, that show God's awesome handiwork in a spectacular way! etc. etc. etc. the list goes on and on! And guess what! I like fall! :)

    So i began thinking down the line of positive thinking, and how because i changed my perspective, my opinions changed. It's all in the perspective! :) Why don't you try it? Cause life is a lot more enjoyable I've noticed when you take a look at the positive side of things! Sure there are things that aren't so wonderful about fall, like the itchy worms, and allergies, etc but when you look at the good, the bad almost disappears! In nearly everything in life there is something good! Mind you i said nearly, there are those things that really don't have any good in them, but we'll leave that where it is. So why don't you try it? After all, it's all in the perspective...