“All I can think of is what happened? I want my life, my job, my paycheck back, Lord. My daily routine is gone! Is this really Your plan for my life?” From the book, “A Spiritual Guide for the Unemployed”, Timothy Mullner, DVM (2011) The Bargaining Stage of Grieving a Job Loss Grieving job loss …
“𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒈𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝑰 𝒑𝒓𝒂𝒚𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒆𝒙𝒕𝒓𝒂 𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒔𝒐 𝑰 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒂 𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓.” 𝑨 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒏, 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒕 𝒇𝒊𝒍𝒎, “𝑬𝒙𝒕𝒓𝒂 𝑰𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔” (𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟵) A few weeks ago, my wife, son, and I attended a short film festival in Manasquan, NJ called Asbury Shorts which has …
“Yes, there will be growth in the spring”, the character Chauncey Gardner in the movie, Being There (1979) That quote above by the late Peter Sellers from the movie 𝐁𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 is one of my favorite movies of all time where he plays a reclusive gardener named Chance and is thrust into the world of …
“You know how it is: you’re twenty-one or twenty-two and you make some decisions; then whisssh! you’re seventy.” A line spoken by the Stage Manager in the play, Our Town by Thornton Wilder (1938) Every new year is an opportunity to self-assess where we made some progress in the year just ended and where we …
“Above all, trust in the slow work of God” Excerpt from the prayer “Patient Trust” by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ Earlier this month we concluded another Daytime and Evening cohort of our Parish Bereavement Program and as always, we closed our final session with a beautiful prayer called “Patient Trust” by Pierre Teilhard de …
“𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒉, 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒚. 𝑮𝒐𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒚” 𝑳𝒚𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒔 𝒃𝒚 𝑫𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒆𝒍 𝑺𝒄𝒉𝒖𝒕𝒕𝒆 This photo of my family was taken on Thanksgiving Day in 1971 when I was 16 years old and a junior at Paramus …
𝖠𝗌 𝖺 𝖡𝖾𝗋𝖾𝖺𝗏𝖾𝗆𝖾𝗇𝗍 𝖢𝗈𝗎𝗇𝗌𝖾𝗅𝗈𝗋 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝖢𝗈𝖺𝖼𝗁, 𝖨 𝗁𝖺𝗏𝖾 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗁𝗈𝗇𝗈𝗋 𝗈𝖿 𝗌𝗎𝗉𝗉𝗈𝗋𝗍𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗂𝗇𝖽𝗂𝗏𝗂𝖽𝗎𝖺𝗅𝗌 𝗍𝗁𝗋𝗈𝗎𝗀𝗁 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗏𝖺𝗋𝗂𝗈𝗎𝗌 𝗌𝗍𝖺𝗀𝖾𝗌 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝖾𝗆𝗈𝗍𝗂𝗈𝗇𝗌 𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗍 𝖺𝗋𝗂𝗌𝖾 𝖽𝗎𝗋𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗍𝗂𝗆𝖾𝗌 𝗈𝖿 𝗆𝖺𝗃𝗈𝗋 𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗇𝗀𝖾. 𝖳𝗁𝗂𝗌 𝗆𝖺𝗒 𝗂𝗇𝖼𝗅𝗎𝖽𝖾 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗅𝗈𝗌𝗌 𝗈𝖿 𝖺 𝗅𝗈𝗏𝖾𝖽 𝗈𝗇𝖾, 𝖺 𝗃𝗈𝖻, 𝖺 𝗍𝗋𝗈𝗎𝖻𝗅𝖾𝖽 𝗋𝖾𝗅𝖺𝗍𝗂𝗈𝗇𝗌𝗁𝗂𝗉, 𝗈𝗋 𝖾𝗏𝖾𝗇 𝖺𝖽𝗃𝗎𝗌𝗍𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗍𝗈 𝖺 𝗇𝖾𝗐 𝖾𝗇𝗏𝗂𝗋𝗈𝗇𝗆𝖾𝗇𝗍 𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗍 𝗆𝖺𝗋𝗄𝗌 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖻𝖾𝗀𝗂𝗇𝗇𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗈𝖿 𝖺 𝗇𝖾𝗐 𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖾𝗋 …
“𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒔𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒐𝒏, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏 … 𝒂 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒘 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚” 𝑬𝒄𝒄𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝟯:(𝟭-𝟴) I had a great hike last week with Cali, one of our three Golden Retrievers, celebrating all the beauty of the new autumn season now upon us. And, as …
As I began my 20 minute drive to the Princeton Junction train station from my home in Pennington, NJ on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, I couldn’t help but notice the beautiful blue sky on what I thought would be just another busy Tuesday in my typical work week. It was a welcome change from my …
“𝑯𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒏𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒚𝒆𝒕. 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒐 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖, 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖’𝒗𝒆 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒅, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆. 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆, 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒓𝒏.” 𝑵𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒚 𝑳𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒏, 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝑬𝒙𝒊𝒕 Job loss can often trigger a range of emotions …
