The strongest challenges to belief are the things that we experience: experience is a great changer and shaper of belief because it gives us pragmatic knowledge that offers tangible and physical proof, even though it’s workings are often mysterious to us – we know what we experienced even though it may be “unbelievable”. This tells us that the perceptions are informing and changing belief. Sometimes the facts that we experience in our very body are so overwhelming that we have to enter into a suspension of disbelief, believing “as if” they were true in order to accommodate the experience.

p. 53, the Celtic spirit, Caitlin Matthews

No dark fate determines the future. We do. Each day and each moment, we are able to create and re-create our lives and the very quality of human life on our planet. This is the power we wield.

An invitation to Joy, the book of joy, Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, with Douglas Abrams

Conscience warns us as a friend before it punishes us as a judge.
Dennis Martin, Smithville, TN
Beside the Still Waters, volume 30, issue 6

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

If only people could be patient, God had his plan.
p. 24, Four Spirits, Sena Jeter Naslund

Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.
Beside the Still Waters, Volume 30, Issue 4

Good judgement comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement.
Unknown, Old Farmer’s Almanac 2025 Planner.

God’s message is in our hearts and souls, and God uses the power of the Spirit to bring it to the forefront of our hearts and minds.
p. 121, All the Good – A Wesleyan Way of Christmas.

True love does not injure, rather, it upholds the good of the beloved before itself.
p. 23, The Celtic Spirit, Caitlin Matthews

Hanging on to what is behind us will never help us reach what is before us.
Daniel Stauffer, Ephrata, PA
Beside the Still Waters, vol. 30, issue 6