Not long ago, I read about a museum in West Virginia that holds a collection of tear bottles. During the nineteenth century, women who mourned the loss of a loved one would collect their tears in tiny bottles ornately decorated with silver and pewter. Special stoppers allowed the tears to evaporate. When the tears were gone, the mourning period would end.

Luke 10:38-42

      There are persons who have cannot walk and chew gum at the same time.  They assume tasks one at a time, completing one charge before moving on to another.  Then there is my daughter.  Courtney can watch a television show on Netflix while simultaneously texting her friend, talking on the phone to her husband, painting her toenails, and complaining that the lawnmower noise outside is distracting her.  Court is an uber-tasker.

     I am a Myers Briggs J. My wife, Cathy, is a P. For those of you unfamiliar with these designations. I view time as a precise measurement. Cathy perceives time as a guideline. When she says she’s be ready to go in five minutes, I watch the clock closely. Five minutes and one second is too late as far as I’m concerned. Five minutes for Cathy includes expandable boundaries.

Psalm 23:1 and Philippians 4:10-20

      The second Noble Truth of Buddhism stipulates that all suffering is caused by wanting.  Our cravings as humans lead to discontent.  From a Buddhist perspective, desire is the enemy of human happiness.

“But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere” (James 3:17, ESV).

       Like many of you, I am struggling with the recent events in Uvalde, Texas. There is something about the murders of young innocents that shatters the soul. My response in no way minimizes the deaths of the ten shoppers at a grocery market in Buffalo, New York, and the victims of the shooting rampage at a church in Laguna Woods, California the week before. The lives of all these souls and their families will be changed forever.