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community Connection love spirituality Uncategorized

When I Went to Oberndorf

I probably shouldn’t admit this, but “Silent Night” never really did anything for me.

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community Connection love personal transformation Uncategorized

International Competence and Compassion

It didn’t matter to me at all what accent carried the phrase to my ears, “Well, it looks like we got it all!” 

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Connection love personal transformation support teams

Not a Weight-Loss Method

Yup.  That’s me about 43 years and 15 pounds ago.  At the time, I lived in Salzburg, Austria and on this particular day, some friends and I had gone for a walk and a picnic in the gardens surrounding the magnificent palace of Hellbrunn. Well, I’m back to that Salzburg weight, but not because of […]

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community Connection love support teams

Gratitude for a Long Term Friend

Way back in the summer of 1992, I went to serve as the senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Winchester, Virginia.  That’s when I met the family of Butch and Eva Gates.  The first day in my office, Eva called me and asked me to officiate at a marriage vow renewal service that […]

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community Connection Interdependence loneliness love support teams Uncategorized

How to Be an Adult: The “Five A’s” of Healthy Community (with apologies to David Richo)

While waiting in Atlanta for his flight to San Francisco, a colleague of mine, Vic Dippenaar, sat down in the waiting lounge to nurture patience in the pages of a book. He raised in front of his eyes David Richo’s book, How to Be an Adult, and began reviewing the chapters. Vic, the director of […]

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loneliness love support teams Uncategorized

In Memoriam: Johnny Barnes – A Bermudian Insurgent

I learned this morning from a reader that Johnny Barnes passed away this year, at the age of 93 (see the first reply beneath the post).  I was so inspired when I first heard about Mr. Barnes, that I thought I’d repost this particular blog entry from over a year ago.  Here it is. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ […]

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community Connection loneliness love support teams Uncategorized

What Support Teams Are NOT

When I start to talk about Support Teams, I’ve learned that everyone already has an idea of what I’m talking about – and in many cases, it isn’t what I’m talking about. People like it when I say that I’m working with Support Teams, but I’ve found that I need not assume they understand what […]

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Connection loneliness love Uncategorized

Support Teams and Bears in the Woods

In doing support teams over the year and a half since I’ve been at UAB, I’ve met some fantastic people. But I wouldn’t have met them if I hadn’t gotten off my usual beaten path. It sort of reminds me of a discovery I made right after I ran into a bear once in the […]

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loneliness love support teams Uncategorized

Everything is Incredible!

In the village of Siguatepeque, Honduras, lives a man named Augustin. Before the government gave free vaccinations to the children of the country, polio struck Augustin. For most of his 70 plus years, Augustin has lived in a wheelchair. He managed to learn a trade, however, and became a shoemaker. Augustin might have gone unnoticed […]

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loneliness love support teams

Loneliness Can Kill You! No, Really . . . It Can Kill You!

Remember the movie “Crocodile Dundee?” A recent medical journal article with a very dry title made me think of a scene in that movie. Here’s the scene: Crocodile Dundee, himself has gone to a party with his New York girlfriend. Across the crowded room, she points out that her mother has arrived among the revelers […]