St. Luke's

A few weeks ago, I took some travel size toiletries by to St. Luke’s Episcopal Church for the Hesed House of Hope, our local homeless shelter. To help the homeless in our area, I left a huge box of shampoos, soaps, lotions, toothbrushes and toothpaste on the back porch of this huge, gorgeous home that is a wonderful part of our small town history. No one came to the door, so I left my Spreading Joy business card in the box and left.

This prompted a phone call from Father Miles. I didn’t leave a note or anything as to what it was for and for all he knew it could have been someone sending him a “hint.” (He said it, I didn’t)

We chatted for a moment about the box of goodies and I filled him in on my day job that allows me to travel each week and I just save those items, bring them home and when I get a box of them, I’ll donate it the homeless shelter. This lead to more questions about Spreading Joy and a meeting over coffee. I love coffee. I love meeting new people…such JOY!

We met and in our discussion he came up with the idea of giving up some negative things for Lent and replacing them with positive, JOYful things.

Thanks Father Miles for the Opportunity to talk about JOY

He graciously invited me to come and share my heart for finding joy. Joy is there…always. But sometimes we are so focused on the problems we deal with day that we miss it completely. While we can’t change our circumstances, we can certainly choose how we respond to those situations. We can choose to focus on the positive things that are all about us and slowly start to move forward and out from under the cloud of despair. Am I saying that we should never get angry? Never whine, cry, pout or pitch a fit? Noooo, not hardly. I do all of these things and sometimes, even more than I want to or should. I’m simply saying that we do not have to “STAY” in this place, that we can move beyond the clouds….if we choose to. It’s our choice.

When I concluded, he challenged us to give up the concept that we don’t matter, because we do; to give up the notion that we can’t make a difference, because we can; to give up idea that it just isn’t going to get better, because it will.

I’ve really enjoyed my visits at St. Luke’s and the members have always welcomed me and my family with open arms.

I’m thankful for the new friends I’ve found there and for any opportunity that I can be a blessing to them and to leadership in the

A View from the Cemetary

future.

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St. Luke’s Episcopal church

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