43 results for tag: Stuart Segall
The Greatest Illness Needs the Greatest Too – Stuart Segall
“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread, but there are many more dying for a little love.” — Mother Teresa
For someone like me, who moves through the world with a reflective spirit and a reverence for presence, this quote feels like a call to ritual: to notice the invisible hunger in others, to offer warmth not as a transaction but as a sacrament. It reminds me that love, simple, attentive, ...
Can You Remember When? – Stuart Segall
There’s something quietly profound in this moment, in this scene that speaks to my heart. It is me, it is a child, absorbed in the earth’s textures, surrounded by blooming life, unaware of the digital tides that shape our world.
I heard someone speaking the other day, that “we are the last generation on earth that knows what life was like before social media”. Now, this is not a lament for technology, but an elegy for unfiltered presence, for the silence that once held us, for wonder stumbled upon in gardens, creeks, and conversations unrecorded. In my counseling, I see this becoming a lost understanding: the art of being, without ...
Wild Geese – Stuart Segall
Editor’s note: photo above is of Trumpeter Swans, not Wild Geese, but … close enough. You “get” the picture!!
Wild Geese
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert. repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the ...
Table For Two – Stuart Segall
Table For Two.
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” —Psalm 23:5
This verse is steeped in symbolism, emotional depth, and spiritual paradox. The initial context of Psalm 23 follows the tender imagery of God as shepherd, guiding, protecting, and providing. But here, the metaphor shifts. The “table” prepared in the presence of enemies is not a retreat—it’s a bold declaration of peace and dignity in the face of adversity.
It’s a table for two. Just God and you. He wants your eyes locked on his, even now, especially now.
What’s striking is that the table isn’t hidden away in safety. It’s laid ...
The Prodigal Cat: A Tale of Wanderlust, Winter Firelight, and Grace – Stuart Segall
Nestled on the slopes near Stevens Pass, just a short drive from the fairytale town of Leavenworth, Washington, there’s a candy shop called The Alps—a place that seems plucked from the pages of a childhood dream. I first stumbled upon it in the early ’90s, entranced by the swirl of sweet aromas and shelves stacked like something out of Candyland. But amid the chocolates and gumdrops, it wasn’t just sugar that left its imprint—it was the story of a cat. A restless, remarkable soul who, over the years, came to embody something profoundly human.
The owners of the shop were an elderly Austrian couple, gentle and kind, with eyes that ...
Robert Frost’s “The Oven Bird” – by Stuart Segall
There is a singer everyone has heard,
Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird,
Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again.
He says that leaves are old and that for flowers
Mid-summer is to spring as one to ten.
He says the early petal-fall is past
When pear and cherry bloom went down in showers
On sunny days a moment overcast;
And comes that other fall we name the fall.
He says the highway dust is over all.
The bird would cease and be as other birds
But that he knows in singing not to sing.
The question that he frames in all but words
Is what to make of a diminished thing.
Robert Frost’s The Oven Bird ...
Our True Significance – by Stuart Segall
At a time in life about 15 years ago, I felt useless. I did not know what I had left in me. Would I somehow be able to regroup, retool, and rethink? How I reflect on this when I look back and now read this quote."No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another," carries a profoundly wonderful message for folks like me. At its core, each act of kindness, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, adds value to our collective human experience. You see, our worth isn’t solely determined by great achievements or grand milestones; rather, it is measured by the way we contribute to easing another’s struggles.Charles ...
June 2025
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(PDF Format)
Greg Albrecht Everlasting Love – pg. 2
Ed Dunn Two Types of Fathers – pg. 5
Stuart Segall Alone – pg. 6
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Be a lamp – a lifeboat – or a ladder by Stuart Segall
“Be a lamp – a lifeboat – or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.”
Who first expressed this? No one knows for sure. They say “Rumi” did but that does not matter. What matters is that these words say so much! Do these words speak to you?
When I first read these words some time ago, it made me think about who perhaps in our life has been, or perhaps will be in such a role as this.
Do you think of someone who has been a lamp? To be a lamp for another human is to be someone who brings light to the darkness, or one who helps light the way home. He or she might ...
A Few Thoughts From A Real Diver……..Dumpster Diver That Is – by Stuart Segall
In my world, I do volunteer work with people who are in nursing, care homes and other residences. I visit people who simply lack company or get very little of it. When I do, I listen to their stories of days gone by. Seniors, like all of us, love to tell their old stories. Often, they like to be read to. There are far more people than hours in the day so when I need to exit, I leave them beautiful flowers. I grow all I can, lots of roses, forty-seven bushes and counting. In the winter I do janitor work for a long-time business friend who owns three flower shops. Friday, she cleans out her flower ...
Contentment With Appreciation – Stuart Segall
Lost a lot of people in 2024, didn’t we? Lots of folks are struggling with real and debilitating health issues. Health and loss, part of the ongoing struggles of our lives. How do we deal with them?
Writing to a German friend on his sixty-fourth birthday, ten years after his paralytic stroke, Walt Whitman reflects on what the limitations of living in a disabled body have taught him about the meaning of a full life:
"From today I enter upon my 64th year. The paralysis that first affected me nearly ten years ago, has since remain’d, with varying course — seems to have settled quietly down, and will probably continue. I easily tire, am ...
Times Like These – Stuart Segall
These words (from Psalm 23:3) and imagery powerfully remind us of hope and guidance, even in the face of pain and devastation caused by events like catastrophic raging wildfires. My mother loved this verse - she had it embroidered in my bedroom. She understood the power of the image and the words of this verse. She often did not have the right words for my painful times as a youth, but she would often sit me down to face the framed words that hung in my room.
Sometimes for me, it takes loss, death, setbacks, and grief to have my attention focused on these timely words. These painful experiences cause us to stop, listen, and hopefully look ...
January 2025
CLICK HERE to read now
(PDF Format)
Articles:
God's Master Stroke for the New Year – pg. 1
It's All on Rails – pg. 2
Sunsets and Seasons of Life – pg. 5
"Rise Up and Walk!" – pg. 6
Mercy Drops – pg. 7
Quotes & Connections – pg. 8
“Please Sir, I want some more” by Stuart Segall
In the movie “Oliver” young Oliver does the unthinkable and walks up to the master in the house and asks for more soup! After a harmony of gasps, the next words out of the mouths of all the adults are “What?”
Anyone watching the movie would have to have a heart of stone to side with the “adults” questioning the young boys' request. The scene compels the viewer to a heart of compassion for Oliver. Even though it is a movie, you feel like jumping onto the screen and quickly giving him another bowl of soup.
This writer loves this scene in Oliver for it reminds me of myself. I know within me a child still resides. ...
Making Sense of Life’s Experiences – Stuart Segall
How do we make sense of life? How do life experiences filter our perspectives, conclusions and beliefs?
Consider these two affirmations:
1) I grew up liking dogs because my first dog was a special loving experience.
2) I don’t like dogs at all because when I was little, a dog bit me.
Which child are you?
Our thoughts and choices are deeply influenced by our human experiences, which act as filters through which we perceive and interpret the world. Our past experiences play a significant role in shaping how we perceive and interpret daily life around us. This process is known as perception.
We select, organize, and interpret ...
The Magic Helmet – Stuart Segall
The wind breathes -
Lonely
Longing to be seen
Sometimes the soul
Has days like these.
Angie Weiland Crosby.
Here is a poetic expression of human emotions and the universal experience of feeling alone at times.
We are not mad. We are human. We want to love, and someone must forgive us for the paths we take to love, for the paths are many and dark, and we are ardent and cruel in our journey – Leonard Cohen
The soul, our inner being, like the wind, can feel isolated and longing for connection. Sometimes our feelings convey a sense of melancholy and longing. Just as the wind carries an unfulfilled desire to be ...
Unforgiving Living is No Life At All -Stuart Segall
Living with unforgiveness can have a profound impact on both our emotional well-being and physical health. When we hold grudges or harbor resentment, it can lead to negative consequences.
Forgiveness is an active process where and when we consciously decide to let go of negative feelings, whether the other person deserves it or not. It involves empathy, compassion, and releasing anger and hurt.
When it comes to forgiveness, I ask myself the question in the mirror. “Who are you? Who is your true self”? Consistently behavioral health studies show that when you hold onto unforgiveness, it can debilitate you and prevent ...
Sunsets and Seasons of Our Lives – Stuart Segall
Recently I took this photo of a sunset on a trip and I spent time reflecting on the days of our lives and our sunsets.
Ecclesiastes 3: 1-2 (NIV) states, “There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens.”
Sunsets symbolize the end of the day, a moment of transition from light to darkness. Similarly, the later stages of life can be filled with LIGHT in the form of wisdom, memories, and unique beauty. Just as sunsets are fleeting, life’s final chapters are fast, fleeting and so transient.
People pause to watch sunsets, reflecting on the day’s events or contemplating life. They provoke thoughts ...
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