Fear

October 18, 2014

Halloween, Ebola, and a Saint

Halloween - BooIt’s that time of year again.  Halloween is right around the corner and a lot of people are scared.  Our so-called leaders walk around as though they are zombies whose purpose is to destroy our nation.  Every decision they make is the exact opposite of what a reasonable, rational person would decide.  What’s even scarier is the sheep-like behavior of the masses who wander about, clueless as to what’s going on around them.

September 17, 2014

Harnessing the Power of Fear

FearThere’s a prayer that we learned when we were in second grade that we recite every time we receive the sacrament of reconciliation.  Despite our familiarity with the prayer, most of us aren’t aware of the hidden meaning of the prayer.  I’m referring to the Act of Contrition which begins with the following sentence:

August 23, 2014

A Different Perspective on the Robin Williams Suicide

Robin WilliamsAfter the recent suicide of the famous American actor and comedian Robin Williams, various reasons were given to explain why he killed himself. Some of the reasons included the fact that he had recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, suffered from severe depression, and was having money problems. For whatever reason, at the age of 63, Williams ended his life after determining that he was better off dead than alive.

July 26, 2014

Aggressive Behavior, Anger, and Trust

AngerOne evening during the summer of 2005, I called one of my clients and asked him if he would come over to my house to fix a problem with my plumbing.  His name was Jim, and at that time he was in his mid-50s.  We had done business with each other since the early 1990s.  I was originally introduced to Jim by another client who owned several rental properties and had hired Jim to work on his properties.

March 1, 2014

An Unplanned Interception

InterceptionI’ve written before about how I broke my leg when I was a boy.  The events leading up to my broken leg began during the summer of 1967, when I was 10 years old.  While holding onto the end of an old rubber garden hose, I climbed the weeping willow tree in the back yard of my parents’ home.  When I got about 20 feet high, I climbed out onto a thick branch and tied the end of the hose to the branch.

February 22, 2014

A Reason to Panic

Stress MeterIt happened during the summer of 1990.  Georgette needed to go to the grocery store, so she asked me to keep an eye on our four children while she was gone.  At that time, Harry was nine, Anna was seven, Maria was six, and Laura was three.

January 4, 2014

Catching Fire in the New Year

Catching FireLast week I saw the movie, Catching Fire, with Georgette and two of our daughters, Mary and Teresa.  Catching Fire is based on the second book of The Hunger Games trilogy, and picks up where the original movie, The Hunger Games, left off.  Following the events of the first movie, the main character, Katniss Everdeen, returns home to her mother and sister.

November 23, 2013

Protection From A Tornado

TornadoThe recent tornado that ripped through Washington, Illinois, destroyed the home of my office manager, Kenna.  When she heard the sirens and realized what was going on, she barely had enough time to wake her daughter and get her out of bed to run down to the basement of their house.  As soon as they got down the stairs, the tornado took out her daughter’s bedroom and then tore through the rest of the house.  If Kenna had delayed her decision to get her daughter out of bed by five seconds, neither one of them would be alive today.

September 14, 2013

Fearless

Fear Into ActionDuring the summer of 1989, most evenings I came home from work, ate supper with my family, and then sat in a lawn chair in the front yard of our home to read the newspaper.  We lived in a quiet, residential neighborhood in Peoria where there wasn’t much traffic.

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