Hope – Page 5 – Perpetual Adoration

February 20, 2016

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Coping With the Death of a Loved One

With the recent death of my father-in-law, I’ve had to fall back on some of the coping skills I learned and developed when I was younger. I’ve written before about the death of my 13-month-old sister, Kathryn Mary. When she died, I was 15 years old. I’ve also written about the sudden death of my cousin, Tommy LaHood, who died when I was 11. Tommy’s brother, Harry LaHood, passed away when he was 41. Harry and I were the same age and were best friends while we were growing up.

December 5, 2015

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A Lovely Night With Cinderella

Last month, Peoria Players Theater put on the musical production of Cinderella. While the music in the play was from the original musical version of Cinderella, the script was adapted from the 1997 teleplay that featured pop stars Brandy and Whitney Houston. My daughter Mary Rose played the part of Cinderella in the Peoria Players production. My initial plan was to attend two of the eight performances that were put on, but I couldn’t stay away. I ended up seeing four of the performances.

August 1, 2015

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The Legacy of an Overweight Housewife

Have you ever heard of Jean Nidetch? You may not recognize the name, but you would immediately recognize the name of the business she started in the 1960s and built into a global organization. I recently read that Jean had died. The legacy that she left was the business she started and grew into a worldwide organization — Weight Watchers International.

July 10, 2015

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Lessons From An Alcoholic Lawyer

One of the conditions of maintaining my law license is that every other year I am required to report to the state of Illinois that I have completed at least 30 hours of continuing legal education. One option that’s available is to purchase and listen to audio recordings of presentations that have been made by attorneys at legal conferences. I recently purchased a package of 30 hours of audio recordings that were assembled from several different presentations.

January 17, 2015

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The Vanishing Pause

If you read my article last week, you know about the May 2013 Internet Trends Report that revealed that the typical smartphone user checks his or her phone 150 times a day. I finished writing the article on a Saturday, and the following Monday I met with “Tim,” a 27-year-old man who was in need of legal assistance. During the first five minutes of our meeting, Tim received four text messages on his iPhone. Since he was holding his phone in his hand, he immediately read the messages. On two occasions, he stopped talking to me so he could respond to the messages.

December 27, 2014

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From Jonny Quest To Batman

Of all the superhero movies that have been released by Marvel and DC comics, Batman is my least favorite, primarily because of the dark and diabolical nature of the villains. Despite my dislike of the Batman movies, I still watch them. In the last Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, the villain, Bane, delivers a crippling blow to Batman’s back. He then escorts Batman to an underground prison. The only way out of the prison is through a tower-like tunnel that is carved out of rock.

December 20, 2014

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A Special Christmas Gift

Earlier this month, I had a conversation with a judge who recently retired after serving as a state court judge for more than 20 years. For the purpose of this article, I’m going to call him “John.” John is in his early 60s, and during our conversation he asked me how many grandchildren I have. I told him that after adding three new grandsons last month, my wife and I have 10 grandchildren.

June 7, 2014

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A Simple Formula for Happiness

Last week, while I was meeting with a client, she started talking about a new crisis in her life that was causing her distress. (For the purpose of this article, I’m going to call my client “Julie.”) At any other time in her life, Julie would have easily been able to handle the type of crisis she was going through, but this time she was in severe distress.

May 22, 2014

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Mealtime With Our Lord

In a recent Adoration Letter article titled “Too Tired To Care,” I wrote about the importance of making an effort to always keep your mind young, fresh, enthusiastic, and hopeful. In the article, I mentioned a reporter who had followed Mother Teresa around for several days and was completely exhausted by the end of each day. The reporter noticed that Mother Teresa, who was more than twice the age of the reporter, appeared to be as fresh and energetic as she was when she started each day.