A Beacon of Light

“Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365-page book. Write a good one.” Brad Paisley If you’ve been thinking about making a new year resolution, or if you’ve been considering how best to utilize your time productively in 2026, consider this: Write your book. Yes! Write YOUR book. For years, I’ve been telling people that everyone has a…

“Celebrate endings for they precede new beginnings.” Jonathan Huie The end of each calendar year offers us a tremendous opportunity to evaluate the previous twelve months. The primary purpose of such an exercise would be to help us make better plans and choices throughout the upcoming year. Taking time to look back at the year that’s ending can…

“Grandma’s house:Where cousins becomebest friends.” One of the best things I heard from time to time during my childhood was when my mother would tell my siblings and me, “The Kellys will be there.” The Kelly kids were my first-cousins on my mother’s side of the family. They lived in Daly City and it was…

“Our group didn’t  break the rules,we just tested  their boundaries  — extensively.” And “test the boundaries” we most certainly did! I don’t recall anyone in the photo above getting into any really big trouble during our high school years, but I am confident that we all have stories to share of situations in which we…

“I am not embarrassed to tell you that I believe in miracles.” Corazon Aquino One might wonder what, exactly, is a miracle. Simply put, a miracle is a wonderful, amazing, unexpected occurrence. The word is derived from the Latin word miraculum, which means “object of wonder.” Given this definition, I have little doubt that some of my elementary…

“Okay, Christmas is over. I’m ready for summer!” Unknown It’s December 26th. For some, today is the feast day of Saint Stephen. For those in the United Kingdom, it’s Boxing Day. In The Bahamas, today is the beginning of the Junkanoo Street Festival. A surprising number of people seem to use this day each year to cash-in…

“What is Christmas?… tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future.” Agnes M. Pahro Past, present, and future seem to be common themes around Christmas each year, probably due to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. In this timeless classic, Scrooge, a miserly old man who despises Christmas, is visited by the ghost of his deceased…

“The way you spend Christmas is far more important than how much you spend.” Henry David Thoreau So here we are,… Christmas Eve 2025. Again this year, we’ll be gathering with Kathy’s family at the home of her youngest sister, Chrissy, and her husband, Brian. They have a beautiful South San José home which can accommodate a large and…

“We have an innate propensity to get ourselves noticed, and noticed favorably, by our kind.” William James Recently, I’ve been reading, and very much enjoying, What Matters Most and Why, by Jim Manney. His book seeks to unearth insights on a number of life questions: How can I find meaning and joy? What’s valuable in life? What’s…

With only three days remaining until Christmas, I am happy to say that the Christmas cards have been sent, the laundry is done, and any Christmas shopping I was planning to do has been completed. So what’s a person to do when all the stress-inducing tasks leading up to the holidays have been taken care…