“Tell me your friends, and I will tell you who you are.” These words are but echoes of words spoken over 400 years before Christ.

Almost every family has one. You know… the person who remembers the family history, the stories of Uncle… and Aunt…,  the in-laws, and the outlaws.

Did you know Pope Francis has Twitter accounts in nine languages and almost 53 million followers?

In this season, as we prepare for the birth of Christ, I am reminded of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus.

In a sense, I have never outgrown the “why” stage of childhood. Parents may realize it is all part of children trying to understand their world.

Sometimes it seems that everybody wants to change our way of thinking. That has probably always been true. But it certainly feels truer now in our polarized times.

A simple fact of life. We don’t always agree… especially on things that are important to us.

Some have a natural gift for telling stories. Few of us think of ourselves as gifted storytellers.

I suspect many of our parents remember how often we asked the question. “How how long until Christmas”? I remember I could hardly wait for the gift!s!

There is a story about an old Chinese farmer who lived in ancient times. He was the envy of his rather small village because unlike most of the other farmers, he possessed a horse.