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Find Your Climate and Your Soil

My mother loves plants and flowers. When I was growing up back in Nebraska, she kept a flower bed full of perennials and a living room full of house plants. One in particular, I remember being in the living room 10-15 years. It was healthy. It always remained the same size in the same pot.

When my folks retired, they moved to West Palm Beach, Florida. Mom took most of her plants with her and miraculously, in my mind at least, they survived the journey. Once in Florida, the climate and soil being favorable, she decided to take that plant and put it outside in the soil.

Some time passed and I visited again. At some point mom takes me outside and shows me this big beautiful tree bush. It was huge and healthy. Then mom informed me that it was the same relatively small plant that lived in her living room for a decade and a half.

The transformation was amazing. It took the right climate and the right soil for that plant to thrive. It survived just fine in its small pot back in Nebraska, but it didn’t thrive.

It’s true we need to survive first. But eventually we have to plant ourselves in the right climate and the right soil to really thrive.

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Our Years Are Like the Leaves

“The years
Fall like dry leaves
From the top-less tree
Of eternity.
Does it matter
That another leaf has fallen?”

-New Year by Langston Hughes

How many Pharaohs of Egypt can you name? How many emperors of Rome or ancient China? Most reading or listening to this in the US would be hard pressed to name all the presidents much less name any of their accomplishments.

That’s all to say that most of the things on which we spend our time, that we stress and sweat over, are as the writer of Ecclesiastes declares, are vanity, meaningless chasing after the wind.

Leaves dry up and blow away. But while they are alive they collect the sunshine and feed the trees. They provide shade and shelter for the forest animals and oxygen for us all. Their breathtaking beauty amazes and inspires.

To Hughes’s question, do they matter? Yes they do. Our lives are like the leaves. They matter. We matter.

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope. Peace be with you.

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Where Do We Want to Be More Loving?

After reflecting on where we experienced love this past year, and after reflecting on how we have shown love, it’s good for us to reflect on how we would like to be more loving.

Where are the times and places, what are the situations, who are the people around which we’d like our life’s response to be rooted and grounded in love? Not anger, bitterness, resentment, envy, fear, greed or lust, but love?

It’s easy for many if not most of us to find ourselves tripped up or triggered in real time. If life had a do over button, there are quite a few scenarios we’d handle better and differently, or so we tell ourselves.

The truth is there are a lot of situations that play out similarly time and again. And guess what, time and again we fall into the same jacked up pattern of response .

The key for us is to recognize the pattern as it’s happening, interrupt it, and replace it with more love based thoughts, words, and deeds. For myself I started in traffic. Where do you want to start?

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope. Peace be with you.

#60secondsofhope #366daysoflove #inspiration #dailydevotion #dailymeditation #growth #personaldevelopment #positivity #positivemindset #personalgrowth #selfcare #love

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When Did We Show Love?

After reflecting on where we experienced love over this past year, it’s good for us to take some time to reflect on the times that we have shown love.

One of the universal spiritual principles is that we tend to reap what we sow. The things we put out into the world are the things that tend to come back to us.

If we want to experience kindness and tenderness, if we want to experience empathy and understanding, if we want to experience love and forgiveness, we must become the kind of people who give those things to others.

Thinking back, when did we show patience with others. When were we considered and kind? When did we give without any expectation of receiving any thing back in return? In short, when were we loving?

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope. Peace be with you.

#60secondsofhope #366daysoflove #inspiration #dailydevotion #dailymeditation #growth #personaldevelopment #positivity #positivemindset #personalgrowth #selfcare #love

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Where Did I Feel Loved?

As we come to the end of the year, it’s good for us to take some time to reflect. It’s particularly important for us to to reflect on those times and places where we felt loved and cared for, nurtured and embraced.

Who were we with? What were we doing? Were we with close friends sharing a meal or in quiet conversation? Were we in solitude walking through nature, or in a moment of prayer, meditation, and devotion? Were we dancing, singing, or listening to music by ourselves or in communion with others? Was it while we were showing kindness, compassion and love with someone else.

Where did we feel love this past year? We pause and we give God thanks for those people, places, and times where we experienced love. Let us seek out those environments for ourselves in the coming year. Let us also seek to create those environments for others in the year ahead.

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope. Peace be with you.

#60secondsofhope #366daysoflove #inspiration #dailydevotion #dailymeditation #growth #personaldevelopment #positivity #positivemindset

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Be Like the Shepherds: Follow Nascent Hope into the World

As we reflect on the Christmas story found in the second chapter of Luke, we are encouraged to see ourselves in the place of the shepherds.

Both boys and girls could find themselves in caretaker roles for animals. Though their status in society was really low, what shepherds did in caring for the sheep, guiding the sheep and protecting the sheep was vital for society in terms of feeding and clothing the world.

We think of shepherds differently because of David beating Goliath. But remember, when Samuel asked Jesse to call his sons because he was going to anoint one king, Jesse didn’t bother calling David. He was just a shepherd boy. That was their status was very low in society.

Despite this, the angels appeared to the shepherds… Now hear the words of the story:

“In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.

All went to their own towns to be registered.

Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David.

He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child.

While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child.

And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no place in the guest room.

Now in that same region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:

to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.

This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger."

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us."

So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the child lying in the manger.

When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child,

and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them,

and Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told them.”

The angels appeared to the shepherds during a difficult time. The nation of Israel was under Roman occupation and domination. All of society’s institutions were corrupt and self serving. Inequality and Injustice were the order of the day.

The angels declared to the shepherds that a messiah had been born, an anointed one who would one day make things right. The shepherds had the courage to go and find out for themselves.

And when they found the b

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You Have to Love It!

“Only true love can fuel the hard work that awaits you.” – Tom Preston

Who do you love? What do you love? These are the questions each of us needs to answer clearly and explicitly. A big part of knowing who and what we are requires us to know who and what we love.

Life is hard. It’s filled with obstacles and challenges, setbacks and disappointments. Love is the most powerful, energizing and sustaining force in the universe. And love is the only thing that can give us the strength to make the journey we need to make.

Why do we get up every day? Why do we go to work? Why do we go to school? Why do we volunteer? Why do we start and run our businesses?

If the answer doesn’t trace back someone or something we love, then everything we’re doing we do in vain. We have to love it.

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope. Peace be with you.

#60secondsofhope #inspiration #motivation #growth #positivity #positivemindset #dailydevotion #dailymeditation #selfcare #selfhelp

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Speak to Yourself with Compassion

“Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love. Compassion begins at home—with yourself.” – Brené Brown

How many of us say things to and about ourselves that we would never allow in our presence to be said about one of our best friends or loved ones?

It’s time for us to stop doing that. It is one thing to be self aware and even self critical. It’s another thing entirely for us to speak to ourselves in ways that dishonor, demean, dismiss or degrade ourselves.

We need to interrupt and redirect our internal dialogue when it takes us down these negative roads.

We are all works in progress. We focus not only on how far we need to go, but also on how far we have already come.

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope. Peace be with you.

#60secondsofhope #inspiration #motivation #growth #positivity #positivemindset #dailydevotion #dailymeditation #selfcare #selfhelp

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