somewhere in between...

charlie brown, the great philosopher, once stated, "what we need in life are more hellos and fewer goodbyes." i agree...goodbyes make me sad, too, charlie brown...

but life is full of experiences that have hellos and goodbyes built in...in fact the biggest milestones of life are usually events that have both a hello and goodbye in the same experience...graduation, birth, marriage, promotions, moving, and dying...these are the experiences that stretch our emotions, that make us face two strong, diametrical feelings...

but the most important part of these hello-goodbye adventures is what's in the middle...what happens between the beginning and the end is what makes the real difference...the middle is where the meat of life is...timing automatically gives us the hellos and the goodbyes...but it is up to us to sculpt the middle in such a way that the starts and finishes are divinely justified...

a middle needs a sense of purpose big enough to include God and wide enough to include mankind...a middle needs a purpose that takes us beyond ourselves and challenges us to make life good for other people...

a middle needs to rid itself of the question, "what can i get out of this experience?" replace it with this question: "what can i bring to this life experience that will enrich others?" a middle requires hard work and commitment...it needs imagination and courage for each day, so that when we come to the end, the goodbye...we can exit the experience with a song of thanksgiving and a sense of accomplishment...

then as we are suspended in time, hanging between a yesterday and a tomorrow, we can make a half-turn into the next hello with anticipation and hope...

freedom is not the right to do what we want but the power to do what we ought...
~ corrie ten boom