The DAILY SPARK Blog

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.  The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares. Quote by Henri Nouwen, from his book: OUT OF SOLITUDE: Three Meditations on the Christian LifeREFLECTION:Do you have a friend who cares?How have they touched a wound in you with a warm and tender hand?Can you let them know today you appreciate them?

Through Love all that is bitter will be sweet. Through Love all that is copper will be gold. Through Love all dregs will become wine.Through Love all pain will turn to medicine.Poem by RUMIJalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, a Persian poet and Sufi master born 814 years ago in 1207. REFLECTION:Love transforms.How has love transformed you?Reflect on a painful time transformed by love.How can you love more today?

Contests reveal character, and in one instant classic monologue, Ted Lasso hustles a game of pub darts against the oligarchic and philandering former owner of the club while explaining, "Guys have underestimated me my entire life.  And for years, I never understood why.  It use to really bother me.  But then one day, I was driving my little boy to school and I saw this quote by Walt Whitman, and it was painted on the wall there.  It said, 'Be curious, not judgmental.'  I like that.  So I get back in my car and I'm driving to work, and all of a sudden it hits me.  All them fellas that used to belittle me, not a single one of them were curious.  You know, they thought they had everything all figured out.  So they judged everything, and they judged everyone.  And I realized that their underestimating me ... who I was had nothing to do with it."Quote by Ted Lasso from the TV Series TED LASSOThe series follows Ted Lasso, an American college football coach who is hired to coach an English soccer team in an attempt by its owner to spite her ex-husband. Lasso tries to win over the skeptical English market with his folksy, optimistic demeanor while dealing with his inexperience in the sport.REFLECTION:Have you been underestimated?Do you underestimate others?Are you curious?