text: I guess this image is the one that I will always remember when I think of the events of this day thirteen years ago. In the midst of hate and devastation these pieces of steel seemed to rise from the rubble and remind us of a hope that transcends pain, devastation and death.
  I am also reminded of how the brave men and women of the New York City police and fire departments responded to the actions of a handful of terrorist cowards and worked tirelessly to search for survivors in the rubble of the Trade Center. Their selfless bravery points back to another who hung on a wooden cross so many years ago and has given hope to millions since.
  May God continue to bless the families of all those involved in the tragedies of September 11, 2001. And may He bless the United States of America and bring us together as a country.
  Compassion does not just happen. Pity does, but compassion is not pity. It's not a feeling. Compassion is a viewpoint, a way of life, a perspective, a habit that becomes a discipline - and more than anything else, compassion is a choice we make that love is more important than comfort or convenience. -Glennon Doyle Melton
  God's dream is that you and I and all of us will realize that we are family, that we are made for togetherness, for goodness, and for compassion. -Desmond Tutu
  Our human compassion binds us the one to the other - not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future. -Nelson Mandela
  Grief can be the garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life's search for love and wisdom. -Rumi
  I used a quote from Rabbi Harold Kusher's excellent book today in my devotion titled 'the power of pain'. Though you might enjoy reading some other quotes from books by the rabbi.
  “One of the basic needs of every human being is the need to be loved, to have our wishes and feelings taken seriously, to be validated as people who matter.”
  “Pain is the price we pay for being alive. Dead cells—our hair, our fingernails—can’t feel pain; they cannot feel anything.”
  “God is the light shining in the midst of darkness, not to deny that there is darkness in the world but to reassure us that we do not have to be afraid of the darkness because darkness will always yield to light.”
  I loved reading this message from my friend Letiah on Facebook. She is a member of the clergy with the Church of the Nazarene. Letiah uses crutches to get around.
  My first time here. I was prayer-bombed today because I'm crippled. I did not fight it. I chose to endure the spiritual abuse because I knew it would make him leave faster. I was right. Prayer & go. Didn't even take the time to get to know me at all.
  I'm surrounded by Christians who see me as a project right now. I just came to visit the new local coffee shop in my neighborhood. Perhaps if I was viewed as a human the quickie prayer might have focused on something else. I am not angry. This has happened too often in my life for anger to take up space about this. I am just naming the ignorance and ableism that is obviously present in our world and its systems.
  Sadly, this is continued evidence that this narrative is widely lived into in the church. Why do people with disabilities widely refuse to attend church? Why do we have issues with our bodies and being? I would suggest because we don't like feeling like projects.
  I would also suggest that many of us have accepted and even like the way our disabled bodies bear the image of God in our world. We are NOT here on earth to provide a source of inspiration or to be fixed. Our humanity has been blessed since the very beginning.
  Being in a wheelchair and disabled, my wife Ann has had similar experiences of being prayer-bombed because of her disability. I think that the problem with #prayerbombing is a confluence of bad theology and bad manners. I have often said that folks wanting to #prayerbomb Ann should be asking her to pray for them.
  Like Letiah, Ann responds with beautiful grace to #prayerbombers. Hats off to Letiah and Ann for the grace and strength they display to us every single day.
  There are a number of ways to donate to the Ann Mc Donald Fund. This year we are delighted to be able to introduce an Online Donation facility, which we hope will be convenient for donors.Your donation will immediately be put to work and is a very important investment in all the students.
  Please note that all charitable donations above HK$100 are tax deductible. Kellett School will issue an official receipt, which may be submitted to Hong Kong Inland Revenue for the purpose of determining Hong Kong Income Tax.
  In Person at the Pok Fu Lam School Office, Kowloon Bay ECA Office or Kowloon Bay School Shop. Please complete and return the Giving Form for Development Office reference.
  If you bank with HSBC or Hang Seng Bank, you may donate via Merchant Pay. Please complete and return the Giving Form for Development Office reference.
  HKD cheques (only) should be made payable to ‘Kellett School Association Ltd’ with ‘Ann Mc Donald Fund’ notated on the rear. Please forward to Development Office together with the completed Giving Form for Development Office reference.
  Please place cash in the envelope provided and return it to the Development Office together with the completed Giving Form for Development Office reference. Envelopes may be submitted at the Main Reception at Pok Fu Lam or Kowloon Bay.
  Friends of Kellett School Inc. (FOKS) is a not-for-profit corporation operating under the laws of Delaware in the US. If you are a US tax-payer, you may wish to donate via FOKS to benefit from its tax-exempt status as a Public Charity under Section 501(c), subject to applicable limits under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code.
  As a registered charity and subject to individual company schemes, donations to the Kellett School Annual Fund locally or via FOKs, may qualify for matched contributions by employers. Please contact the Development Office for more information.
  It’s like shooting fish in a barrel, set up along the safest stretches of road with ridiculously low speed limits.
  Earn your tickets! Go after aggressive drivers. They choose their dangerous driving behaviours, intentionally put our lives at risk.
  We salute you when you pull over those hotheads. We smile, recognizing the hothead vehicle that had burned past us moments before, stopped at the side of the road by a ghost car.
  Speed traps are especially unfair along those many Okanagan corridors where the speed limits are as fickle as bitcoin values.
  We regularly wonder, with so many fluctuations, what the current speed is. And have to keep our eyes peeled for the next speed limit sign to get back on track.
  The only guarantee against a speeding ticket is paying constant, direct attention to the roadway. You don’t expect THAT of us, do you?
  It’s too easy. So easy that we bitch and complain when our minds wander to the point of having trouble keeping track of the speed limit!
  To miss a speed limit reduction, you’ve got to have your head so far up your ass that you miss both the “reduced speed ahead” warning as well as the new speed limit sign.
  It’s where traffic has come to a stop. It might be congestion, a traffic light, or simply a right turn situation where a vehicle is waiting to merge.
  Are you so tuned out that you have trouble keeping track of speed changes? You are a much bigger problem than the jackass burning past you on the highway.
  Aggressive drivers are a problem, and must be stopped, but they are much safer than absent minded motorists. At least they’re paying attention.
  We’ve dumbed down driving to the point that we can get away with absent-minded “autopilot” most of the time. And the more we get away with it, the more complacent we become.
  We are lulled into believing we’re driving safely because we make it from point A to point B. Again and again and again.
  There was a natural mechanism that kept our brains on the task at hand: a standard transmission. To some (most?) of you, a standard transmission is about as foreign a concept as a rotary dial telephone.
  Back in the day, there was a stick coming out of the floor that you had to move around to keep your vehicle in an optimum gear. It was a natural mechanism that constantly pulled your brain back to the task at hand.
  Returning to the rotary dial telephone would help too! A wandering brain is bad. A brain focused on a telephone discussion or texting exchange is even worse.
  We’re not bad people. It’s easy to get bored. Our powerful minds wander easily. We need a mechanism to keep our attention where it belongs: constantly and vigilantly on the road ahead.
  I have a mechanism that I’ve written about before. I call it “doing the 10 and 2”. Very simply, keeping your hands at particular positions on the steering wheel requires conscious thought. When I notice my hands wandering to more comfortable positions like an arm rest or my lap, I am clued in to put my brain back where it belongs.
  Prefer the “9 and 3” or “8 and 4”? Do your research and choose whatever you like. Make a conscious effort to stick to whatever you choose and it might work for you as well.
  And how about smiling, instead of grumbling, as you drive ticketless by the next “speed trap” you encounter. The only drivers they are trapping are the most dangerous drivers on the road, absent-minded ones who need to be snapped to attention.
  Better yet, how about petitioning our government to bring back photoradar. What a waste of police resources to “speed trap” absent minded motorists when that can be done automatically.
  Touch the Soil News #927 (Feature photo – CC CCO 1.0 Universal Public Dedication) Keurig Green Mountain and Dr Pepper Snapple have announced a preliminary agreement to merge, according to a recent press release from Keurig. The deal will bring together many iconic brands into a new company that is estimated to generate $11 billion in annual sales. Existing stockholders of Dr Pepper Snapple will receive a one-time cash payment of $103.75 per share after which they will retain a modest 13 percent of the new company. But think about this. Dr Pepper Snapple has 181 million shares outstanding. At $103.75, that equates to Keurig having to write a check…