Current Affairs

The Magic of Being Present: Connect, Notice, and Thank

Rich Kirkpatrick0229 views

Subscribe to the audio blog on your favorite podcast app: Subscribe I had one of those weeks where I felt like I was on a road trip, sharing stories on the winding drive, dreaming with new friends at the campfire, and learning that we all need people to watch out for us while hiking the treacherous inclines in our lives. The pandemic exacted a cost. We lost a bit of the magic of being present—more than I think I care to admit it. Zoom calls, texts, and socially distanced dining—known as takeout—could never replace the real thing. Sure, my favorite restaurant’s food is still tasty. But we’ve lost the carefree table banter that allowed the meal’s main entrée to connect us to each other. So, the past several days have been special with meals, coffees, and serendipitous encounters. With all the talk about mindsets, like some I mention in my new book…

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Wear a mask! There’s a difference between self-expression and being selfish.

Rich Kirkpatrick0452 views

The most helpful creatives among us know this truth by painful experience: Our selfishness never helps us. It, in fact, has the opposite effect. When individual rights seem suspended, the idea of the “greater good” takes a back seat. For my Christian friends and family, the ethic of taking care of your neighbor divides our churches and our homes. Wearing a mask has become a violation of rights to some rather than a symbol or method of safety. Closing businesses upends livelihoods and shatters dreams. Disrupted worship services keep us away from the fuel of our faith and fellowship of our friends. We don’t walk this life alone, and this pandemic keeps us alone. Selfishness is a powerful tempter. And, at the moment, we are vulnerable to its seduction. My feelings are important, but how about the health of my loved ones? In LA County, our health officer’s life has…

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COVID-19 is the Villian, but Who is the Hero?

Rich Kirkpatrick2506 views

What if the enemy in the pandemic was the cause of the pandemic, the coronavirus Covid-19? What if we could lay all our anger, grief, mistrust, and fear in the direction of this invisible-yet-deadly foe? Every one of us is a potential target, from Libertarians who squirm at their local pub being closed to businesswomen who had to layoff their treasured friends and employees. The virus succeeded in wholesale disruption, denying school kids their dreaded fifth period and terrorizing parents who love their kids but cannot change diapers while simultaneously presenting a Zoom call for work. Disruption goes deeper than lifestyle interruptions. Life itself is threatened as thousands experience a violent, ugly, and lonely death. No one is immune, literally–at least we are not sure of that yet. Is the virus an enemy? If true, why not blame the virus for all that befalls us? We could sell coronavirus targets…

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A Timeless Word – Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Address

Rich Kirkpatrick01.8K views

It is the duty of nations as well as of men to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord. We know that by his divine law, nations, like individuals, are subject to punishments and chastisements in this world May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins; to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity;…

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