29 results for tag: Stuart Segall

“Please Sir, I want some more” by Stuart Segall

In the movie “Oliver” young Oliver does the unthinkable and walks up to the master in the house and asks for more soup!  After a harmony of gasps, the next words out of the mouths of all the adults are “What?” Anyone watching the movie would have to have a heart of stone to side with the “adults” questioning the young boys' request. The scene compels the viewer to a heart of compassion for Oliver.  Even though it is a movie, you feel like jumping onto the screen and quickly giving him another bowl of soup. This writer loves this scene in Oliver for it reminds me of myself. I know within me a child still resides.  ...

Making Sense of Life’s Experiences – Stuart Segall

How do we make sense of life? How do life experiences filter our perspectives, conclusions and beliefs? Consider these two affirmations: 1) I grew up liking dogs because my first dog was a special loving experience. 2) I don’t like dogs at all because when I was little, a dog bit me. Which child are you? Our thoughts and choices are deeply influenced by our human experiences, which act as filters through which we perceive and interpret the world. Our past experiences play a significant role in shaping how we perceive and interpret daily life around us. This process is known as perception. We select, organize, and interpret ...

The Magic Helmet – Stuart Segall

The wind breathes - Lonely Longing to be seen Sometimes the soul Has days like these. Angie Weiland Crosby. Here is a poetic expression of human emotions and the universal experience of feeling alone at times. We are not mad. We are human.  We want to love, and someone must forgive us for the paths we take to love, for the paths are many and dark, and we are ardent and cruel in our journey – Leonard Cohen The soul, our inner being, like the wind, can feel isolated and longing for connection. Sometimes our feelings convey a sense of melancholy and longing. Just as the wind carries an unfulfilled desire to be ...

Unforgiving Living is No Life At All -Stuart Segall

Living with unforgiveness can have a profound impact on both our emotional well-being and physical health. When we hold grudges or harbor resentment, it can lead to negative consequences. Forgiveness is an active process where and when we consciously decide to let go of negative feelings, whether the other person deserves it or not. It involves empathy, compassion, and releasing anger and hurt. When it comes to forgiveness, I ask myself the question in the mirror.  “Who are you? Who is your true self”?   Consistently behavioral health studies show that when you hold onto unforgiveness, it can debilitate you and prevent ...

Sunsets and Seasons of Our Lives – Stuart Segall

Recently I took this photo of a sunset on a trip and I spent time reflecting on the days of our lives and our sunsets. Ecclesiastes 3: 1-2 (NIV) states, “There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens.” Sunsets symbolize the end of the day, a moment of transition from light to darkness. Similarly, the later stages of life can be filled with LIGHT in the form of wisdom, memories, and unique beauty. Just as sunsets are fleeting, life’s final chapters are fast, fleeting and so transient. People pause to watch sunsets, reflecting on the day’s events or contemplating life.  They provoke thoughts ...

June 2024

CLICK HERE to read now (PDF Format) Ed Dunn 8 Decades Later – pg. 2 Steve Brown The Father Never Leaves Us – pg. 5 Stuart Segall Navigating Grief – pg. 6

Alone – by Stuart Segall

“Alone is a word that stands by itself, carrying the austere, solitary beauty of its own meaning even as it is spoken to another. It is a word that can be felt both as an invitation to depth and as an imminent threat, as in ‘all alone’, with its returned echo of abandonment. ‘Alone’ is a word that rings with a strange finality, especially when contained in that haunting aggregate, ‘left all alone’, as if the state once experienced begins to define and engender its own inescapable world. The first step in spending time alone is to admit how afraid of it we are. Being alone is a difficult discipline: a beautiful and difficult ...

Wounded – by Stuart Segall

Truth is we are all....yep, we are all wounded in life. Being wounded is a "me too" that we share in this journey of life.  Most of us have been the recipients of this common human experience. Not seeing it does not change that, it just means you don't....see it. In walking my own lonely battle trail of life, I have come to be grateful for this understanding. I am not directing these shared thoughts toward anyone here but the guy in the mirror even though it might be worth your read.  In my counseling with those seeking my help, I share this understanding to encourage them that if I can do it, you can too! It is just something ...

Dealing With Grief – Stuart Segall

We hear about the certainty of “death and taxes,” but grief has to be right up there with those two. You might be resigned to the others but how do you navigate grief? For most of my adult life, I’ve done a lot of work as a chaplain. I’ve sat with the dying; many I did not know until I met them at their end. It was painful for me as I wear my heart on my sleeve. I often journey back in my mind to where my mom would take me as a boy to nursing homes to teach me the art of comforting those who are alone even at a time when they might be surrounded by humans that love them. It would have been easy to avoid such uncomfortable scenes by ...

May 2023

CLICK HERE to read now (PDF Format) Articles: Stretch Marks of a Mother's Love – pg. 1 One Day in May – pg. 2 The Kingdom in a Person – pg. 5 Grieving Nels – pg. 6 Prodigal Sons – pg. 7 Quotes & Connections – pg. 8

Grieving Nels by Stuart Segall

Some of my earliest memories as a child of being fearful of death.  All my mother could do was giggle a little to have such a young 4-year-old so afraid. She tried to comfort me, as she knew how, as a young Jewish mother who had no real spiritual life or belief. When I was about 6, my parents were having our small home in Miami professionally painted. An old gentleman with silver hair and circle wire rim glasses pulled up to the house. He was the painter and his name was Nels.   Nels took out his tools and painter’s cloth and prepped the home. He asked me to be his assistant and I was thrilled.  After a few days of ...

Swing Low – Stuart Segall

"Swing low, sweet chariotComing for to carry me home,Swing low, sweet chariot,Coming for to carry me home. I looked over Jordan, and what did I seeComing for to carry me home?A band of angels coming after me,Coming for to carry me home.” Sometimes I'm up, and sometimes I'm down,(Coming for to carry me home)But still my soul feels heavenly bound.(Coming for to carry me home) (unknown and I don't know) The brightest day that I can sayComing for to carry me homeWhen Jesus washed my sins awayComing for to carry me home”“Sweet Chariot” was sung to let slaves know that they would be escaping soon. This was Harriet Tubman's favorite ...

Samson – Stuart Segall

As many of us could attest, my life, all the way into my 60’s, has been a struggle. In times of trouble and despair it is always comforting to find David in the Psalms. Somehow, when we read of his despair and struggles, many of us can relate to those kinds of feelings. How gracious of God to put illustrations of David and his story in the two books of Samuel, the Kings, and the substantial book and writings that David contributed in the Psalms. David, like me, showed a roller coaster of emotions­­--highs and lows. Yet, in the end his is a story of the depth of God’s grace toward us. There are people like me, who considered themselves ...

Strange Magic – Stuart Segall

I wanted to share with you some “strange magic” so very recently experienced.  To introduce the magic, I would first like to ask you a question. What are your feelings about the words in 2nd Corinthians 1 where Paul shares thoughts about God’s comfort and consolation? 2nd Corinthians 1:3,4 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort.”  Do you see yourself in that statement? Today I am saying goodbye to some clients. I am moving on. These are clients that I have had for 10 years and have spent a fair amount of time with over this period. I have not ...

Sock Puppets and Servants – Stuart Segall

When I was young, in the early 60’s, I played with a simple sock. When my hand was in the sock, that sock could be anybody I imagined. When I was done, the great personage it was, simply became a sock again, once my hand was removed. People of God, servants and shepherds are like that. We humans can be deeply moved when Jesus puts His hand inside a human and uses that person in a wonderful way. We often see the person, but it is the hand inside that is really working the magic. The followers of Jesus never thought Jesus would die as a young man. At least He should be middle aged, let alone at a full and ripe old age. Again, what is ...

Grace and Friendship – by Stuart Segall

Grace and friendship walk hand-in-hand most of the time. As you may know, I speak and write about friendship and so it is good to ponder this similarity when you realize that grace is like friendship. You only know you have either one when you really need it. If you don’t get that, well I pledge to you that you don’t get grace. For some, grace will be their own definition of things like “unmerited pardon,” but for me the richness of grace is about what “amazing grace” is. It is about the father in the prodigal son story. My past experiences, which are rich and many, show and tell me that many don’t even get what that father did ...

Grief is a Unique Journey – Stuart Segall

I know many are familiar with the steps and stages of grief called the Kubler Ross Method, but in reality, our understanding is that while those steps are valid, people experience a very different order than the way they are laid out in the way Kubler Ross proposes. That is why it is so important when someone is hurting and in grief that we remind ourselves not to view them through our own loss, and most of the time not to share our loss to somehow convince them we understand. They are already depressed about their heartbreak and even if they understand yours, they are twice as depressed now, after hearing your experience with grief. It ...

Lost – by Stuart Segall

Recently, standing in my front yard along the calm, quiet street that I live on, there he came trotting down the road trying to project a sense of purpose like he knew where he was going. The look shouted… “where am I, but I don’t dare let on that I don’t’ know.” However, being the higher intelligent form of life, I knew he was only kidding himself and that he was lost. You see, he had four legs and I had two. He was a young mix of Rottweiler and Lab with a nice collar on and plenty of ID tags dangling. If I could only reach him! First, I pursued on foot hoping to lead him to safety. I coaxed with all the charm I could muster ...

Standing With the Great or Sitting With the Broken – Stuart Segall

When I was a young man, I craved (for my own ego and self-acceptance) to stand or sit among the "great." Oh my, whether it was church, college, where I worked - I just hoped my lottery ticket would come through and I could sit, dine, have a beer or walk with (you name it). I just wanted to be in that sphere and hope for osmosis. You see, I was hoping I would be transformed into that greatness. Is this just me? Or is there anything in you that resonates with these statements? I realize some people are shy and would never see themselves this way. If so, no problem, but be reassured there are a lot of us out there from coast to coast, and ...

Man the Conqueror by Stuart Segall

It is said “God without man is God. Man without God is…nothing”  That is true, but for me, man without God is a world history of problems. Aaah, man! Yes, the natural, ungoverned man loves his power.  In the business world he shoots for the top, and then……goes after it. Man, the hunter often loves the thrill of the conquest. Then there is government.  The guy who wants to be the Mayor, Governor, congressman, senator, all the way up to the president of the United States. Man on his own wants to dominate and lead.  His intentions are sometimes good in these pursuits, but do you think they last long once the ...